Who is Pesach Lattin?
Investigative journalist and publisher of ADOTAT, based in Phoenix, Arizona. He covers ad fraud, measurement and where advertising money actually goes.
Names
He writes and publishes as Pesach Lattin. He is also known as Pace Lattin. Both names refer to the same person.
What he does now
- Publisher of ADOTAT, investigative reporting on ad tech fraud, programmatic economics, TV measurement and holding companies. More on ADOTAT.
- Host of The ADOTAT Show, long-form interviews with people who run the advertising business.
- Writer of Unmeasured, ADOTAT's newsletter on TV and streaming measurement, and Pace Notes on IndustryPace, a weekday column that expands ADOTAT reporting.
- Principal of ANIA, a privately held, independent intelligence firm serving law enforcement. ANIA is not a government agency.
Background
Investigator first
Before advertising, he worked in investigations. In the 1990s he worked for the U.S. Secret Service as a contract special investigator and was one of the first members of the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force, the cybercrime unit the Secret Service built in New York. He wrote a computer forensics manual the Secret Service has used, and in 2001 worked out of the Secret Service's New York office at 7 World Trade Center. He was a member of IACIS, the computer forensics association.
Twenty years in the advertising business
- Future Games Network (1990s): an advertising game network he built and sold. It is how he got into advertising.
- An early digital rep firm (1990s), selling online advertising for publishers.
- Vizi (late 2000s): CEO of the ad network. In 2009 he saw the crash coming, said so publicly and got out.
- LeadsCon: co-founder of the lead generation conference.
- Industry events: produced the official party program at MediaPost's OMMA and the official dinners at ad:tech for years.
- Performance Marketing Insider (2011 to 2020): publisher of the affiliate and lead generation trade site, now archived at IndustryPace.
Why he covers ad fraud
He describes himself as not a trained journalist. He came to reporting after years publishing trade magazines and running companies in the industry he now covers, and decided to put his investigative background to use. That history is also why he discloses so much: he has known many of today's ad tech executives for about twenty years, many as competitors. See the disclosures page.
Education
Brooklyn College. He keeps its motto, Nil Sine Magno Labore, "nothing without great labor," as a personal standard.
Contact
pesach@lattin.us or 505-932-9060. Tips about ad tech fraud are welcome and can be confidential.