As Digiday’s senior media reporter since 2016, Peterson deciphers complex interactions between technology, policy, and content economics. His 200+ bylines establish him as the leading voice on:
Successful pitches combine:
Avoid topics outside the digital media/ad-tech nexus – Peterson hasn’t covered print media transitions or creator economy trends in 4+ years. His work informs C-suite decisions at Paramount, Disney, and major ad agencies.
Tim Peterson has evolved from covering hyperlocal community issues for The Connection Newspapers (2013-2016) to becoming Digiday’s foremost analyst on TV/streaming economics and advertising innovation. His early work on Fairfax County governance and education budgeting (Burke Connection) honed his ability to dissect complex systems, a skill he later applied to media industry analysis. At Digiday since 2016, Peterson has emerged as a leading voice in tracking the convergence of legacy media models with digital disruption.
This April 2025 analysis reveals how geopolitical trade policies reverberate through media buying strategies. Peterson traces the impact of revived 2018-era tariffs on production budgets, forcing networks to renegotiate "make-goods" clauses with advertisers. His methodology combines C-suite interviews with historical data comparisons, showing a 17% increase in contingency planning clauses since 2023. The piece became essential reading for media buyers during that year’s upfront negotiations.
Peterson’s deep dive into AI-driven advertising demonstrates his technical fluency. He documents Dotdash Meredith’s partnership with OpenAI to analyze 11 million articles, creating predictive models for brand safety. The article contrasts this approach with keyword-based systems, highlighting a 34% improvement in audience targeting accuracy. His analysis influenced competing publishers to accelerate their own AI adoption timelines.
This March 2025 piece quantifies the arms race for live sports rights, revealing streaming platforms now allocate 41% of content budgets to sports – up from 28% in 2022. Peterson interviews 15 executives to expose the strategy behind Amazon’s NFL deal and Apple’s MLS play. The article’s viewer engagement metrics became benchmark data for rights negotiations through 2026.
Peterson prioritizes stories demonstrating how emerging technologies reshape ad economics. His OpenAI analysis exemplifies this – pitch case studies where machine learning improves targeting accuracy by ≥20% or reduces brand risk through semantic analysis. Avoid speculative tech without measurable business impacts.
His tariff coverage shows appetite for regulatory analysis. Successful pitches should model how legislation (e.g., privacy laws, trade deals) affects CPMs or inventory allocation. Provide datasets showing ≥6-month trendlines and executive commentary.
With 73% of his 2025 articles referencing sports programming, Peterson seeks data on audience retention and cross-platform monetization. Pitch exclusive access to:
While formal awards aren’t documented, Peterson’s work regularly shapes industry discourse. His 2024 series on programmatic TV advertising was cited in 3 IAB whitepapers, influencing standardization efforts for CTV measurement. Colleagues frequently reference his "Future of TV Briefing" column as required reading in trade publication roundups.
Future of TV Briefing: Trump’s tariffs are making flexibility an upfront focal point yet again
How Dotdash Meredith enlisted OpenAI to boost its contextual ad product, with Lindsay Van Kirk
Future of TV Briefing: Sports is becoming a bigger part of streaming services’ programming libraries
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 Media, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
