Snackable Media’s acquisition of AdGrid marks a first. A Black-owned header bidding wrapper and full-stack ad platform built with multicultural publishers in mind. Founder Justin Barton explains the strategy, the tech, and why it’s time to redefine scale and ownership in ad ops.
There are multicultural ad networks. There are even a few minority-owned SSPs. But have you ever heard of a Black-owned header bidding wrapper?
Justin Barton, the digital lead at Black Enterprise and founder of Snackable Media, just acquired AdGrid, a publisher-first ad ops platform. The move combines Snackable’s media and community roots with AdGrid’s technical muscle, creating what Barton calls the first full-stack solution, built with multicultural publishers in mind.
We sat down with Barton to discuss the deal, the problem with MFA labeling, why “DEI” is dead, and how a new monetization marketplace could shift power back to the people making the content.
Lynne d Johnson: You recently made a bold move—acquiring AdGrid and creating what you’re calling the first Black-owned header bidder wrapper. What does that mean operationally and strategically, and why now?
Justin Barton: Certainly. I’ve been at Black Enterprise for almost six years and have worked with many different tech partners, but there’s always been a lack of cultural representation in that space. Some SSPs have been minority-owned or focused, but no one really owned the tech. Not the prebid adapter, the ad marketplace, or the rich media layer.
When this opportunity came about, I met with other multicultural, Black friends in publishing, and we put together an investment group. We used the company I already owned, Snackable Media, a multicultural ad network, to acquire AdGrid.
LdJ: And you self-financed it? What challenges did you face getting this off the ground?
JB: My business partners and I accumulated enough funds to finance this. We didn’t have to go to private equity or venture—we did it ourselves. That was a positive.
But the bigger challenge is what we always hear in the industry: that multicultural doesn’t scale. I disagree. It’s just that it hasn’t been aggregated correctly. This platform lets us do that—bring together all these smaller publishers, many of whom still use AdSense or don’t have a wrapper—and give them access to the demand they deserve.
LdJ: For the less ad-tech fluent, can you explain what a header bidder wrapper does—and why it matters that one is now Black-owned?
JB: The header was an open-source hack that allowed demand partners to compete with Google’s AdX. Once it was built, publishers could connect to SSPs and have those bidders compete for inventory alongside AdX and others. The wrapper manages that whole process. Whether you have direct deals, priority deals, or open market demand, the wrapper helps manage and optimize it all.
Now, you can connect to 30, 40, or 50 demand partners and choose the ones that make sense for your audience. That’s the wrapper’s real function. Having one that’s Black-owned means multicultural publishers finally have a tech solution built with their needs in mind.
I don’t use the term DEI anymore—I use multicultural, and I call it the new general market.
LdJ: You’ve mentioned that you’re not using “DEI” anymore—you’re calling this the “new general market.” Say more.
JB: I don’t use the term DEI anymore—I use multicultural, and I call it the new general market. That includes Black, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ+—audiences that are growing fast and need to be marketed to.
You could find these audiences on ESPN or The New York Times. But when your ad runs next to content that speaks directly to them, it has the most impact. That’s what we’re trying to enable.
LdJ: You also touched on MFAs and marketplace inefficiencies. How does your platform help solve for those?
JB: We’ve seen companies use multicultural certifications to pull in spend, then pass it off to general market or even MFA sites. That breaks trust. As someone who’s been a publisher for almost 20 years, I want to ensure the right pubs—the ones doing real journalism or quality content creation—get the dollars they deserve.
AdGrid has a self-serve ad marketplace where publishers can share demand. If a campaign comes in and you can’t fulfill it, you don’t have to buy Facebook traffic or game the system. You just extend it to a network of like-minded publishers on the platform. That helps the campaign deliver, helps your fellow publishers earn at better rates than the open market, and keeps the value in the ecosystem, not in Meta’s pocket.
And, this isn’t just about multicultural pubs. About two-thirds of the publishers on AdGrid are general market. We’re solving for a structural issue that affects all small to midsize pubs trying to scale with integrity.
We’re building a platform for anyone who wants to take control of their ad stack—through wrappers, rich media, or the self-serve marketplace.
LdJ: So this isn’t just a multicultural play, there is broader appeal?
JB: It’s broader. We’re building a platform for anyone who wants to take control of their ad stack through wrappers, rich media, or the self-serve marketplace.
LdJ: You’ve talked about accountability, but what about transparency? What do you think about that for advertisers and publishers?
JB: Transparency is a big part of this. First, we make sure the platform is fully auditable and integrated with ad verification tools. But more importantly, we give advertisers complete control. The ad network operates like a mini-curated DSP.
You select the sites you want to run on—it’s not a bundle, not a black box. You see what you’re bidding on, where your ads appear, the viewability, placement, and brand safety settings.
Advertisers can set keyword exclusions, monitor domains, and track real-time performance. That kind of transparency hasn’t always been available in networks targeting multicultural or niche audiences, and we think it’s long overdue.
LdJ: What’s on the roadmap for the rest of 2025?
JB: The goal is to get into more multicultural publications—either with our wrapper or just with the prebid adapter. We’re also inviting new publishers and even SMBs to try the self-serve marketplace. We want it to be more democratized—no high DSP fees, no hidden hurdles, just a direct connection to publishers.
Product-wise, we’re expanding into CTV and audio. We’re already talking to Black-owned CTV networks and other partners. Agencies are always asking if we have CTV—we can say yes.