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Person

Jason Kint

Nationality:

American
Chief Executive Officer:

Digital Content Next
Residence:

Arlington, Virginia

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Jason Kint is the chief executive officer of Digital Content Next (formerly the Online Publishers Association), a trade group for digital content producers. Kint is an outspoken critic of Google and Facebook, which he has labeled a “duopoly,”1  suggesting that federal regulators may need to forcibly break the two companies apart.2 Kint has also endorsed international regulations meant to weaken the companies’ market position.3

After the 2016 election’s “fake news” controversy, Kint suggested that Google, which had largely avoided the controversy, be subject to the same type of Congressional investigations as Facebook.4 He also demanded that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) impose transparency regulations on the two companies,5 and demanded that the companies devote significant financial resources toward developing solutions to eliminate fabricated content.6

Kint supports burdensome federal privacy and operational regulations that would benefit his members while burdening larger competing advertising-technology companies.7 Kint fervently argues that increased privacy regulations be imposed against companies like Google.8 Kint and his organization supported the Obama administration’s “net neutrality” regulations on internet service providers.9

Personal Background

Jason Kint was born outside Columbus, Ohio.10 He attended Columbus’ St. Charles Preparatory School and then graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with degrees in mathematics and marketing in 1996.11

Career

During his college years, Kint ran web development company LiveWire Marketing, which built websites for companies and organizations12 including Mastercard, Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield,13 Washington University, various student groups, and the city of St. Louis.14 After college, Kint built the website for Sporting News magazine. 15

From 1998-200 Kint worked as an executive producer for Times Mirror Magazines, Sporting News’ parent company, where he developed web content for the company.16

Kint rejoined Sporting News from 2000 through 2007. During this time he helped build out a premium content platform and oversaw the 2005 re-design of the companies website.17

From 2007 through 2013, Kint worked as general manager of CBS Interactive Sports Division in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.18 In this role he oversaw programming, product development, marketing, technology and general administration of CBSSports.com (formerly known as CBSSportsline.com). 19

While at CBS Sports, Kint was named a top 10 Sports Game Changer by HuffPost in 2009 and a “digital power 50” member by the Hollywood Reporter20 for his work in creating an on-demand streaming service for the NCAA basketball tournament.21 In 2011, Sports Business Daily named Kint to its “40 under 40” crediting him with building a profitable premium fantasy sports product.22

Digital Content Next

Also see Digital Content Next (Nonprofit)

Jason Kint served on the board of directors of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) from 2002 through 2013.23 Kint was named C.E.O. of the Online Publishers Association in May 2014.24

In September 2004, Kint re-branded OPA as Digital Content Next (DCN)25 to represent the fact that organization’s membership was exclusively comprised of content-generating companies and to distinguish those members from other competing online companies.26

According to Kint, DCN is a trade association advocating for the policy demands of large-scale digital content companies27 and against policies of major digital advertising intermediary companies such as Facebook and Google.28

Advocacy against Facebook and Google

In 2015, Kint labeled Facebook and Google a duopoly within the digital advertisement industry.29 In a 2017 blog post, Kint argued that despite the fact that the Google and Facebook both offer their products for free the companies can still be held in violation of antitrust laws. Kint touted European fines against Google and anti-trust investigations by multiple states as proof that the two companies were a duopoly. 30

Kint has also argued the both Google and Facebook should be required to provide more transparency about their internal operation. 31 Kint argues that this disclosure would detail how much money the two companies allocate to content producers, implicitly allowing those content producers to negotiate for a larger share of advertising revenues. 32

In November 2016, Kint wrote a letter to the CEOs of Facebook and Google criticizing the companies’ planned efforts to identify fake news and calling for them to voluntarily allocate more financial resources toward creating processes that would eliminate the publication of false information.33

Kint bemoaned the fact that Facebook was the sole focus of congressional investigations into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election and argued that Google should also be included in those investigations.34 Kint also demanded that the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) eliminate Google’s political advertising disclosure exemption for its brief digital advertisements. Kint argues that Google should be forced to comply with a political advertiser disclosure mandate to track the identity of political advertising purchasers. 35

Kint used Russian interference in the 2016 election to call for broad federal transparency mandates related to Google’s and Facebook’s financials and specifically singled out information relating to content producers payments. 36

Privacy Issues

General Data Protection Regulation

In 2017, Kint wrote an op-ed in support of the European Union (EU) regulatory scheme known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Kint lauded the GDPR for creating rules that require explicit consumer consent before a company can collect and use web-user data, and imposing significant financial penalties against any company that did not comply with the new regulatory rules.37According to Kint the EU’s new rule “should be applauded” for potentially changing how Google and Facebook do business.38

In an April 2018 interview Kint supported the GDPR and ePrivacy regulations touting the fact the regulations would “likely weaken the aspects of Google and Facebook that make them so dominant.”39

Ad-Blocking

Kint frequently criticizes ad-blocking, the process where users install software designed to prevent the display and delivery of advertising, as his main motivation for supporting a wide-array of left-of-center regulatory mandates. 40 41 According to Kint, ad-blocking significantly harms the financial viability of his association’s members “because it prevents them from monetizing the audiences they attract.”42

As a result, Kint has often called for strong federal administrative rules regulating consumer data collection in order to ensure that consumers do not install ad-blocking software.43

In 2015, Kint bemoaned the fact that “there was very little activity” on President Obama’s Privacy Consumer Bill of Rights.44

In 2016, Kint wrote a letter to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urging the FCC to create new requirements regulating how broadband providers collect and use consumer data, and which prevents those providers from collecting data when specific consumers indicate their preference against such data-collection.45

Net Neutrality

In his July 2017 comments to the FCC, Kint urged the regulatory body to keep the net neutrality rules enacted under President Barack Obama.46 Kint argued that the FCC rules were necessary to provide clear regulatory limits on how broadband Internet companies could conduct their business.47

Verizon’s Oath Subsidiary

In 2016-2017, Verizon announced plans to combine its subsidiaries AOL and Yahoo as part of a new content-generation and data-collection company called Oath, which could compete with Facebook and Google.48 Kint has taken numerous stances against this plan and tenuously arguing that it will increase users employment of ad-blocking, which in harms his member organizations.49

In 2016, Kint complained that Verizon’s plan to collect offline and online data violated “the spirit” of FCC privacy rules adopted under President Obama.50 Kint later criticized the fact that Congress repealed those same FCC rules. 51

Then in 2017, Kint criticized Verizon’s plan to create Oath labeling it “very concerning” because the company would use “billions of low quality impressions” to identify users’ behavioral and location information in order to create behaviorally targeted content.52

Similarly, Kint also speculated that after the repeal of net neutrality regulations, Verizon would use its Oath subsidiary to create a consumer choice “chokepoint” through which the Verizon would prioritize Oath’s over that of competing content producers.53

Political Involvement

In 2016, Kint contributed $5,400 to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.54 Kint advocated for Clinton’s election during the campaign.55

In 2016, Kint participated in Hack the Debate, a hackathon intended to design ideas on how to bring millennials and larger numbers of Americans into the presidential debate process. The digital directors for both major political parties as well as political executives from Google and Twitter joined Kint.56

References

  1. Freier, Anne. “Are Facebook and Google nearing a duopoly in the digital advertising market?” Moby Affiliates. November 7, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://www.mobyaffiliates.com/blog/are-facebook-and-google-nearing-a-duopoly-in-the-digital-advertising-market/
  2. Jason Kint Twitter Post. Twitter.com. May 16, 2016. 4:35 P.M. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/996896948299976706
  3. Kint, Jason. “OPINION: EUROPE’S STRICT NEW PRIVACY RULES ARE SCARY BUT RIGHT.” AdAge. May 25, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/europe-s-strict-privacy-rules-terrifying-apple/309155/?CSAuthResp=1527097777170:0:2380599:0:24:success:8C406F9084E8AEAFD6880559FDC752D5
  4. Kint, Jason. “Op-Ed: The Russia ad story isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about Google, too.” Washington Post. October 31, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-ad-story-isnt-just-about-facebook-its-about-google-too/2017/10/31/061055da-be5d-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.a25e7ef4c417
  5. Kint, Jason. “Op-Ed: The Russia ad story isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about Google, too.” Washington Post. October 31, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-ad-story-isnt-just-about-facebook-its-about-google-too/2017/10/31/061055da-be5d-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.a25e7ef4c417
  6. O’Reilly, Lara. “A powerful trade body for big publishers sent a letter imploring the CEOs of Google and Facebook to tackle fake news.” Business Insider. November 23, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://www.businessinsider.com/dcn-letter-to-mark-zuckerberg-and-sundar-pichai-on-fake-news-2016-11
  7. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  8. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  9. Kint, Jason. “Comments of Digital Content Next: Before the Federal Communications Commission.” Federal Communications Commission. WC Docket No. 17-108. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1071793889859/DCNCommentsonFCCNNNPRM-signed%5B1%5D.pdf
  10. Jason Kint Facebook Page. About Jason Kint. Facebook.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.facebook.com/jason.kint.3/about?lst=2012766%3A502921117%3A1527000869
  11. Jason Kint Linkedin Page. Linkedin.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkint/
  12. “Alumni Notes.” St. Charles Prep Cardinal. Fall 2012. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.stcharlesprep.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1012-550_cardinal_LR.pdf
  13. Jason Kint Linkedin Page. Linkedin.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkint/
  14. Small, Vanessa. “Behind the Career: Jason Kint.” Washington Post. June 22, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/behind-the-career-jason-kint/2014/06/19/37dadfa2-f644-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
  15. Small, Vanessa. “Behind the Career: Jason Kint.” Washington Post. June 22, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/behind-the-career-jason-kint/2014/06/19/37dadfa2-f644-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html
  16. “Jason Kint: Executive Profile.” Bloomberg. May 31, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=34018959&privcapId=26488127
  17. Jason Kint Linkedin Page. Linkedin.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkint/
  18. Jason Kint Linkedin Page. Linkedin.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkint/
  19. “Jason Kint.” Columbia University. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  http://www.citi.columbia.edu/B8210/8599guests08/Kint.htm
  20. Wallenstein, Andrew. “THR’s 2010 Digital Power 50.” The Hollywood Reporter. June 7, 2010. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/digital-power-2010-240712/item/dave-habiger-digital-power-50-240805
  21. “SPORTS GAME CHANGERS #5.” Huffpost. October 22, 2009. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/huffpost-game-changers-wh_n_322710.html?slidenumber=1&slideshow=true#gallery/3163/4
  22. “Forty Under 40.” Sports Business Daily. March 21, 2011. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/03/21/Forty-Under-40.aspx
  23. Jason Kint Linkedin Page. Linkedin.com. Undated. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkint/
  24. Bhuiyan, Johana. “O.P.A. names Jason Kint C.E.O.” Politico. May 12, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.politico.com/media/story/2014/05/opa-names-jason-kint-ceo-002211
  25. “online publishers association announces rebrand to digital content next.” Digital Content Next. September 19, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2014/09/19/online-publishers-association-announces-rebrand-to-digital-content-next/
  26. Adweek Staff. “CEO Explains Why the Online Publishers Association Changed Its Name.” Adweek. November 3, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/jason-kint-refocusing-digital-content-next-161104/
  27. “Q&A: Jason Kint, CEO, Digital Content Next.” EContent. September 19, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2018.  http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Commentary/QandA-Jason-Kint-CEO-Digital-Content-Next-99443.htm
  28. Kint, Jason. “Why the IAB GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework is a nonstarter for publishers.” Digital Content Next. March 19, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/03/19/iab-gdpr-consent-framework-non-starter-publishers/
  29. Kint, Jason. “Numbers don’t lie. But Google continues to obfuscate.” Digital Content Next. March 8, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/03/08/numbers-dont-lie-google-continues-obfuscate/
  30. Kint, Jason. “The Google PR lobbying machine rumbles back.” Digital Content Next. November 20, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2017/11/20/google-pr-lobbying-machine-rumbles-back/
  31. Kint, Jason. “Numbers don’t lie. But Google continues to obfuscate.” Digital Content Next. March 8, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/03/08/numbers-dont-lie-google-continues-obfuscate/
  32. Kint, Jason. “Numbers don’t lie. But Google continues to obfuscate.” Digital Content Next. March 8, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/03/08/numbers-dont-lie-google-continues-obfuscate/
  33. O’Reilly, Lara. “A powerful trade body for big publishers sent a letter imploring the CEOs of Google and Facebook to tackle fake news.” Business Insider. November 23, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://www.businessinsider.com/dcn-letter-to-mark-zuckerberg-and-sundar-pichai-on-fake-news-2016-11
  34. Kint, Jason. “Op-Ed: The Russia ad story isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about Google, too.” Washington Post. October 31, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-ad-story-isnt-just-about-facebook-its-about-google-too/2017/10/31/061055da-be5d-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.a25e7ef4c417
  35. Kint, Jason. “Op-Ed: The Russia ad story isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about Google, too.” Washington Post. October 31, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-ad-story-isnt-just-about-facebook-its-about-google-too/2017/10/31/061055da-be5d-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.a25e7ef4c417
  36. Kint, Jason. “Op-Ed: The Russia ad story isn’t just about Facebook. It’s about Google, too.” Washington Post. October 31, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-russia-ad-story-isnt-just-about-facebook-its-about-google-too/2017/10/31/061055da-be5d-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.a25e7ef4c417
  37. Kint, Jason. “OPINION: EUROPE’S STRICT NEW PRIVACY RULES ARE SCARY BUT RIGHT.” AdAge. May 25, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/europe-s-strict-privacy-rules-terrifying-apple/309155/?CSAuthResp=1527097777170:0:2380599:0:24:success:8C406F9084E8AEAFD6880559FDC752D5
  38. Kint, Jason. “OPINION: EUROPE’S STRICT NEW PRIVACY RULES ARE SCARY BUT RIGHT.” AdAge. May 25, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/europe-s-strict-privacy-rules-terrifying-apple/309155/?CSAuthResp=1527097777170:0:2380599:0:24:success:8C406F9084E8AEAFD6880559FDC752D5
  39. Marshall, Jack. “GDPR is ‘a significant risk to Facebook and Google’: A Digiday+ Slack town hall with DCN’s Jason Kint.” Digiday. April 19, 2018. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digiday.com/media/gdpr-significant-risk-facebook-google-digiday-slack-town-hall-dcns-jason-kint/
  40. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  41. Kint, Jason. “OPINION: EUROPE’S STRICT NEW PRIVACY RULES ARE SCARY BUT RIGHT.” AdAge. May 25, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/europe-s-strict-privacy-rules-terrifying-apple/309155/?CSAuthResp=1527097777170:0:2380599:0:24:success:8C406F9084E8AEAFD6880559FDC752D5
  42. Kint, Jason. “Ad Blocking: No, we haven’t won.” Digital Content Next. February 16, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2017/02/16/ad-blocking-no-havent-won/
  43. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  44. Kint, Jason. “On Lions and Lambs.” Digital Content Next. April 1, 2015. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2015/04/01/on-lions-and-lambs/
  45. Kint, Jason. “Letter to The Honorable Tom Wheeler.” Digital Content Next. February 26, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://digitalcontentnext.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DCN-Comments-to-FCC-re-Sec-222-final.pdf
  46. Accessed May 22, 2018.  https://www.axios.com/digital-media-companies-net-neutrality-rules-help-us-compete-1513304228-a248d6d6-ccb1-4ddf-926d-ee218b359a60.html
  47. Kint, Jason. “Comments of Digital Content Next: Before the Federal Communications Commission.” Federal Communications Commission. WC Docket No. 17-108. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1071793889859/DCNCommentsonFCCNNNPRM-signed%5B1%5D.pdf
  48. Patel, Nilay and Popper, Ben. “Oath isn’t just a terrible name — it’s going to be a nightmare ad-tracking machine.” The Verge. April 5, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15180622/oath-aol-yahoo-verizon-ad-tracking-privacy
  49. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  50. Kint, Jason. “Facebook, Google and now Verizon are accelerating their tracking efforts despite consumers’ privacy concerns.” Recode. November 21, 2016. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.recode.net/2016/11/21/13692250/verizon-competing-facebook-google-isp-tracking-consumers-personal-data
  51. Kint, Jason. “OPINION: EUROPE’S STRICT NEW PRIVACY RULES ARE SCARY BUT RIGHT.” AdAge. May 25, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/europe-s-strict-privacy-rules-terrifying-apple/309155/?CSAuthResp=1527097777170:0:2380599:0:24:success:8C406F9084E8AEAFD6880559FDC752D5
  52. Patel, Nilay and Popper, Ben. “Oath isn’t just a terrible name — it’s going to be a nightmare ad-tracking machine.” The Verge. April 5, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15180622/oath-aol-yahoo-verizon-ad-tracking-privacy
  53. Patel, Nilay and Popper, Ben. “Oath isn’t just a terrible name — it’s going to be a nightmare ad-tracking machine.” The Verge. April 5, 2017. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/5/15180622/oath-aol-yahoo-verizon-ad-tracking-privacy
  54. Jason Kint Contribution. Hillary For America. Federal Election Commission. July 29, 2016; Jason Kint Contribution. Hillary Victory Fund. Federal Election Commission. July 29, 2016
  55. Jason Kint Twitter Post. Twitter.com. August 3, 2016. 10:10 P.M. Accessed May 22, 2018. https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/761021431765307394
  56. GU Politics. “ICYMI: IJ.com, Georgetown IPPS team up to Hack The Debate.” Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service. November 16, 2015. Accessed May 22, 2018. http://politics.georgetown.edu/press-releases/icymi-ij-com-georgetown-ipps-team-up-to-hack-the-debate/

Connected Organizations

  1. Digital Content Next (Non-profit)
    Chief Executive Officer
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