Media's failed attempt to take on the Facebook-Google "duopoly"

The only competitor challenging the growth of Google and Facebook's digital advertising dominance of late is Amazon. A years-long effort by major media companies to take on "the duopoly" has mostly fizzled out -- although media companies and activists have been successful in putting regulatory pressure on Google and Facebook, and that seems to be playing out in their favor, if ever so slightly. Now smaller media companies are trying to collectively offer advertisers an alternative to Google and Facebook, instead of competing with those firms head-on. "We're not going after those platforms," says AJ Frucci, VP of programmatic advertising and head of Vox's Concert. "Our perspective is more options is never a bad thing. We know that scale is paramount in digital advertising. Scale is easy to find within the walled gardens [tech platforms] and on the open web. But to date, that scale has meant advertisers often had to compromise brand safety, creative excellence and contextual relevance."