Judge sets September as date for Google ad break-up

#324: The 20-year wait for Google's ad tech do-over will finally end in a US court on September 22 when the beginning of the end starts...

Google’s in the process of losing its search monopoly, and judges in the US and Europe are insisting it stops charging 30 per cent to use its app store too.

Now we have a date for its ad tech break-up as well - September 22 - and in the coming days, we will see just what the US Government wants that to look like.

It will demand the sale of Google’s ad server GAM, its ad network AdX, and the sharing of the data it uses for targeting, post-campaign reporting and analytics, as well as the secrets of its ad auctions.

That’s a lot, so I just want to stop here for a mo for a reality check, and cast your mind back two years…

Google and Meta were publishing’s frenemies back then. They were horrible to deal with and bullying, but hey were also also so huge there was no chance to drop them or fight back.

Today, Google has suffered three crushing losses and is in the process of being broken into pieces in a fourth.

Meta’s also in court facing demands to lose thirds of its traffic through WhatsApp and Instagram.

And it was just accused of being a Chinese spy at the US Congress, and it faces allegations of industrial scale child harms for profit later this year.

So, stop. Take a breath. Put your hands on your desk and close your eyes. And realise: This Big Tech era is ending. Really, it’s ending…

It’s easy to forget what all these trials were for, but here’s the skinny: They were brought by the US Government to save the news industry.

Warriors like Jonathan Kanter did it for you. Matthew Wheatland from the Daily Mail did it for you. Stephanie Layser, ex-News Corp, did it for you. Lina Khan too.

Google fought. Hard. With the best lawyers in the world. Including one who had to rush out of court to advise then-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris. She lost both.

Now, Google’s lawyers, bruised from three punishing fails, are being dragged back into a Virginia court in September to face demands to sell the family hairlooms.

But amid all the drama, I urge you to see what this has been for.

It’s ALL been about breaking up Google so the news media and creative industries have a chance.

It’s ALL ABOUT YOU.

And YOU WON.

I know it’s scary in the short term, and you are still coming to terms with the implications, but it’s time to smell the coffee and begin to prepare for what’s coming.

SEO is ending because search and the open web is becoming commercially unviable. Pushlihers won’t hang around there much longer.

Programmatic is ending because Google wants to keep all the ads and not share them. Publishers can’t rely on ads that don’t cover the bills.

That means publishing needs to take back control of content discovery, distribution, and monetisation.

That means building a search engine. That means kingmaking an AI partner, and it means going back to selling ads direct again.

There will be much more to talk about on this over the coming months, but you can’t miss this. You can’t ignore it either. It’s changing your world right now…

I’m writing today’s newsletter sipping Turkish tea at the Souq Waqif in Doha, Qatar, while meeting friends en route to advise publishers in London and New York.

I’m also on stage in London this week at the Professional Publishers Association Festival. Come join me, Chris, and Condé Nast audience chief Sarah Marshall.

We’re discussing breaking the monopoly. What the Big Tech shake up means...

Here’s what you need to know right now on the ad tech break-up starting next week.