Advertisers have always been somewhat hesitant to place their messages with hard news content. Due to the politicized nature of news coverage, it has seen a dramatic drop in advertising revenue, new data from WARC Media shows.
Globally, WARC projects that $32.3 billion will be spent on advertising inside hard news content in 2025. While that sounds like a massive figure, it is actually a decline of more than 33% since 2019 according to the latest Global Advertising Trends report.
Despite the attention that news content brings, many stories are often demonetized due to the nature of the content and advertising suitability standards are often rejected due to the content.
Alongside concerns about the content and brand safety advertising in news, marketers are now more likely to favor platforms like Google and Meta for scalable targeted ads.
“Brands have become increasingly squeamish about hard news content. Keyword blocking hinders the ability of publishers to monetize newsworthy moments, while ad investment is increasingly shifting from professional journalism to ‘creator-journalists,’” says WARC Media Head of Content Alex Brownsell. “In this Global Ad Trends report, we look at where the news media ad dollars are being allocated and what news brands are doing to combat these losses and win back advertisers.”
The data from WARC Media correlates with other data related to advertising revenue from other outlets. For instance, a study from Magellan AI suggests that of the first-time podcast advertisers in 2024, 27% purchased commercial time in the sports genre compared to only 17% buying the news format.
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