Advertisers increasingly avoiding hard news stories

Free press under assault from advertisers, Internet moguls, and outright repression

WASHINGTON—Hedge funds. Monster newspaper chains. “News deserts.” Lack of ads. Then there are repressive measures including barring of reporters from venues where decisions are made, arrests of workers, including news reporters just doing their jobs and direct threats of repercussions against publishers that come from the Trump administration. The shaky status of freedom of the press in the U.S. in calendar 2025, was the topic of a recent two-ho…

Advertisers increasingly avoiding hard news stories

Advertisers are increasingly avoiding news content. Today’s abundance of hard news stories – from trade wars to armed conflicts – draw audiences but not ad dollars to content publishers and broadcasters, advertising consultancy WARC says in a trend report. The report talks about a shift in ad spend from professionally produced content to user-generated and ‘creator-journalists’. Key findings : Ad spend against news content is in decline across …

Hard News, Hard Sell: News Ad Spending Stalls As Brands Favor ‘Safer’ Content.

Despite strong audience interest, global ad spending on news content is expected to stay flat through 2026, down 33% from 2019, says WARC. Brands continue to avoid hard news due to keyword blocklists and reputational concerns, shifting budgets to softer…