For local news & public media
Premium content and new revenue for local media
Distributed Media Lab gives local news and public media a foundation of premium editorial from national partners — and the ad technology to turn it into sustainable revenue.
Powering content networks with KQED, American Public Media, The Guardian, the Latino Media Consortium and dozens of local publishers.
Trusted across the local & public media network
Content is king. Revenue funds the kingdom.
The content foundation
Premium editorial, ready to embed
Give your audience national-caliber coverage on the topics they care about — without stretching a newsroom that's already thin.
- —Curated, topic-based Collections from leading media & brand partners
- —Opens on top of your page — readers never leave your site
- —Bundles multiple stories in one unit, not one story at a time like native
- —Auto-updates in real time, managed from the DML platform
The revenue engine
New revenue now — and for what's next
Turn every Collection into income through the same infrastructure the largest media brands already use.
- —Direct-sold local sponsorships you control — run local, regional or national
- —Indirect programmatic into the $660B global open market via OpenRTB
- —Access to higher-value Private Marketplace (PMP) deals
- —Built to participate in the emerging agentic advertising economy
Content · Collections
Special sections for the digital age.
Collections revive the trusted "special section" — a curated run of premium stories on one topic — as a lightweight embed you drop onto any page.
Business & Economics
The economy, made local
Immigration
Community-first reporting
Food & Recipes
Seasonal, shareable
More topics coming soon.
DML Platform · Collection manager
Food & Recipes — Fall edition
One embed. Total control.
Drop it in once. Manage everything after.
Lightweight, on-brand embed
A small widget that respects your design system and loads asynchronously — no performance hit.
Fresh without lifting a finger
Swap stories, change campaigns, and update content across every site in real time from one dashboard.
Deeper on-site engagement
The multi-story viewer keeps readers exploring on your page — so the audience, and the first-party data, stay yours.
Revenue · Monetization
Two ways to earn from every Collection.
The DML platform layers local sponsorship with global programmatic demand — on the same infrastructure — to optimize revenue for local publishers.
Direct — you sell it
Local sponsorships, your terms
Sell topic sponsorships to local businesses who want to back the coverage their community values. Run those campaigns on your own site, or scale them across regional and national networks.
Indirect — we power it
The global open market, unlocked
Our tech stack brings your inventory to the global digital open market — reaching demand most local and public media outlets have never been able to access on their own.
$660B
Global digital ad open market reachable via the indirect channel
DigitalApplied, 2026.
80–90%
Of premium open-market demand covered by our partner set
~41%
Of programmatic spend now flows through curated PMP deals in 2026 DigitalApplied, 2026
Greenfield
First-ever RTB access for most public media — a premium, brand-safe audience
Integrated demand partners
As the open web fills with AI slop and non-human traffic, premium brands are moving budget to clean, well-lit domains with real audiences. The same stack that earns revenue today is the prerequisite for higher-value PMP deals — and the foundation for the emerging agentic advertising economy, where AI agents negotiate directly between buyers and sellers.
How it works
Three steps to premium content and new revenue.
01 · DISCOVER
Choose your feeds
Browse the DML Marketplace and pick curated, topic-based Collections sourced from leading national media and brand partners.
02 · INTEGRATE
Embed on your site
Drop a lightweight widget onto any page. It respects your design system and loads asynchronously — no performance impact.
03 · MONETIZE
Unlock new revenue
Activate direct-sold and open-market demand. Campaigns run on your site or scale across regional and national networks.
Why now
After the 2025 federal funding cuts, public media needs durable new revenue — and it holds exactly the trusted, brand-safe audience advertisers can no longer find anywhere else.
We built DML in partnership with American Public Media Group to bring public media into the modern advertising economy — and to position local stations as anchors of a new, collaborative local media model.
"A trusted, brand-safe, premium audience that has never been available through RTB channels — a greenfield for advertisers, and net-new passive income for the stations that serve local communities."
DML · Net New Revenue for Public Media
Why it performs
Built for engagement, trust, and audience you keep.
28% ↑
More trusted
Consumers trust native ads 28% more than other formats. — Lumen
Multi-story
Deeper sessions
Bundled stories drive more time on page than single native units.
1st-party
Your audience
Readers stay on your site, so the first-party relationship stays yours.
For advertisers & brand partners
Reach trusted local audiences at national scale.
Distribute premium editorial and sponsored content across a national network of local news and public media — brand-safe environments that have never before been accessible through programmatic channels.
- ▸Direct sponsorships of topic sections, from a single market to the full national network.
- ▸Private Marketplace deals across curated, high-quality domains at premium rates.
- ▸Open-market access through the ad-tech platforms you already use to buy and report.
- ▸Unified analytics for network performance, campaign metrics, and content engagement.
Join the DML network
Earn new revenue and bring premium content to your audience.
Tell us about your outlet and we'll show you the Collections and revenue channels that fit your audience.
We'll only use your details to follow up about DML. No spam.
Premium content and new revenue for local news and public media.