Stagwell Buys Freestar, Gaining 1,000-Publisher Ad Network

Stagwell has acquired publisher monetization network Freestar, gaining direct access to inventory and data from more than 1,000 publishers that serve nearly a billion ad requests a day. The companies did not disclose the price. The deal has closed, and Needham & Company advised Freestar on the transaction.

The move signals how media buyers are pulling closer to publishers to shorten supply paths and capture the audience data they need to train AI agents. Stagwell's global media business can now draw directly on the Freestar network — a valuable asset for training The Media Machine, the holdco's agentic operating system it brought to market this year.

Ben Berentson, CEO of Owned Media, Stagwell's division for owned publishing and media properties, told AdExchanger that Stagwell is buying the product offering, services, monetization tech and existing client relationships — not the publishers themselves. Stagwell will retain all of Freestar's employees and its executive leadership team.

Why does Stagwell want a publisher monetization network?

Berentson framed the deal as a continuation of Stagwell's mission to serve advertisers while delivering more working media spend to publishers. Stagwell, which launched 11 years ago, has moved fast this year: it rolled out its own curation platform, Stagwell Curate; reorganized and rebranded its global media business as Stagwell Media; and launched The Media Machine. The holdco evolves quickly because it "doesn't have this enormous legacy holding us back," Berentson said.

Freestar's partnerships with premium news publishers — including the Associated Press, Reuters, Fortune and The Boston Globe — should advance Stagwell's Future of News initiative, launched in 2024 to persuade advertisers that news is brand safe and effective. But Stagwell also sees opportunity beyond news. Berentson pointed to Freestar clients such as Sports Reference (which includes Baseball Reference), Enthusiast Gaming (online communities and wikis for video game IPs) and SignUpGenius (web registrations, fundraisers and online ticket sales). Freestar also connects mid-tail and long-tail publishers with advertisers.

With Freestar, Stagwell can curate higher-fidelity audiences across those properties, add audience extension for wider media buys and improve its principal media buying strategy. Still, Berentson stressed, advertisers decide whether to include Freestar inventory in a campaign.

What changes for publishers?

Day to day, very little. "The acquisition won't change much about Freestar's day-to-day operations," Freestar CEO Kurt Donnell told AdExchanger. The deal does bring more resources to invest in Freestar's pubOS monetization platform and product roadmap, he said.

"Additionally, we'll be able to provide new insights from Stagwell products like the Marketing Cloud," Donnell said. "This gives us a better understanding of what really drives outcomes for both advertisers and publishers."

Publishers will keep the same service and contacts. "We're keeping the same name, the same leadership, the same team and the same offerings," Donnell said. "Publishers will keep working with the same account, yield and support people."

Although supply path optimization is a Stagwell priority, Berentson said the holdco has no plans to micromanage Freestar's partnerships with DSPs, SSPs or other ad tech vendors. "We view ourselves as being an advocate for publishers," he said. "This is an era of agility, and we believe that Freestar can arm publishers with that agility."

What's the bigger picture?

Berentson said publishers need to prepare for an agentic era in which the agility and flexibility of data connections matter more than owning sell-side ad tech. While working with publishers including Condé Nast, Vogue and Glamour, he saw firsthand how publishers can have mixed success with owned-and-operated technology, and he expects more of them to pursue the managed monetization services Freestar specializes in.

Donnell's calculus is blunt: as AI search cuts into publisher traffic and buyers consolidate spend into fewer channels, the only answer is generating better performance on both sides.