sovrn Releases Publisher ID for Greater Transparency

ID will help with efforts to bring transparency to digital ad supply chain; sovrn assisting Trustworthy Accountability Group in developing industry-wide Payment ID system

BOULDER, Colo. – sovrn Holdings, Inc., advocate and partner to independent publishers who represent more than 80,000 websites, has released Publisher ID functionality to help bring greater transparency to the ad tech supply chain. Publisher ID is available to supply chain partners who want greater knowledge and control over who they are transacting with in the programmatic exchange. AppNexus and BidSwitch, among other RTB buyers, are currently using the Publisher ID data to track transactions made on the sovrn exchange.

sovrn releases Publisher ID for greater trust

sovrn is also a contributing partner in the Trustworthy Accountability Group’s (TAG) development of an industry-wide Payment ID system as part of its “Verified by TAG” initiative to connect all the players in the programmatic marketplace. TAG’s Payment ID will be part of an interlocking two-factor authentication system, along with the TAG Registry, that will identify and track payments to legitimate publishers across the industry. sovrn will work closely with TAG to provide key learning and insights from the Publisher ID in that new system.

“In order for publishers to gain the full promise and potential of digital advertising they need transparency. A payment ID system is one of the keys to unlocking that promise and potential,” said Walter Knapp, CEO of sovrn. “Any legitimate company operating in the ad tech supply chain should be demanding to know who they are transacting with.”

“As Justice Louis Brandeis said, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and sovrn’s efforts will help TAG shine a bright light of transparency across the ad industry,” said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. “Today’s opaque payment system allows criminal enterprises to thrive in the shadows, so we are working to build a new system that allows payments for every ad to be tracked to the legitimate companies that place, transact, and display it.”

According to Scott Neville, General Manager at BidSwitch, “Increasingly, we are getting more and more requests from connected DSP’s on BidSwitch to provide greater Publisher transparency. Providing Publisher ID’s is going to be a future must for all Supply Side platforms and it’s fantastic to see Sovrn really taking the initiative here.”

Supply chain partners who are interested in the Publisher ID functionality can learn more at [email protected].

About sovrn

sovrn believes content creators and publishers are the soul of the Internet. Their content is what makes the Internet great. That’s why we give content creators tools to make money; access to distribution and scale to grow their audience; and a massive data commons for extraordinary insights. At sovrn we don’t just plug into the online advertising ecosystem. We own & operate a proprietary ad technology stack with direct connections to every major buyer in the world. sovrn is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. with offices in Denver and New York. For more information, please visit http://sovrn.com or follow on Twitter @sovrnHoldings.