Got something?

I cover ad tech fraud, programmatic economics, and holding company structures. Which is a polite way of saying I spend my working life reading filings other people hoped nobody would read.If you know something, here is how to reach me.

TIPS

WhatsApp: [+1 505 932 9060]

Fastest way to reach me. Messages are encrypted end to end, but WhatsApp requires both of us to have each other's phone numbers, and Meta retains a record that we spoke even though it cannot read what we said. Good for quick contact. Not the right tool if being connected to me is itself the risk

.Email: [email protected]

Fine for most things. Not encrypted. Assume your employer can read it if you send from a work account, because they usually can.

If the risk is serious, say so on WhatsApp without saying anything else, and we will move to a channel that does not tie your phone number to mine. Do not send documents first and ask about security after.

What to send: documents, filings, org charts, decks, screenshots, contracts, the internal memo that made you close your laptop and stare at the wall. Context helps. Documents help more.What happens next: I read everything. I do not reply to everything, and silence is not disinterest, it is often verification taking longer than you would like. If I am going to use something, I will come back to you first.

HOW I HANDLE SOURCES

You choose the terms before you talk, not after. On the record, on background, off the record. Say which one at the start and I will hold to it.I do not name sources who asked not to be named. I do not describe you in a way that identifies you by process of elimination, and if the only possible description would identify you, I will tell you that rather than run it and hope.I do not confirm to a company that a leak came from inside, and I do not repeat back the specific documents I was given when I put questions to them.If you are worried about being identified, tell me what you are worried about. Sometimes the fix is easy and I would rather hear it before publication than after.

FOR COMPANIES AND COMMUNICATIONS TEAMS

Press and right of reply: Every company and executive named in a critical characterization gets contacted before publication where practicable. Responses run inline. Declining runs inline too, described accurately as a declination rather than as silence.If you want to correct something already published, send it with specifics. Receipts get corrections. Complaints get read.Corrections are logged, dated, and never made silently. The record lives on the [corrections page].What I do not do: copy approval, advance drafts, quote approval, or agreeing to a framing before reporting it out. Nobody gets to read the piece before you read the piece.

PITCHES

Editorial pitches: am open to arguments I disagree with and reporting I did not do myself. I am not open to a product announcement wearing a trench coat.If your pitch contains the phrase "thought leadership," we are going to have a hard time.

ADVERTISING AND PARTNERSHIPS

Sponsorship: ADOTAT is funded by subscriptions and reader support. There is no paid placement in editorial, ever. Sponsored content is labeled as sponsored, and the label says what the sponsor did and did not control. Buying an ad does not buy coverage, buy silence, or buy a phone call before publication. Several people have tested this. It went badly for them and well for readers.

THE PERSON YOU ARE EMAILING

Pesach Lattin is an investigative journalist and the publisher of ADOTAT. He has covered the advertising industry for over two decades, which is long enough to have watched most of these business models get invented, oversold, and quietly restructured.

ADOTAT is independent. It publishes uncomfortable findings regardless of PR fallout, including uncomfortable findings about its own prior reporting.