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.”
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