Google Antitrust Case Comes Too Late for Publishers

Publishers are happy that the Department of Justice sued Google over its control of online display advertising. But some would have preferred to have seen the case brought five or six years ago—when the gap between what publishers and the tech giants generate from online ads was not as wide as it is today.

Publishing executives say they might have had a chance to build the ad tools that could have helped them compete for ad dollars if Google’s control of buying and selling display ads on the open web had been loosened back then.