The January 2026 Bellwether report from Jounce Media makes one thing clear: the era of forced choices in enterprise monetization is over. For years, publishers had to decide between fully in-house or fully managed models. Now, as technology and operational expertise have evolved, so has the market. Hybrid monetization has matured into a durable, flexible [...]
In today’s advertising landscape, quality isn’t just a buzzword. Inventory standards are stricter than ever, designed to align with the increasingly demanding expectations of advertisers and agencies. Publishers across the web are seeing more content and traffic blocked by demand partners than in years past, not because their sites have changed, but because advertiser requirements [...]
The drop in publisher ad revenue and CPMs in January, often referred to as the January Slump, has arrived, where once again we face the historically slowest month of the year for publisher ad revenue. While it can feel like revenue performance is "broken," it’s almost always a market-wide correction after the peak of Q4. [...]
Freestar may be best known for world-class header bidding technology, but when it comes to our publishers, we want what’s best for their businesses in the long term. This is why we’ve invested in personnel and partnerships that help support publishers' audience growth far beyond ad revenue. And why we intentionally reduced the amount of [...]
For decades, publishers have been caught in the gravitational pull of Google, Facebook, and Instagram—chasing pageviews, gaming algorithms, and ultimately building reliance on traffic from third-party platforms. But in 2025, the rules have changed. Google’s AI Overviews now give answers before users ever click. Facebook’s reach is throttled, fragmented, and pay-to-play. The platforms that once [...]
At Freestar, we aim to help publishers succeed by providing innovative tools, resources, and opportunities to thrive in today’s competitive advertising landscape. That’s why we’re excited to announce our new partnership with Sertify, a groundbreaking organization dedicated to simplifying and standardizing accreditation for diverse-owned businesses. This collaboration will enable our publishers to earn official certification [...]
