News Corp Faced Millions in Losses by Moving Away from Google Ads, Ex-Executive Testifies

News Corp faced the potential loss of $9 million in ad revenue in 2017 had it moved away from Google’s powerful advertising network. This testimony came from Stephanie Layser, a former News Corp executive, during the second day of Google’s antitrust trial in Virginia.

Layser, who managed advertising technology at News Corp from 2017 to 2022, described the company’s dependency on Google’s ad infrastructure, claiming the media giant felt “held hostage” by the tech company. Per Reuters, Layser explained how Google introduced features that seemed to benefit its own business more than the publishers using its platform. Despite frustrations with Google’s dominance, the industry largely had no choice but to rely on Google’s ad server due to its integration with Google’s ad exchange.

The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to prove that Google has monopolized markets for ad servers, ad networks, and the ad exchanges that link advertisers to publishers. Prosecutors aim to show how Google leveraged its strong market position to limit competition, keeping publishers and advertisers dependent on its tools.

Per Reuters, documents presented in court indicated that in 2016, News Corp earned $83.3 million from ads sold through ad tech tools, with more than half of those transactions involving Google’s ad exchange. Of this revenue, $18.4 million came from Google ad buyers, with an estimated $9 million of that amount being tied exclusively to Google. News Corp estimated that it would lose this portion of revenue if it transitioned away from Google’s system.

Related: Google Loses Appeal Over $2.7 Billion EU Antitrust Fine

Layser also testified that by the time she left News Corp, around 70-80% of the company’s ad transactions still went through Google’s ad exchange. Google, however, countered the claims, arguing that publishers today use an average of six platforms to sell ads, and that there are more than 80 ad services available, according to Reuters.

The antitrust case seeks to demonstrate that Google used its dominance to prevent companies from switching to alternative tools, which in turn suppressed competition. Layser’s testimony followed that of Tim Wolfe, an advertising executive at Gannett, who said his company had relied on Google’s ad services for over a decade and that there were no viable alternatives in the market.

If U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema rules in favor of the prosecution, one potential outcome is that Google could be forced to divest its Google Ad Manager platform, which encompasses both its publisher ad server and ad exchange.

Source: Reuters