New research shows that while advertisers and agencies trust news platforms, they don’t trust them enough to invest in advertising.
A survey for The News Alliance, found that they weren’t able to overcome brand safety concerns and political sensitivities.
The organisation spoke to 140 media agencies and 27 advertising professionals at the end of last year.
Two thirds responded to say that they did believe that news media was a “trusted, reputable source”.
77% added that they did feel confident in recommending news media to their clients.
Slightly more than half of advertisers (57%) agreed that news media played a valuable role in long-term brand building strategies.
But at the same time 49% of agencies and 54% of advertisers admitted that news media was currently underutilised in their media plans
51% of all respondents said that clients were “wary” of news environments because of brand safety, while 45% said they’d previously excluded news, because of “assumed client bias.”
That assumed bias may indeed be correct as the survey found that 61% of advertisers described news as “too polarising” for brands.
READ MORE – Research – ads on local news sites outperform other digital media
The News Alliance is a cross-industry coalition of media businesses including Sky Media UK, The British Society of Magazine Editors, Havas, Ozone, Radiocentre, Haymarket and the7stars.
“This research is a vital first step in identifying the barriers to investment in trusted, professionally-produced news media,” said News Alliance Chair Sarah Jones.
“While trust underpins news media’s perceived value, it is too often undermined in the media planning process. In short, news is trusted in theory but treated with caution in practice — and remains significantly underused on media plans.”
The organisation points to research from Stagwell’s Future of News initiative, a Bountiful Cow experiment, and Newsworks’ Attention study — which all showed that placing ads next to news media, even politically sensitive articles has no negative impact on campaigns.
Despite this, 47% of agencies and 42% of advertisers surveyed said they would not relax their brand safety settings.
The News Alliance was launched in March 2025 with the aim of demonstrating the benefits of regulated, professionally produced news media to advertisers and agencies.
