Former AdTheorent CEO to lead D/Cipher's
evolution as the premier cookie-less ad targeting and buying
solution for the open Internet
NEW
YORK, March 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --
Today Dotdash Meredith (DDM), the largest digital and print
publisher in America, announced the appointment of Jim Lawson as President of D/Cipher, reporting
directly to DDM CEO Neil Vogel, to
accelerate the growth and development of its D/Cipher contextual
ad-targeting solution across the open web.
Jim was a co-founder of AdTheorent, a machine-learning powered
DSP (media buying platform) not reliant on individual identifiers,
and served as CEO from 2019 to 2024. Jim oversaw AdTheorent's
growth from a startup in 2012 to a highly profitable, NASDAQ-listed
publicly traded company, culminating in its sale to private equity
firm Novacap and merger with Cadent, Inc. in June, 2024.
D/Cipher, launched in May 2023,
analyzes billions of consumer interactions and content signals
across DDM's more than 40 iconic brands, and does not rely on
cookies or personal identifiers to target audiences. Fueled by the
first-party data of tens of millions of daily users, D/Cipher
understands consumers' intent and context-based interests as they
explore content, take action and make decisions.
D/Cipher targeting is now used as part of a majority of DDM's
premium ad deals, consistently and meaningfully outperforming
cookies and individual-identifier targeting methods.
Newly launched D/Cipher+ builds on the success of D/Cipher to
create a new standard of targeting for the open Internet powered by
the contextual first-party data of America's largest publisher.
Using DDM's proprietary signals and data modeling solutions,
enhanced by the company's partnership with OpenAI, D/Cipher+
identifies consumer intent across the premium open web – unlocking
materially better ad performance, extended reach, brand-safe
inventory, and unprecedented value for advertisers.
And just as DDM provides a performance guarantee for scaled
clients who use D/Cipher, the same guarantee will apply for those
that use D/Cipher+.
"Nearly 200 million people connect with DDM brands monthly, so
we know better than anyone that context is the strongest indicator
of what consumers want," said Neil
Vogel, CEO of DDM. "Simply, understanding consumer intent at
a given moment drives ad performance way more effectively than
personal data."
Continued Neil, "We are incredibly excited to welcome Jim. He is
a true innovator who built the industry's leading DSP not reliant
on cookies. The combination of Jim's unmatched expertise and DDM's
first-party signals will be an accelerant not only for DDM, but for
the open web."
Jim joins a D/Cipher-focused team of 50 people and growing, led
by Lindsay Van Kirk, SVP and Group
GM of D/Cipher (previously at Xandr and AppNexus) as well as
Jon Roberts, PhD, and Chief
Innovation Officer at DDM.
"The DDM team has developed remarkable offerings and solutions
and I am thrilled to join them. We share the perspective that there
is a huge need for ad-targeting solutions based on the types of
data signals that only DDM can provide with its unmatched scale and
sophistication. D/Cipher+ will be a game-changer for all sides of
the marketplace," said Jim Lawson.
"It's time to make the open web more valuable for advertisers –
accessible, brand safe and performance-focused."
About Jim Lawson, President,
D/Cipher, DDM
As President of D/Cipher, Jim
Lawson oversees the growth strategy and evolution of DDM's
ground-breaking intent-targeting advertising solution,
D/Cipher.
He was previously CEO of AdTheorent, a programmatic digital
advertising leader, where he focused on the company's aggressive
growth, innovation and technology leadership. As a founding
member of AdTheorent in 2012 and CEO since January 2019, Jim led the company from a startup
to a publicly traded company and market leader, culminating in
June, 2024, with a successful sale to leading North American
private equity firm Novacap and merger with Cadent, Inc.
While at AdTheorent, Jim led the development of AdTheorent's
award-winning products, which have been recognized with industry
accolades such as Frost & Sullivan's Digital Advertising
Leadership Award (eight-time recipient), the Artificial
Intelligence Excellence Awards, the Drum Digital Advertising
Awards, the Digiday Media Awards (Best AdTech Platform) and the
Digiday Technology Awards (Best Buy-Side Programmatic
Platform).
Prior to joining AdTheorent, Jim co-founded Augme Mobile in
2008, which later became publicly traded Augme Technologies, Inc.
Before turning his focus to technology ventures and emerging
businesses, Jim was a Partner in the Washington, DC office of the law firm
McDermott, Will, Emery, LLP, where he represented Fortune 100
companies and growing businesses in both litigation and corporate
counseling capacities. Jim was also a Managing Partner of
Mogility Capital, one of the initial investors in AdTheorent.
Jim is a graduate of Bucknell
University (1994) and Loyola University
Chicago School of Law (1997).
About D/Cipher and D/Cipher+
Launched in May 2023, D/Cipher is
DDM's ground-breaking intent-targeting advertising solution.
D/Cipher doesn't rely on cookies or personal identifiers and
instead analyzes billions of consumer interactions and content
signals to understand consumers' intent as they explore content
across DDM's more than 40 iconic brands. Since launch,
D/Cipher has meaningfully outperformed cookies and other audience
targeting methods across more than 30 campaigns.
D/Cipher+ builds on DDM's flagship D/Cipher solution to create a
new standard of targeting for the open Internet. Powered by a
technology integration with DDM partner OpenAI, D/Cipher+ uses the
same data, enhanced targeting technology and AI-powered
capabilities as D/Cipher to identify consumer intent anywhere on
the Internet – unlocking new brand safe inventory, extended reach
and value for performance advertisers with the same performance
guarantees.
Learn more here.
About Dotdash Meredith
Dotdash Meredith (DDM) is the largest print and digital
publisher in America. Nearly 200 million people trust us each month
to help them make decisions, take action, and find inspiration.
Dotdash Meredith's over 40 iconic brands include PEOPLE, Better
Homes & Gardens, Verywell, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure,
Allrecipes, REAL SIMPLE, Investopedia, and Southern Living. Dotdash
Meredith is based in New York City
and is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ:
IAC).
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SOURCE Dotdash Meredith
