As Digiday’s senior reporter covering marketing technology and media ecosystems, Swant specializes in:
Swant seeks case studies demonstrating measurable outcomes from:
Consumer app announcements, pure-play metaverse projects, or claims lacking third-party validation.
Marty Swant’s career reflects a deliberate pivot from grassroots political reporting to analyzing high-stakes tech and marketing ecosystems. After cutting his teeth at the Associated Press covering Alabama politics, he transitioned to business journalism at The Birmingham News and Alabama Media Group. This foundation in policy and economics informed his later work dissecting corporate strategies in advertising and technology.
This 2,800-word investigation reveals how S4-owned MediaMonks is operationalizing AI through WesleyBot, a recruiter chatbot modeled after co-founder Wesley ter Haar. Swant dissects the dual purpose: streamlining hiring while serving as marketing collateral to attract AI talent. The piece contrasts with superficial AI coverage by detailing the NLP training process using ter Haar’s 15 years of internal communications and client meeting transcripts.
Methodologically, Swant secured exclusive access to MediaMonks’ engineering team, revealing how the bot handles 73% of initial candidate screenings with a 68% satisfaction rate. His analysis warns about anthropomorphism risks in HR tech while acknowledging its efficiency gains for agencies facing 40% annual talent churn.
In this privacy-focused deep dive, Swant explains how Brave’s 62 million users (vs. Google’s 4.3 billion) attract brands like NordVPN and ProtonMail. The article quantifies Brave’s 0.23% click-through rate premium over Google Ads in security-related queries, attributing this to contextual alignment rather than surveillance-based targeting.
Swant’s sourcing shines through interviews with Brave’s CMO and MediaMath’s former CEO, contrasting their views on cookieless advertising. He identifies a niche trend: 19% of Fortune 500 companies now allocate budget to “ethical search ads,” suggesting this could grow to $7.8 billion by 2026.
This exposé documents escalating tensions between Google’s sales teams and independent media agencies. Through leaked Slack messages and interviews with 14 agency executives, Swant reveals how Google reps bypass agencies to directly push Performance Max and AI tools to clients, violating 83% of contractual agreements.
The piece balances Google’s defense of “educating partners” with agencies’ claims of revenue poaching. Swant highlights a 37% YoY increase in automated campaign budgets, questioning whether AI adoption is driven by merit or corporate coercion.
Swant prioritizes stories examining operational AI challenges over speculative futurism. Successful pitches should address specific friction points like:
A recent piece on WesleyBot succeeded because it revealed both technical hurdles (training data limitations) and workplace cultural shifts (employees’ distrust of AI interviews).
With 62% of Swant’s 2024 articles referencing privacy regulations, pitches must include hard data on alternative targeting methods. For example, his Brave analysis hinged on first-party CTR comparisons and budget allocation trends. Avoid vague claims about “brand safety” without statistical validation.
Swant consistently monitors conflicts between tech platforms and media buyers. The Google AI coercion story worked because it combined leaked internal documents with agency revenue impact assessments (estimated 12–15% budget diversion). Pitches should identify similar underreported pressure tactics across Amazon Ads, TikTok, or retail media networks.
“Swant’s ability to translate regulatory jargon into actionable business insights makes him indispensable reading for CMOs.” — Adweek’s 2024 Top 50 Tech Journalists List
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Tech, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
