>Google is simply too good at matching viewers to advertising that is valuable to them (and therefore the publisher). This is so wrong, I don't even know where

>Google is simply too good at matching viewers to advertising that is valuable to them (and therefore the publisher). This is so wrong, I don't even know where to start. Google is very good at managing ad inventory and putting ads from said inventory in front of people. What they aren't good at (or even care about being good at) is getting the right inventory mix for the right site. That requires focused sales teams. I'm not going to go down the native advertising rabbit hole because I don't have time ro have the conversation it needs to have, but I will say that whatever you think it is, it's both better and worse than that. And everyone who is successful in publishing does it to some extent, maybe just by a different name. And it's not new. It's been happening since the beginning of mass media. I can understand not liking advertorials or content that is unclear, but there are not plenty of people making native advertising that doesn't interfere with editorial missions. >Running your own advertising is hard to be successful with, unless you can convince your advertiser to really overpay. Again, this is not true. For a small publisher, running your ads is probably not worth the tech or sales investment. If you're the scale of a GigaOm, you need to take control of your ad game yourself. You can supplement sith ad networks, but the real money comes from doing it yourself. And with good ad ops, you can also provide a way better experience for the ad buyer. Again, we're not talking about small one person publishers. We're talking t about sites that do millions of uniques and have full staff. If you're doing that and not maintaininf tour own sales staff, you're leaving money on the table, incompetent, or you have a product no one wants. Or all three.