Cannes reflections: Contradictions and opportunities for publishers on the Croisette

Opinion
Publishers made a strong business case for investing in news at Cannes this year amid changes to search and developments in AI. But paradoxes remain over brand safety, sustainability, and economic realities.
It’s not easy being a publisher at Cannes Lions.
Platforms, tech providers and retail media dominate the Croisette with huge budgets, agencies are increasingly distracted by their own uncertain future, and clients are kept sedated by glitzy but mostly irrelevant parties. Executives in their mid-50s prostrating themselves to try and get tickets to see Cardi B is what Cannes Lions is all about.
That said, there were reasons for optimism this year. Quality publishers are increasingly collaborating to champion the value of the news category as a whole — this was evident at sessions organised by AdWeek, RTL AdAlliance, Stagwell and others, as well as WMG’s own Editors’ Perspective panel.
Mostly these conversations focused on the brand building power of quality news environments, and their ability to reach the most premium audiences, the so-called ‘News Junkies’ identified by Stagwell, that are both a significant size audience (25% of the US market) and also largely not reached by entertainment or sports buys.
Moving beyond altruism
Notably, the conversation in 2025 has pivoted to focus very clearly on the business benefits of advertising in news. At a roundtable organised by CNN, the conversation was squarely about the commercial benefits of a fast-moving, high-interest editorial environment. And clients from the insurance, technology and automotive sectors were all keen to highlight the value that environment had delivered for the business.
This pivot should be celebrated and embraced — Cannes Lions is after all an advertising festival, and keeping the conversation focused on how to run better ad campaigns seems a better approach than the altruistic appeals of previous years (“spend with us to save democracy!”). Marketers don’t owe any media channel anything, and are free to spend their money however they wish (despite X’s novel approach of ‘buy-or-we’ll-sue‘…).
Two other trends are changing the conversation around the value of news environments. The first is the growth of “AI slop”, which is already ruining campaign measurement tools faster than agencies can keep up.
In a world where lousy content is easier to create than ever before, the value of quality journalism will hugely increase, especially in the business area or in any areas requiring a high degree of confidence in the facts. This may not help mid-market or tabloid publishers, but premium international brands will likely benefit.
The other key change has been the introduction of Google’s AI summaries in search’s results. The impact of this was a key theme at Brian Morrissey’s People vs Algorithms live podcast recording, with Neil Vogel, CEO DotDash Meredith speaking passionately both about the theft of IP carried out by Google’s AI scrapers, and the need for publishers to plan for “Google Zero” — a world where none of their site traffic originates with Google.
One consequence of that decrease in traffic would be that publishers would be forced to pivot away from programmatic display advertising. This has driven several DSPs and other tech vendors associated with publishers to (belatedly) wake up and start promoting the value of news environments.
The Trade Desk and Teads have both been banging the drum for the value of news for several years, and were noticeable around Cannes with practical, technology-based solutions to try and increase the revenue heading to quality publishers. Others entering the conversation were more surprising — several publishers raised an ironic eyebrow when they heard that DoubleVerify, responsible for a huge decrease in publisher revenue over the last few years, is busy reinventing itself as a saviour of news.
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Incongruities abound
In a positive shift, aside from the CEOs appearing on feel-good panels, there is a gradual increase in the number of forums for those at the coalface to meet and work on solutions. Beeler.Tech brought together a collective of US publishers to talk specifically about solutions, and the heated debate quickly got into more practical, technical solutions than the standard platitudes. This is definitely the way forward for publishers, and the best chance of positive change.
The dominance of US media in the room (as at many rooms across Cannes this week) does raise the question of how other parts of the world can adapt. European publishers would do well to start sharing ideas now, before the market becomes as challenging as it already is in the US.
So, as ever, it was a Cannes of contradictions. Quality news publishers are mired in conversations around brand safety, while social platforms filled with hate speech, pro-anorexia content or crypto scams are celebrated. Sustainability is quietly ignored while young consumers around the world consistently highlight it as a key driver of their decision making. And all talk is about a bright AI-driven future rather than the tough economic years businesses and consumers face thanks to new global trade policies.
Despite all that, the festival remains the fastest way to take the temperature of the industry, and for publishers to raise awareness of the value that they offer to marketers smart enough to invest with them.
We just might need to book Cardi B to get their attention.
Jamie Credland is CEO of World Media Group, a strategic alliance of international media organisations.
Its members include BBC News, Business Insider, CNN International, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, The New York Times Company, Politico Europe, Reuters, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, associate member The Atlantic, and partners Brand Metrics and Dianomi.