Media and Marketing Reporter at The Wall Street Journal
Breaking major news on advertising industry consolidation, agency business models, and adtech trends as a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, making her one of the most influential journalists in the sector.
Last updated Feb 27, 2026 by AI Enrichment
Alexandra Bruell is one of the most closely watched journalists covering the advertising and media industries, with a reputation for breaking consequential news on agency mergers, marketer strategies, and the business of adtech. As a senior reporter at The Wall Street Journal, she commands a wide readership among C-suite executives, investors, and practitioners who rely on her reporting to understand the forces reshaping how brands reach consumers. Her coverage spans programmatic advertising, media agency holding companies, brand safety, privacy regulation, and the platform economy. Before joining the Journal, Bruell honed her expertise at Advertising Age (Ad Age), where she built deep sourcing across the agency world and developed a nuanced understanding of the advertiser-agency-media ecosystem. Her transition to the Wall Street Journal elevated her platform and allowed her to bring adtech and marketing stories to a broader business audience, reinforcing the sector's significance in the wider economy. Bruell's work has chronicled some of the industry's most significant inflection points, including the rise and consolidation of holding companies, the ongoing tension between advertisers and digital platforms over transparency and measurement, and the industry's struggle to adapt to a post-cookie identity landscape. She is widely regarded as a must-follow voice for anyone operating at the intersection of technology, media, and marketing.
Advertising Age (Ad Age) (2012-2018)