DAM Cowboy is for the operators.

I started DAM Cowboy in 2026 because the operator side of digital asset management does not have a publication of its own. Trade press covers vendors. Vendor blogs cover their own products. Consultants write to win the next deal. None of that is bad, but none of it is written from the seat where the work happens.

The Roundup is the weekly newsletter. The directories are the field map. The tools (Metadata Quality Score, Taxonomy Builder, and what comes next) are the working instruments. All of it is built for one person: the operator inside a real organization who has to make the library actually work on Monday morning.

Editorial principles

These rules are public so you can hold us to them.

1. Citation is a feature

Every Roundup story names its source and links to it. We never claim someone else's reporting as our own. When we are wrong, we correct in public.

2. No pay-to-rank

Directory placement is editorial. No vendor pays for higher rank in the Platforms directory. No firm pays for higher rank in Professional Services. The Recommender (when it launches) operates on structural match, not paid signal. Sponsorship, when it exists, is labeled.

3. Plain language

No jargon for jargon's sake. No buzzwords. No emojis. No em dashes. We do not use the words robust, leverage, unlock, transformative, or comprehensive. Plain English does the work.

4. Specific over general

Replace adjectives with nouns. Not "powerful metadata tool" but "scores 12,000 assets in 90 seconds." If we cannot put a number, a source, or a name on a claim, the claim is too soft to publish.

5. The reader is a peer

We assume you know what a taxonomy is. We do not lecture. We do not flatter. We do not pad. If a sentence does not earn its place, it gets cut.

Who runs this

DAM Cowboy is run by Casey Templeton, founder of Stacks, the digital asset management consultancy. Stacks helps organizations evaluate and select DAM platforms, build scalable programs across people, process, and platform, implement and migrate libraries, and run ongoing DAM governance and support. DAM Cowboy is an editorially independent publication operated by Casey. Stacks is listed in the Professional Services directory when that launches, treated the same as every other firm.

Where a Stacks blog post is genuinely relevant to a story or article, we link to it. Those links are styled like body text so the reader is not pitched. They exist because the underlying content is useful, not because Stacks paid for placement.

What we will not do

Some explicit nos.

• We will not sell or share your email with anyone. The newsletter list is operated through Loops and is not sold, rented, or syndicated.
• We will not run cold or autoplay video ads.
• We will not write "sponsored content" that reads like editorial. Sponsored placements, when they exist, are labeled plainly.
• We will not let reviews or vendor pressure influence the Recommender's match logic.
• We will not use AI to write final copy in our voice without human review. The Wednesday draft generator drafts; an operator approves.

Get in touch

Reach me at casey@damcowboy.com, or use the contact form. For listing inquiries, product launches, or anything you think belongs in the Roundup, the same address works.