The article outlines the consequences of systematic advertising decline as a media-economic factor for the news industry. From describing the relation between audiences and advertiser markets as intertwined, we turn to programmatic advertising as a means to compete on the digital advertising market. We argue that news organizations are particularly well positioned to collect and analyze audience data and sell their advertising space on the programmatic advertising market. We discuss negative externalities for news organizations. It is shown that the change of the media economy is closely linked to the change of the advertising economy. Programmatic advertising has become crucial for news organizations in the digital age as suggested by heavy third-party cookie use that sophisticate datafication. Yet, programmatic advertising as an income source may come at costs for news brands. We conclude that news organizations play a risky datafication game with regard to audience trust.