There's growing evidence that large media companies can generate revenue from advertising deals from large brands with high-level interest targeting. That does

There's growing evidence that large media companies can generate revenue from advertising deals from large brands with high-level interest targeting. That doesn't say anything about the performance of targeted ads - just that high-level targeting is a suitable replacement for narrow targeting at a certain scale. That's a separate concern from niche publishers (without direct sales teams) and niche brands (who only have a few thousand dollars to spend on marketing) who both want to maximize the value they're getting from the ecosystem. And that's where the real money in advertising is. Fortune 500 companies boycotted FB last year and it didn't make a dent in their revenue, because they have millions of small businesses that all spend $50 on ads per month. That level of spending is only effective with narrow targeting.