Stagwell out to prove business case for investing in news
“If newsrooms cannot subsidise their work, if we can’t have investigative journalism, if we can’t have journalists out in the field every day covering the stories of consequence that are going to shape the history of this world, then we don’t have the ability to know what’s going on. We can’t be informed citizenry.”
At an event last week hosted by Stagwell, Alexis Williams, Stagwell’s chief corporate affairs officer and Future of News initiative lead, laid out how the company is fighting against what it believes is a systemic underfunding of quality journalism by advertisers.
“I know that sounds lofty,” she admitted. “But I think the intersection of advertising and news really sits at this moment. We see this as a huge opportunity to re-engage with news and help news elevate itself.”
The Future of News UK summit, which was held at Stagwell’s EMEA headquarters in London’s Blue Fin building, was the second of its kind in the UK. Attendees included commercial staff from major UK and global publishers, including the Financial Times, Politico, CNN, National World and The Times.
It coincided with a new commitment from the challenger agency holding group to increase its adspend in news media by 22% year on year — although Stagwell did not reveal precisely how much spend such an increase would equate to.
According to James Townsend, Stagwell’s EMEA CEO, the estimated 22% growth follows a 30% increase in investment towards news media from Stagwell in 2024.
Proving business outcomes
The intention to grow news media investment is part of an initiative kick-started by Stagwell in May 2024 to research the moral and business arguments for supporting quality news publishers with advertising.
Last year, research from Stagwell agency HarrisX found that it is brand-safe to advertise adjacent to news content, regardless of topic, undermining long-held beliefs that brands should automatically pull advertising from news articles on subjects often perceived as controversial, such as politics and crime.
Now, Stagwell is seeking to prove that investing in trusted publishers is good for brands’ business outcomes, given publishers’ premium ad environments and unique audience profiles.
Townsend hinted that the group would release new research in the next 12 weeks on how news can be a “catalyst” for effective media buying. Later this year, Stagwell will also be conducting research on how different brand categories can benefit from adjacency to news content.
The work is part of a strategy to give media planners and buyers specific data they can use to back up investment in news media, moving beyond mere ethical arguments for supporting journalism.
Not just a moral case
Despite the release of the original Future of News report last year, publishers have continued to have their work demonetised by tactics such as keyword blocklists and a persistent underfunding of news media relative to social media platforms.
On a panel chaired by ex-BBC presenter Joanna Gosling, Rob Bradley, a senior vice-president at Warner Bros Discovery who leads CNN International’s digital commercial strategy, said it “hurts” to see advertisers block spending on CNN over brand-safety concerns, but spend more on platforms where there’s even less content moderation.
Gideon Spanier, UK editor-in-chief of Campaign, added that in reducing spend with news publishers, advertisers “have forgotten their social responsibility”.
But according to Townsend, while there is a strong moral case in favour of supporting news, “the business case is equally and perhaps even more compelling”.
Stagwell has sought to distinguish itself from larger holding groups in part by driving media investment towards premium environments that attract hard-to-find audiences. “News is pretty much the bull’s-eye” for such a strategy, Townsend explained.
Disconnect between C-suite and media buyers
Separately, Williams presented research from a new survey of EMEA CEOs, conducted by HarrisX, that found widespread support for journalism among business leaders.
According to the study, 85% said they believe advertising on news media is a good investment, with 86% believing advertising on news media will have the greatest positive reputational impact among the general public and financial investors.
Seven in 10 (71%), meanwhile, indicated that they believe brand-safety efforts have been over-applied, although just 9% agreed safety protocols should not be used at all.
“CEOs, CMOs see [news media] as something they not only need to do their day-to-day job, but also as a place where their brands can show up in a really positive way,” said Williams.
She added that in conversations with CEOs and CMOs, they have generally been “shocked” to be told that 40-50% of news content could be blocked automatically by keyword blocklists before they even have a chance to advertise against it.
Ozone CEO Damon Reeve argued during the event that the disconnect between C-suite and their brand’s media buyers has occurred primarily because adtech has “disintermediated most of the decision-making” around where digital media spend goes. He suggested that “layers of tech” get in between advertisers’ support of news.
Asking the right questions
In a separate interview with The Media Leader, Williams, who previously worked in journalism for a decade (primarily for Politico), explained: “The truth is, if you’re running a multinational company, you’re probably not getting down into the weeds of exactly how your advertising dollars are being spent. Maybe you have broad strokes, but you’re probably not aware of that behaviour.”
For the initial wave of Stagwell’s Future of News initiative, the group has thus focused on raising awareness at the C-suite level of where ad dollars are being spent by their brand. She suggested CEOs ask their CMOs how much they advertise in news, with which publishers and how the investment is performing, among other questions.
But Williams noted that such a “top-down” strategy is only part of the puzzle; a “bottom-up” effort of enlisting media planners and buyers to embrace news media is also core to Stagwell’s future efforts.
“If people from the top are not advocating for behavioural change, and if the people writing the plans aren’t implementing the change, then there won’t be change,” she stated.
Earlier this year, Stagwell facilitated a Dragons’ Den-style “publisher showcase” at its office, where it welcomed 16 publishers to pitch to brands why they should invest in their outlets. Stagwell invited attendees not only from its agencies and clients, but also other media buying groups, like Publicis and WPP’s GroupM.
Stagwell is hoping that, by publicising its commitment to increase adspend for news media and open-sourcing its effectiveness research, other agency groups will be inspired to follow suit for their clients. But Williams noted that “calcified behaviours” need to be combated if publishers are to be adequately supported industry-wide.
“How do we institutionalise the behaviour shift?” Williams asked. “That’s really what we’re focusing on this year.”