Newsbrand ad spend is forecast to fall to $32.3 billion in 2025, representing a 33.1% decrease from 2019, as publishers continue to struggle to convert audience numbers into ad dollars, according to WARC’s ‘Global Ad Trends report: Advertising’s breaking news problem.’
Growing brand hesitancy about being associated with serious, hard-hitting news stories, coupled with advertisers increasingly favouring user-generated content (UGC), is making it difficult for publishers and media owners to attract advertisers.
Only 3.7% (£177 million) of total UK TV ad spend was allocated to news programming in 2024, per Nielsen. Meanwhile, GroupM forecasts that less than half of content-driven ad spend will go toward professionally-produced content by next year.
“Brands have become increasingly squeamish about hard news content,” said Alex Brownsell, Head of Content at WARC Media. “Keyword blocking hinders the ability of publishers to monetise newsworthy moments, while ad investment is increasingly shifting from professional journalism to ‘creator-journalists.’”
Newsbrands are responding to the challenge they’re faced with by investing in technology, developing plans for AI, and building out multiplatform strategies, according to WARC. Publishers, such as Reach and News UK, have developed in-house solutions to avoid inappropriate blocking, while CNN has developed a neuro-linguistic AI tool that analyses context across text, audio, video, and galleries to assess brand suitability.
This is also seeing media agencies evolve their approach, with some introducing measures to better reflect the effectiveness of campaigns placed against professionally-produced content.
A recent survey of EMEA executives by agency group Stagwell found that 85% believe advertising on news media is a good investment. Furthermore, research by Newsworks and Peter Field found that campaigns placed in trusted news environments led to stronger business outcomes, including an 88% uplift in profit growth between 2018 and 2022.
