Laurie Sullivan
Laurie Sullivan tracks how data, identity and performance media reshape the business of advertising, translating complex ad-tech and search developments into clear, news-driven stories for MediaPost. She sits at the point where marketing technology, media economics and consumer behavior meet, focusing on what new tools, platforms and deals mean for brands, agencies and platforms competing for ad dollars.
Search and performance media through a business lens
Sullivan’s core subject is the business of search and performance marketing across the major platforms. She follows how Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other large media and commerce companies evolve their search, retail media and performance ad offerings, with close attention to product changes, targeting capabilities and measurement tools that move budgets. Her headlines often frame platform news in terms of spend, revenue contribution, or share shifts, making clear how a new feature or policy translates into winners and losers in the ad market.
She regularly reports on how marketers structure search and performance campaigns, from shifting spend between branded and non-branded search to reallocating budgets into performance channels like retail media networks and marketplace ads. Agency perspectives and brand-side examples show up frequently, using practitioner quotes to ground technical updates in day-to-day planning and optimization decisions. Sullivan’s stories in this area are concise and transactional, but they consistently point back to the broader business question: which channels deliver accountable growth and how that is changing.
Data, identity and the economics of ad tech
A defining thread in Sullivan’s coverage is the business of marketing data and identity. She reports on privacy changes, third-party cookie deprecation, first-party data strategies and the rise of clean rooms and identity solutions as they reshape how advertisers target and measure campaigns. Her work follows the companies that sell those capabilities as well as the brands and agencies that depend on them, treating data infrastructure as a competitive asset rather than a technical footnote.
Sullivan covers mergers, acquisitions and strategic investments that rewire the ad-tech and data landscape, highlighting the price tags, strategic rationale and implications for clients. When she writes about deals such as Publicis acquiring data platforms like LiveRamp for multibillion-dollar sums, she focuses on how ownership of identity, onboarding and enrichment capabilities shifts leverage in the marketplace. Her reporting in this vein connects financial transactions to operational realities, explaining what new combinations of holding companies, data providers and platforms will mean for targeting, measurement and the flow of media spend.
Benchmarks, research and marketer sentiment
Much of Sullivan’s reporting is built around fresh numbers.
She frequently anchors stories in earnings reports, third-party benchmarks, ad spend forecasts, consumer surveys and behavioral data from search, e-commerce and media platforms. Headlines call out changes in query volumes, category-level ad spending, conversion rates or consumer preferences, and the accompanying articles translate those data points into practical signals about where budgets and attention are moving.
She pays particular attention to how marketers feel about new tools and constraints: confidence in AI-driven optimization, skepticism about walled-garden measurement, readiness for privacy enforcement, or frustration with fragmented identity. By pairing quantitative findings with quotes from marketers, agency leads and technology vendors, Sullivan builds a picture of both the hard numbers and the sentiment behind them.
The result is coverage that helps readers understand not only what is happening in the market, but how decision-makers are reacting.
Fast-turn news with executive voices and plain language
Sullivan works primarily in short, time-sensitive news pieces rather than long-form features. Her stories tend to move quickly from the core development - a new platform product, a dataset, a regulatory change, a corporate deal - into the implications for advertisers and their partners.
She writes in plain, unadorned language, often unpacking technical concepts like clean rooms, identity graphs or performance measurement in straightforward terms that keep the focus on business impact rather than jargon.
Executive voices are a consistent part of her format.
She draws on comments from CMOs, agency search and performance leads, product executives at platforms and independent analysts, using their quotes to stress-test claims and add perspective on how a change will play out in media plans, tech stacks and P&Ls. Across beats, Sullivan’s work is distinguished less by opinion than by the steady accumulation of concrete developments - product updates, financial results, data releases and deals - assembled into a clear view of where the business of data-driven advertising is heading.
4 more business journalists.
Aaron Karp
Aaron Karp is distinct for connecting airline networks, airport infrastructure, air cargo and policy. He is a senior editor at Air Transport World and has covered aviation since 1999. He has also worked as an editor for cargo-focused and daily aviation publications. His real beat is how airlines and airports respond to growth, regulation, trade conditions, sustainability pressures and technology changes. He covers route planning, network development, airport capacity, infrastructure, cargo flows, trade lanes, safety, air traffic control and future technology. He reports through news, features, opinion pieces, briefings and podcasts. He uses data, executive insight and industry conference reporting to explain market changes. His work links cargo metrics and trade policy to carrier strategy, and connects infrastructure and sustainability decisions to resilience, costs and long-term growth.
Adrienne Roberts
Adrienne Roberts is a business journalist at the Detroit Free Press who covers how policy, regulation and corporate decisions affect Michigan’s cannabis market, jobs, universities and health systems. She has a sustained focus on cannabis taxes, licensing, sales, product rules, consumer safety and local tax revenue. She also reports on unemployment, worker protections, corporate settlements, hiring, higher education, student safety, housing, data centers, health care access and economic forecasts. Roberts joined the Detroit Free Press in 2020 after covering automotive retail, dealers and labor issues for The Wall Street Journal. She explains complex business and regulatory changes with data, legal detail and on-the-ground voices. Her stories focus on practical effects for workers, students, consumers and communities, showing both the numbers and the people behind them.
Alex Bronzini-Vender
Alex Bronzini-Vender is a business reporter who focuses on how economic forces and corporate decisions shape specific communities and industries. He covers business for the Washington Monthly, writing reported pieces at the intersection of commerce and public life. His work reflects the magazine’s emphasis on linking markets and money to power, policy, and everyday experience. He treats business not as balance sheets and deals but as choices that affect local realities. In “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto,” he uses a city tied to the tech sector to examine how a powerful industry influences a community. He grounds his business beat in on-the-ground consequences rather than treating corporate and financial developments in isolation.
Alex DeMarban
Alex DeMarban stands out for tracking major energy projects over time while showing how economic shifts affect local businesses. He reports for the Anchorage Daily News on business, oil and gas, and general assignments. His coverage focuses on Alaska LNG, long-haul energy projects, mining, ports, transportation infrastructure, and the everyday businesses that keep the state running. He examines financing, tax legislation, labor agreements, regulatory approvals, timelines and costs, and connects government and corporate decisions to workers, communities and consumers. He also reports on restaurant closures, grocery stores, breweries, meaderies, parking and trade disputes. His past coverage includes an open-pit mine near the proposed Ambler road, federal port grants and competitive elections. He reports through dollar figures, project details, public records, business owners and affected workers, showing how policy and resource development play out on the ground.