First-price auctions have officially become the norm, courtesy of the ad tech industry's last hold out -- Google -- completing its shift over. While most independent exchanges had made the shift from second to first-price around a year ago, until Google had followed suit, ad buyers were straddled across a mix of the two. Agencies and publishers are content to bid goodbye to the last-look model Google used with second-price auctions, though many will be closely monitoring CPM fluctuations that may arise as a result of the switch. Meanwhile, Facebook is pushing Watch further into Europe by funding 12 new shows. Read more below.

• After months of tests, Google is set to fully roll out to first-price auctions. From a transparency perspective, agencies and publishers have welcomed Google's shift to first price and the removal of the "last-look" advantage it had within Google Ad Manager on second-price auctions. Here's a primer on what the changes will mean for the wider industry
• The Atlantic is the latest major publisher to join the pivot-to-paid and launch a paywall. Digiday spoke to the 162-year-old media company's president, Michael Finnegan, about its ambitions.
• To encourage more news titles to create content for Facebook Watch across Europe, the platform will fund 12 shows across a range of publishers including Axel Springer, Gruner + Jahr, Le Monde, Expressen.