The Second-Party Data Playbook: How Publisher Consortia Are Monetizing Authenticated Audiences in a Signal-Scarce World

This analysis profiles the growing number of publisher data consortia forming to offer advertisers authenticated, second-party audience segments as third-party cookie deprecation reshapes targeting infrastructure. The piece examines how groups of premium publishers are pooling first-party data to compete with walled garden scale, and what the commercial and legal structures of these arrangements look like. It also assesses the technical interoperability challenges that still prevent these consortia from achieving their full potential.

This analysis profiles the growing number of publisher data consortia forming to offer advertisers authenticated, second-party audience segments as third-party cookie deprecation reshapes targeting infrastructure. The piece examines how groups of premium publishers are pooling first-party data to compete with walled garden scale, and what the commercial and legal structures of these arrangements look like. It also assesses the technical interoperability challenges that still prevent these consortia from achieving their full potential.