Premium publishers are emerging as key players in the larger data marketplace, as they make their treasure chests of user data available. But a core debate remains about whether to focus ad buys on those premium sites and their powerful content draw, or to make broader audience buys that deliver scale. Experts weighed in on aspects of the issue during the panel “Buying Content vs. Audience for Advertisers” at today’s DPAC conference.

One major proponent of buying audience as opposed to content was panelist Josh Wexler, VP of Publisher Development for The Rubicon Project, whose yield optimization platform has made serious inroads. “Right now advertisers are looking for scale,” Wexler said, “and audiences provide that scale.”

Speaking for the content side, Ziff Davis Media CEO Jason Young said, “Premium publishers are the one player that can participate in all sides of this opportunity. Our model is built on the back of relevancy and the power of context. So we’re reaching in-market buyers” when they’re reading reviews of PCs or other products, he said. In addition to having ad messages hit readers at critical moments of purchase intent, Young said, “we also have the opportunity to leverage our data to give advertisers incremental frequency against that buyer and chase them down the funnel.”

One firm bridging the gap is targeting platform provider, AudienceScience. “When you’re buying inventory in premium environments, you’re also buying data at the same time,” said AudienceScience CEO Jeff Hirsch. He added that eventually major advertisers will recognize the need to “reach audiences more efficiently, because the prices are now too high.” At that point, he said, these economics will force brands to take advantage of targeting technologies to make better buys.

Transparency in data sales as it pertains to data integrity and consumer privacy was raised as a concern by moderator Lynne Johnson, SVP of Social Media for the ARF.

 “There’s a big problem making this entire data ecosystem easy to understand for consumers, media buyers and agencies, advertisers, or even publishers that need some additional insights,” said David Helmreich, VP of TARGUSinfo’s ADAdvisor. “It’s important for any buyer to dig into how data is brought online.”