Digital media companies are under pressure to do more with increasingly complex advertising operations. Publishers now manage a wider mix of digital products, campaigns, commercial models, and advertiser requirements, while artificial intelligence is beginning to change how campaigns are planned and executed.
That shift is also creating a less visible challenge. The systems responsible for managing advertising operations need to keep pace.
Advance Local, a US media, marketing, and intelligence company, has selected ADvendio as its long term partner for advertising order management and advertising infrastructure. The partnership will bring sales, campaign management, fulfilment, billing, and revenue operations together on a unified platform.
The decision comes as digital advertising continues to expand. According to the IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, US internet advertising revenue reached $294.6 billion in 2025, representing a 13.9% increase from the previous year.
For publishers, that growth is accompanied by more operational complexity. Advertising is no longer limited to traditional placements, with media companies offering different formats, audiences, campaigns, and services to advertisers.
Advance Local operates news brands including NJ.com, AL.com, MLive, OregonLive, and Cleveland.com, among others. The company says its media properties reach more than 50 million people each month.
Its advertising operation also extends beyond its publishing business. Advance Travel and Tourism works with destinations and travel brands, while Advance Healthcare serves specialty practices, hospitals, and senior living organizations. Advance Education works with vocational schools, community colleges, and universities, and Advance Local Solutions serves businesses across the regional economies where the company operates.
That diversity is one reason the company is looking to consolidate its advertising processes.
Preparing advertising operations for automation
ADvendio will connect several stages of the commercial process, including sales, campaign management, fulfilment, billing, and revenue operations. Advance Local expects the platform to reduce manual interventions and the need for complex system customizations.
The company will also have a single source of commercial information where pricing, inventory execution, and billing can be managed together.
The longer term objective is to create an infrastructure that can change as the advertising business evolves. ADvendio’s architecture will allow Advance Local to introduce new workflows, expand automation, and incorporate AI driven capabilities over time.
That direction comes as AI becomes increasingly relevant to advertising operations. The IAB’s 2026 outlook projects US advertising expenditure to grow 12.3% this year, while advertisers are increasingly exploring agentic AI for activities such as campaign execution and optimization.
Yet the move toward automation also raises questions about control and accountability. IAB research found that 96% of buyers see a role for agentic AI in programmatic advertising, while many still want human oversight, audit trails, and safeguards around what AI agents can execute.
Advance Local’s implementation reflects that transition at the infrastructure level. Rather than adding AI as an isolated feature, the company is establishing a more connected operational layer that can support automation as new capabilities emerge.
Natalie Pruitt, president of Advance Solutions, a division of Advance Local, said the goal is ultimately to give teams more time to focus on advertisers.
“At Advance Solutions, everything starts with helping our clients succeed. We wanted an operations platform that supports that mission. By unifying planning, fulfilment and reporting, ADvendio streamlines the work behind the scenes and gives our teams more time to focus on what matters most: understanding our clients’ challenges and helping them achieve better business outcomes.”
For ADvendio, the agreement provides an opportunity to work with a large media organization operating across multiple advertising categories and business models.
“This is an incredibly exciting moment for the whole ADvendio family, as Advance Local is a hugely prestigious organisation. We are thrilled to have received their confidence in this decision, and the opportunity to partner in their long-term growth and development. I look forward to helping them achieve their goals, and learning what more additional value we can unlock,” said Bernd Bube, founder and CEO of ADvendio.
The partnership points to a broader shift in digital media. As publishers adopt more automation and AI, the infrastructure underneath advertising operations will increasingly determine how quickly they can launch products, manage campaigns, and respond to changing advertiser demands.
