Stagwell has launched a private marketplace (PMP) in support of its Future of News initiative.
Called Stagwell News Network, it aims to give clients unique access to publishers. The PMP has eight publisher launch partners: the Associated Press, Newsweek, Nexstar, National Public Media, RealClearPolitics, Ozone (itself comprising premium UK and global publishers), The Washington Post and Time.
The challenger agency network has committed to increasing adspend in news media by 22% this year amid a wider effort to convince marketers and other agency leaders of the business case for investing in quality news media.
Publishers have come under duress amid changes to search — namely the institution of Google AI Overviews and other generative search results — that have had substantial negative impact on referral traffic.
Stagwell out to prove business case for investing in news
Alongside the launch of the Stagwell News Network, the group has released new research from its consultancy, HarrisX, that found foregoing advertising with news publishers resulted in a clear loss in campaign reach and effectiveness by failing to target what it has categorised as “news junkies” and “exclusive news junkies”.
News junkies, which comprise 80.4m US adults (30.2% of the total population) according to the study, follow the news “very closely”. This group was found to view brands more positively than less engaged audiences across seven key brand and reputation metrics, such as purchase intent and trustworthiness.
When testing purchase intent for 20 brand ads (across a variety of sectors), HarrisX found that news junkies averaged 66% purchase intent compared with 50% among the general population.
Exclusive news junkies, meanwhile, comprise 36.8m US adults (13.8% of the population); they follow the news “very closely” but do not closely follow sports or entertainment news.
The rate of growth of exclusive news junkies rose three percentage points in the US last year, and both this group and the broader news junkies reported following the news more closely today than they did a year ago.
“Campaigns including news in the media mix consistently outperform those that forego news,” explained Stagwell chairman and CEO Mark Penn.
“And as the population of exclusive news junkies expands, brands that ignore news advertising are missing the opportunity to drive real results.”
