Episode 75: Brave's JP Schmetz: ‘Publishers Need to Get Their Act Together'

JP Schmetz, Chief of Search and Ads at Brave, joins Alan Chapell to debate the questions that most browser executives won't touch on the record. Should publishers stop outsourcing ad sales to Meta and Google? Is "first-party vs. third-party" a meaningful distinction to users — or a convenient line Brave draws to justify default blocking? Alan pushes back. JP pushes back harder. Featuring references to Jason Kint at DCN, GPC defaults, The Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) report covering data sharing pursuant to the DOJ Search remedies (among other items), and why rooting against the AI investment cycle is, by default, rooting for Google to win everything again.

The KGI Report on data sharing is available at

https://kgi.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Designing_the_Technical_Committee_Report_KGI-FINAL-April-2026.pdf.

Sumit Sharma’s Report on Data Sharing is available at

https://insights.sumitsharma.consulting/p/google-search-remedies-implementation

The Chapell Regulatory Insider is available at

https://chapellreport.substack.com/

Takeaways

- Brave believes browsers should prioritize users over advertisers.

- JP argues Google’s monopoly power comes from distribution and monetization.

- Brave blocks third-party requests by default for privacy reasons.

- Alan and JP debate the merits of blocking ads in the name of privacy.