Setting Up Your Publisher Profile

Before you begin

To create a publisher on The Taurus, you need an account and an organisation. If you have not signed up yet, create your account first and then set up an organisation for your media company. The publisher entity lives within your organisation, so anyone on your team with the appropriate role can access and manage it.

Creating a new publisher

1. Sign in to The Taurus and navigate to your organisation's dashboard.
2. Open the Publisher section in the navigation.
3. Click Create Publisher to start setting up your profile.

You will be asked for the following information:

Name

Enter the name of your media organisation as it is known to your advertisers. This is the name that appears in The Taurus when advertisers interact with your publisher profile. Use your official publication name -- for example, "Berliner Tagblatt" rather than "Tagblatt Medien GmbH" (though you may use the legal name if that is how your clients know you).

Publisher type

Select the type that best describes your primary medium:

If your organisation operates across multiple media types -- for example, a newspaper with both print and online editions -- choose the type that represents your primary operation. You can note your additional channels in other settings.

Website

Enter your organisation's website URL. This helps advertisers identify your publisher profile and is displayed on your public profile page.

Contact information

Provide the contact details that advertisers and authorities can use to reach your ad operations or compliance team. This should be a monitored email address and, optionally, a phone number.

Setting your vanity URL

Every publisher can claim a vanity URL slug -- a short, memorable identifier that becomes part of your public profile URL. The slug must be at least five characters long and can contain letters, numbers, and hyphens.

For example, if you choose the slug berliner-tagblatt, your publisher profile will be accessible at a clean, branded URL that you can share with advertisers and include in your communications.

Choose something recognisable and consistent with your brand. The slug must be unique across all publishers on The Taurus, so common terms may already be taken.

Configuring notice defaults

One of the most useful features of the publisher profile is the ability to set notice defaults. These are values that automatically pre-fill when a transparency notice is created through your publisher -- saving your advertisers time and reducing errors.

You can configure the following defaults:

Default channel

Set the primary distribution channel for ads you publish. For a print newspaper, this would be the print channel. For an online publication, the online channel. This value pre-fills in the notice wizard so your advertisers do not have to select it manually each time.

Default language

Set the default language for transparency notices created through you. If you publish primarily in German, set this to German. The notice wizard will pre-select this language.

Default targeting settings

If your medium does not use personal data for targeting -- which is the case for most print, broadcast, and outdoor publishers -- you can set this as a default. This pre-fills the targeting section of the notice wizard, sparing your advertisers a step they would otherwise need to complete manually.

Default provider name

Set your organisation's name as the default publication service provider. This pre-fills in the notice wizard, ensuring consistency across all notices linked to your publisher.

QR code colours

Customise the default foreground and background colours for QR codes generated through your publisher. This allows you to maintain visual consistency across all the political ads you carry. Choose colours that provide strong contrast -- dark foreground on light background works best for reliable scanning.

You can set these colours once in your publisher profile, and every notice created through you will use them automatically. Individual notices can still override these defaults when needed.

After setup

Once your publisher profile is configured, you are ready to:

• Add advertisers -- create records for your political advertising clients with their identity, contact, payer, and controller information
• Create ad bookings -- set up individual ad records linked to transparency notices
• Send advertiser invites -- invite clients to fill in their details through an email-based workflow

Your publisher profile can be updated at any time. Navigate to your publisher settings to change any of the details or defaults you entered during setup.

A note on the setup page

The Taurus provides a dedicated setup page at /setup with step-by-step instructions for publishers. If you prefer guided instructions over this reference article, visit that page for a walkthrough of the full configuration process.