“[Stories about coronavirus] are absolutely the most engaging stories that tip the scales for all of the other statistics,” a publisher source said.

Per the source, their publication is generating 25% more ad views per page than average, but advertisers are wary of following the eyeballs.

“People are actually reading very long stories and staying on pages for a very long time with anything around coronavirus,” they said. “But at the same time, our CPMs are 15% lower. … So it drives you insane a little bit.”

We are about to enter a new age, where the players are winding down their traditional targeting capabilities on the one hand, while trying to engineer a replacement on the other. What it looks like, no one knows. But what is certain is that there’s money up for grabs.

Concert Local will provide local publishers with dozens of customizable ad units, including for videos. Print advertising will not be available through the network, which will be released with Omnicom Media Group as a launch partner.

But some brands and their agency partners aren’t planning to remain stagnant. Although most participating brands haven’t released plans for SXSW alternatives, agency partners said the focus is moving to finding new, safer ways to reach consumers, while still maintaining the themes and narratives they had planned for their SXSW activations

Cohen most recently served as president of North America for Interpublic Group’s Magna. His objectives in the new role include increasing IAB membership, overseeing the group’s role in the evolving video and cross-screen measurement and attribution spaces, and guiding the group’s event strategy.