3 minBusiness
Stagwell buys Freestar and moves publisher ad sales into its holding company
Independent holding company Stagwell has acquired Freestar, a firm that helps publishers including Fortune and Boston Globe Media sell advertising, and will place it within its Owned Media unit.
Independent holding company Stagwell has bought Freestar, the company that helps publishers such as Fortune and Boston Globe Media sell their advertising inventory, bringing publisher ad sales inside a major agency group. The deal was announced on October 26 and places Freestar within Owned Media, a Stagwell unit that has gained momentum since it was given a chief executive in February.
Freestar will now run programmatic sales for a handful of Owned Media properties, including the travel publisher Ink and the airport network ReachTV. Freestar's own publisher clients also stand to benefit, gaining a shorter path to advertisers and to the tools Stagwell operates across its network. The move comes as publishers have repeatedly called on agencies to match their public commitments to the news business with concrete investment in the systems that generate revenue.
Ben Berenstone, chief executive of Owned Media at Stagwell, said publishers are essential to a healthy media ecosystem and that their long-term success is critical to the future of the industry. He said Freestar has built an exceptional global business helping publishers increase revenue and improve operational efficiency in a complex programmatic landscape. Together, he said, the companies will keep investing in that mission while bringing new capabilities to support publishers and their clients.
The acquisition highlights how agency holding companies are moving into the infrastructure publishers use to monetize their audiences. Programmatic advertising, which automates the buying and selling of ad space, has become more complicated as the number of intermediaries and platforms has grown, and publishers have increasingly looked for partners that can simplify the process. By bringing Freestar under one roof, Stagwell gives the business access to the advertisers and services it already manages across its network.
For Freestar, the deal changes its position within the market. The company has worked with publishers that rely on programmatic channels for a significant share of their revenue, and its ability to pair those sales operations with the broader resources of a holding company is the central promise of the transaction. Publishers that have struggled with fragmented ad-tech stacks may view the arrangement as a way to reduce the number of vendors they must coordinate.
The deal also raises questions about how independence will be preserved for publisher clients once their sales operations sit inside an agency group. Stagwell has described itself as an independent holding company, and Freestar's clients will be watching whether the new ownership leads to changes in pricing, service or the priorities of the sales teams. The companies have not detailed how the transition will affect Freestar's existing staff or client contracts in the announcement.
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