Data shows advertising on news brings major benefits to ad performance. So why don’t brands advertise on news?

As advertisers plan their 2025 campaigns, it’s time to reincorporate news.

Hailey O’Connor | February 2025

News advertising poses challenges for the ad industry as related to placements alongside unsafe or unsuitable content. Yet, brands waste more than $2.6 billion annually on unreliable sites publishing low-quality news, AI content farms, and “Made-for-Advertising” sites (MFAs).

At the same time, advertisers can’t afford to miss out on the “halo effect” — the brand boost that comes from appearing on quality news outlets with highly engaged audiences. Data overwhelmingly shows that brands that can advertise on the right kind of news content benefit from more efficient spending and higher response rates.

The result is a binary standoff of sorts. Many brands avoid news altogether. Others inadvertently risk brand safety and waste their spend on ad placements adjacent to low-quality news. 

Multiple studies and insights from top advertisers indicate that brands don’t have to choose between blocking news and compromising brand safety. And top executives think so too — 87 percent of them call it a sound investment to reach and influence stakeholders, and 75 percent say their companies should advertise in news more. With thoughtful planning and the right protections in place, brands can advertise on news without risk.  Here’s how:

Brand Safety Doesn’t Mean Avoiding News

A common misconception is that news websites are inherently risky for advertisers, leading some brands to opt only for ad placements on lifestyle content, entertainment, and other “light” topics.

However, research shows that ads on high-trust news sites impressively outperform ads on non-news websites.

A study from U.K.-based media organization Newsworks found that brands that advertise on trusted news platforms experience 1.5 times higher perceived trust compared to those advertising elsewhere. And this number is especially important as “trust as a brand metric has risen significantly in importance” over the last few years. Why? Because news brands are often seen as more credible and authoritative, causing a “halo effect” on brands advertising beside trusted journalism.

Through extensive interviews with both experts and consumers, as well as surveys with over 10,000 people in which trust was evaluated in more than 150 brands, Newsworks’ research assessed the growing importance of brand trust. Their researchers found that campaigns using news brands were overall 52 percent more effective in six key business pillars — including market share, pricing power and profit growth — than those on non-news sites between 2018 and 2022.

NewsGuard’s own experience working with brands has corroborated these findings, as demonstrated by a case study involving a Fortune 500 brand that expanded its advertising to thousands of high-quality news sources using NewsGuard ratings. The company’s licensing of NewsGuard data ultimately led to a 20 percent increase in reach, a nine percent reduction in CPMs, and a 143 percent boost in click-through rates across all key campaign metrics.

The Trust Factor

News websites offer a rare combination of credibility and engagement. As misinformation continues to proliferate online, consumers are more likely to trust ads placed on reputable news sites than on other platforms.

The challenge for advertisers, then, is not whether to advertise on news sites, but how to ensure their ads appear alongside reliable, trustworthy content. The Association of National Advertisers estimates that the average programmatic ad campaign appears on 40,000 websites, meaning CEOs and CMOs have no idea where their ads are running. The ANA estimates this results in $22 billion in wasted programming ad spending. For example, since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, NewsGuard has been tracking 88 websites promoting Russian disinformation. Notably, 79 brands unintentionally fund these sites. Programmatic advertising can inadvertently associate brands with controversial or inappropriate content, so brands must ensure their ads appear only on reputable platforms.

NewsGuard offers advertisers apolitical publisher reliability data that can help brands target reliable news publishers while avoiding news that does not meet the advertiser’s suitability guidelines. For advertisers avoiding news altogether, one simple low-risk option is to start with a news “inclusion list” that places ads only on a certain list of human-vetted sites, ensuring ads will appear only on those generally reliable websites—not on Russian disinformation, AI-generated content farms, or hoax sites. Our publisher reliability data covers news publishers of all kinds—digital only, print and broadcast, conservative and liberal, global and local, and sites serving particular communities of interest—enabling brands to apply inclusion lists that reach a broad and engaged audience.

In fact, 81 percent of Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) survey respondents agreed that advertising on responsible news journalism platforms positively impacts an advertiser’s brand. A recent Fortune article reiterates this: of 1,500 Americans polled in November 2024, “65% of Americans said it’s important for companies to advertise in news, and 66% have a more positive perception of companies that do so.” And, perhaps more tellingly, over two-thirds of global leaders believe brand safety measures have become excessive, ultimately harming both media organizations and advertisers.

The perception of these global leaders is accurate. The decline in advertising support for quality news publishers is dramatic: In 1980, 62 percent of all advertising went to newspapers and magazines, helping to ensure that journalism was well funded. But in 2024, according to the Group M advertising agency, advertising across all news websites was just 1.28 percent of the total.

How do brands know which news sites are trustworthy and most in line with their suitability standards? NewsGuard identifies trusted news sites by providing detailed reliability ratings for more than 35,000 news and information sources worldwide. The ratings are compiled by a team of journalists using transparent, apolitical journalistic criteria and a rating process that offers publishers a chance to respond to or rectify any issues identified.

Advertisers can use these ratings to target ad placements on news sources across the political spectrum that align with their safety and suitability goals — without the risk of inadvertently placing ads on MFAs, AI content farms, or low-quality news sites with a record of publishing disinformation.

NewsGuard’s ratings can also be used to create custom advertiser segments, activated through simple curated pre-bid offerings in major DSPs and contextual platforms, or utilized through an ad agency team.

When it comes to high-quality news sites, the specific content category has minimal impact on advertising effectiveness. This finding is backed by Stagwell’s “The Future of News” research, which reveals compelling data about ad performance across different types of news content. The study found that “Ads placed adjacent to stories covering politics or gun shootings perform as effectively as ads placed next to a positive business story, on par with spots and entertainment,” demonstrating a minimal difference in consumer response; there’s only a four-percentage-point gap in buyer intent between “safe” content and impactful news coverage. Specifically, ads next to sports stories generated 69 percent buyer intent, compared to 65 percent for ads alongside articles about the Middle East conflict — a statistically insignificant difference.

An Alternative to “Sledgehammer” Blocklists

Advertisers have long used keyword blocklists to prevent their campaigns from running alongside potentially risky or controversial words, such as “shoot” or “poverty.” The IAB reports one in three ad buys have blocked the entire news category for a period of time. However, these overly broad blocklists can systematically reduce advertising revenue for news coverage about marginalized communities and critical social issues, effectively creating financial barriers to meaningful journalism.

While keyword-based brand safety tools have become standard practice in the industry, they often act as blunt instruments, blocking legitimate content and leading brands to miss out on valuable advertising opportunities. For example, according to The Media Leader, nearly half of Reach Publications’ coverage of the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship was blocked by automated tools simply because the word “shoot” appeared in the headline. This highlights the need for more sophisticated and nuanced brand safety solutions — ones that can distinguish between a soccer shot and a gun shot.

Advertising on trusted news sites isn’t just a smart strategy — it’s the future of responsible, effective advertising. This shift is already evident: Recent Stagwell research reveals that 86 percent of executives believe companies should advertise on news, suggesting that corporate leaders view news outlets as valuable advertising channels. In 2025, elevate your brand’s reputation and advertising by supporting high-quality journalism.

By leveraging NewsGuard’s tools, advertisers can confidently place their ads on trusted news websites, knowing that they are supporting responsible journalism while protecting their brands from the risks of misinformation.

Advertising with NewsGuard unlocks:

• • Premium inventory at lower CPMs, driving significant cost efficiencies
  • Highly engaged news audiences across the political spectrum
  • Quality environments that boost campaign performance and generate results
  • Brand integrity and content alignment that creates opportunities rather than restrictions

To learn more about our offerings for advertising and brand safety, click here or contact us at [email protected].