Banks take from both sides and so do traditional publishers. The third party in this gang of ganeffs are advertising agencies.

First they get paid by their customers. And then they take “agency commission” from their suppliers. They are quite frank about it and even call it “kickbacks”, which used to have a sole meaning: bribes!

After a while their customers insisted, that these commissions are laid open and that it should be credited towards their account. The agencies agreed and turned the bribes into “annual volume discounts”, which cannot be credited to a singular account. They got caught stealing and instead of stopping just changed the game a bit. Shmocks!

We are not talking small change here. A recent trial in Germany against a media executive showed, the system produced billions for him and his agency.