Before GDPR came to be, some of our publishers spent gobs of lawyer time figuring out how not to violate Europe’s new privacy regulations. Others simply limited Europeans’ access. Now, a big American privacy law, California’s CCPA, is coming ashore January 1st. Because CA looms so large, publishers serving U.S. audiences will have to make sure we handle cookies just right, protect data, ask permission to track, and so on. (Not to mention — well, we are mentioning — that Google has jumped on the cookie-blocking train, meaning 82% of the browsers people use will block them by default.)

So, why could the privacy regs actually be good news for publishers like Verts?

In a nutshell: We know our audiences. We don’t for the most part rely on automated advertising filled by ad exchanges delivering ad spots to the highest bidder in an open auction based on third-party cookies. Instead, we sell directly to our audiences, build passionate communities, and where we do deals with advertisers who want access to those communities, those deals are more direct. 

So, as advertisers go looking for ways to reach passionate audiences, and it gets harder to find them via cookie-based auction systems, they’ll be coming to reputable publishers who have them.

Verts aren’t usually playing the scale game, instead favoring niche over mass. We can hone in on real people who’ve registered and given their permission, exchanging access for value, and told us something of their interests. That’s gold.