We've been here before. The content licensing economy is starting to look a lot like programmatic advertising circa 2010.

Standards are forming in one lane. Marketplaces are racing ahead in another. Bilateral deals are getting struck under pressure by publishers who are just trying to stay afloat. Intermediaries are moving fast to own the middle.

Nobody is designing the architecture. Nobody owns the vision.

Unfortunately, we know how this movie ends. Fifty cents of every programmatic ad dollar never reaches a publisher. Not because anyone planned it that way. Because nobody planned at all.

The difference this time around is that we've lived through the consequences. Publishers know what happens when they let somebody else design the ecosystem. They know what they get when principals abdicate and intermediaries fill the vacuum. Hindsight is 20/20 unless you're deliberately closing your eyes.

My latest editorial makes the case for what's missing. The only question is whether the industry acts before the defaults harden.

We are at the beginning of the end of "Destination Publishing."

As long as there's been digital content, this has been the go-to business model for digital content creators. Publishers produce engaging news, sports and entertainment content, they build sites, apps and channels to attract audiences, and they monetize the visits. Revenue offsets costs, and the economics make for a viable publishing business.

But AI is fundamentally breaking these age old assumptions.

There is an environmental crisis in the professional news media business. So-called “reliable” news sources are slowly becoming extinct. Preserving the future of reputable news outlets is the shared responsibility of both media and advertisers.