The Media Leader has joined The News Alliance, a cross-industry coalition that aims to encourage greater advertising investment in trusted journalism.
The title joins alongside independent agency Craft Media as the latest members of the group.
The alliance was launched in March 2025 to demonstrate the benefits of regulated and professionaly-produced news media to advertisers and agencies. Its priorities include championing trusted journalism, increasing investment in news environments, reassessing brand safety in the context of news, and reviewing advertising block lists to ensure quality journalism is not inadvertently excluded from ad campaigns.
“Adwanted Media (The Media Leader‘s parent), is a trusted, challenging voice in the advertising industry, while Craft Media is an agency dedicated to solving client problems through brilliant comms planning,” Sarah Jones, director of planning at Sky Media and chair of the Alliance, commented. “We’re delighted that both have joined our growing coalition at a time when the Alliance’s mission is more pressing than ever.”
In March, the alliance released research that found advertisers and their agencies generally view news organisations as highly trustworthy mediums, but brand safety concerns and political sensitivies nevertheless persist. This is despite a host of research from the likes of Bountiful Cow and Stagwell that has found advertising adjacent to news media is both brand safety and effective, regardless of topic.
While the overall UK ad market grew 6.4% in 2025, according to the latest AA/Warc figures, published media declined. Both national (-4.6%) and regional (-6.0%) news brands, as well as magazine brands (-5.1%) saw drops in ad investment across both their print and online formats.
The Media Leader’s content director, James Longhurst, added: “As an industry news provider dedicated to championing media excellence and helping people in the industry do their jobs better, we understand first-hand the value that quality journalism brings.
“The research findings from The News Alliance reflect something we hear consistently, that belief in news media’s power and effectiveness too rarely translates into the investment it deserves.”
Longhurst continued: “We are proud to join a coalition that is working to change that, and we look forward to highlighting the power of trusted news on our pages and stages.”
Sally Weavers, co-founder of Craft Media, said: “Craft is vehemently anti-ultra-processed planning, to the point that we have written a book on it. The agenda of The News Alliance absolutely fits with our planning ethos, and we are proud to support them.”
The News Alliance’s other members include Bountiful Cow, the British Society of Magazine Editors, Campaign, Craft Media, Daivid, Ebiquity, Havas Media Network, Haymarket Automotive, Media Lab, Newsworks, Ozone, the Professional Publishers’ Alliance, Radiocentre, Sky Media, the7stars, Thinkbox and World Media Group.
News media ‘trusted in theory but not in practice’ as agencies and advertisers remain wary of brand safety
