As AI reshapes discovery and traffic becomes harder to predict, publishers need a new operating mindset. Mula CEO Jason White discusses why thinking like a marketer—and measuring success through metrics like RPS—will help publishers win in 2026.
Jason White has seen the digital media business from nearly every angle—publisher, ad tech executive, identity strategist, and now CEO of Mula, an agentic monetization platform focused on helping publishers adapt to a rapidly changing discovery and revenue landscape.
As AI shifts how audiences find content and search traffic continues to erode, publishers are being forced to rethink long-standing assumptions about growth, engagement, and monetization. Volume alone is no longer enough—and in many cases, it’s working against them. And the old model—more pages, more ads, more intermediaries—doesn’t hold up anymore.
In this conversation, White discusses why Revenue Per Session (RPS) is becoming the metric that matters most. He also talked to us about why quality content needs to be redefined in a post-search world and why emerging agentic protocols like Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) could help publishers regain transparency and control.
The following is a condensed and edited version of our conversation.
Why Publishers Must Start Thinking Like Marketers in 2026
Lynne d Johnson: You’ve been on almost every side of this ecosystem—publisher, ad tech, identity, ops. If there’s one lie publishers can no longer tell themselves after 2025, what is it?
Jason White: It’s the impact of AI—specifically what happens once Google fully enters the game.
For a while, AI felt abstract. Tools launched in 2022, but most publishers didn’t see a material impact right away. That changed once Google made its shift. When 70 to 80 percent of your traffic comes from search, and you suddenly lose 30 to 50 percent of it, you can’t ignore that anymore.
Some categories—like breaking news or sports—are holding up better for now. But overall, the reset has already happened. Traffic isn’t going back to where it was. It probably won’t go to zero, but it will continue to decline.
The real question now is: what are the alternatives? How do publishers replace that lost traffic and revenue? That’s where diversification, retention, and thinking more like a marketer become critical.
How Revenue Per Session Forces a Marketer’s Mindset
Lynne d Johnson: At Sell Side Summit, you called RPS the “God metric.” What actually changes when publishers optimize for RPS instead of RPM?
Jason White: Optimizing for RPS forces a mindset shift. You stop obsessing over individual page performance and start caring about the full session and the user journey.
For a long time, publishers didn’t need to think this way. There was no incentive to know individual users unless you were a subscription business like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Those companies have been thinking about Lifetime Value (LTV) for years.
Most publishers didn’t invest in CRMs, CDPs, or user-level analytics because it was expensive and unnecessary when traffic was free. Now that’s changed.
What RPS does is align content, ad load, and user experience. It discourages short-term decisions, like excessive ads or irrelevant recommendations, and rewards deeper engagement—second and third page views, longer sessions, and better retention.
Redefining Quality Content for Deeper Sessions
Lynne d Johnson: How should publishers redefine quality content in 2026 if the goal is deeper sessions, not just more pageviews?
Jason White: Quality content is about matching users to what they actually care about within the context of their session.
If someone comes in reading about a Michigan Wolverines game, the next thing they see should be relevant to that interest, not random or generic. When you do this well, you move from one-and-done visits to meaningful sessions.
We’re seeing pageviews per visit move from around 1.25 to closer to 1.75. Dwell time increases dramatically. That impacts everything—impressions, revenue, and whether users come back.
This is also about brand. When publishers create tailored, coherent experiences, users remember that. They trust it. And trust is what brings people back in a world where discovery is fragmented.
Now that traffic is shrinking, personalization isn’t optional anymore.
Now, Personalization Is Nonnegotiable
Lynne d Johnson: Personalization has been a goal in digital media for decades. Why didn’t it stick—and why does it matter now?
Jason White: Free traffic is the reason.
For years, publishers relied on two major sources: search and social. When traffic is abundant and free, personalization becomes aspirational instead of essential.
Organizationally, growth teams—SEO, editorial—held most of the power because they controlled traffic. Personalization experiments happened, but they were never a top priority.
Now that traffic is shrinking, personalization isn’t optional anymore. It has to move up the priority list because retention and session depth matter more than raw volume.
Can AdCP and Agentic Protocols Reset Publisher Control?
Lynne d Johnson: You’ve compared AdCP and agentic protocols to early OpenRTB. What’s the real opportunity for publishers—and what’s at risk if they don’t engage?
Jason White: The opportunity is transparency and governance.
In traditional programmatic, publishers often didn’t know how much real demand was behind the bids they were seeing. Sometimes there wasn’t even a bid on an impression. That’s a terrible position to be in as a seller.
With agentic protocols like AdCP, you can create a more transparent marketplace where buy-side and sell-side agents communicate directly and clearly. It’s not going to happen overnight—this is a multi-year transition—but it’s an opportunity to rebuild the system better.
That includes governance. Things like hate speech, exploitative content, and ad blockers being promoted through ads shouldn’t be part of the ecosystem at all. If we’re rebuilding, we should fix those issues from the start.
What Publishers Need to Stop Doing, and Double Down on in 2026
Lynne d Johnson: Let’s fast-forward to the end of 2026. A publisher tells you, “We finally got this right.” What did they stop doing—and what did they double down on?
Jason White: They stopped putting all their eggs in one basket.
Relying entirely on SEO or hoping that direct sales magically come through is risky. That Easter Bunny doesn’t always show up.
They diversified traffic—through paid acquisition, newsletters, push notifications, and syndication—and built real buying muscle internally. At the same time, they invested in understanding their users: lifecycle, retention, and behavior.
On the monetization side, they did less—but better. Fewer intermediaries. Stronger strategic partners. More direct relationships with demand.
Less clutter. More intent.
The one-and-done model is over. It doesn’t support itself anymore. But publishers who rethink traffic, content, and monetization together? They’re going to be just fine.