Albertsons Media Collective Loses Its Leader As The Retail Media Bet Stalls

Digiday reports Brian Monahan, hired in late July 2025 to head up Albertsons Media Collective, has left the company, with the retail media business now reporting to chief marketing officer Emily Turner rather than to a dedicated leader. Monahan came from Dentsu, where he led retail media solutions, and oversaw the launch of Albertsons' incrementality-based multi-touch attribution product and a scripted branded entertainment offering. Albertsons did not say whether the role will be refilled, and an agency executive speaking anonymously told Digiday the change is "perhaps a larger indicator of the crossroads long tail RMNs find themselves": "our sense is that the RMN side hasn't grown at the pace they had hoped... it doesn't appear to have reached the scale they were aiming for." Retail media is a bright spot in an otherwise soft quarter, with digital sales up 13% while identical sales fell 0.8%.