Marketers report news advertising outperforms campaign baselines by 60%

News advertising delivers stronger performance than other digital channels, contradicting industry assumptions about brand suitability risks. DoubleVerify surveyed 1,970 marketing professionals globally to examine attitudes toward news content placements, finding that 60% of respondents reported inventory in news environments outperforms their campaign baselines. The research, announced on November 26, 2025, positions news as a high-performing yet underutilized opportunity for brands that have historically avoided journalism placements.

The findings arrive during a period when publishers face mounting economic pressure from declining search traffic and AI-generated answer features that reduce referral visits. Most news organizations depend on advertising revenue to fund journalism operations, yet many marketers have limited news investment based on outdated assumptions about content adjacency risks. DoubleVerify's data suggests these concerns may be costing advertisers access to audiences that generate above-average campaign results.

Only 27% of marketers said news inventory performs on par with their campaign baselines, while just 11% found news placements delivered below-average results compared with other digital media. The performance differential between news and non-news environments raises questions about whether advertisers are systematically excluding their most effective inventory sources in pursuit of perceived brand safety.

DoubleVerify's research builds on previous consumer studies showing audiences value brands that support journalism through advertising. The media measurement platform operates the News Accelerator initiative, launched in October 2024, which aligns product development with publisher needs while encouraging advertiser investment in news content. The program provides granular suitability controls that allow marketers to avoid specific content types without blocking entire news domains.

Most marketers accept news as suitable advertising environment. The vast majority of survey respondents rejected the notion that news represents inherently problematic placement contexts. Just 1% of marketers said they consider all types of news content unsuitable for advertising, though perspectives varied based on specific content categories and page types.

Sports, entertainment, and lifestyle coverage received the broadest acceptance. 95% of marketers said they do not consider soft news topics unsuitable for advertising, while 93% expressed comfort with news homepage placements. Current events and breaking news generated slightly more caution, with 88% and 84% of marketers respectively indicating these content types remain acceptable for brand adjacency.

The data reveals that marketers apply nuanced judgments rather than blanket avoidance of journalism environments. Advertisers distinguish between evergreen feature content, homepage placements, and developing news stories when evaluating suitability. This segmentation suggests room for more sophisticated targeting approaches that preserve access to high-performing news inventory while addressing specific brand guidelines.

DoubleVerify's Jack Marshall, Head of News, emphasized the opportunity these attitudes present. "Advertising alongside news content typically outperforms other digital channels," Marshall stated in materials accompanying the research release. The statement frames news not as a risk to be managed but as an undervalued asset marketers should actively pursue.

Investment patterns show significant current and planned spending. 53% of marketers currently invest in news content, with an additional 28% planning to allocate budget to journalism placements in the future. These figures suggest 81% of marketers either actively buy news inventory or intend to begin doing so, indicating broad recognition of the channel's value despite historical hesitance.

Marketers already investing in news dedicate substantial portions of their budgets to these placements. The survey found that news advertisers allocate 28% of their total spending to journalism environments on average. This concentration exceeds what many observers would expect given persistent narratives about brand safety concerns limiting news investment.

DoubleVerify's internal platform data corroborates the survey findings. Impression volume across major news publishers increased 58% during the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to the company's analysis of advertiser behavior on its platform. The growth trajectory suggests accelerating rather than declining marketer interest in news placements as targeting capabilities improve.

Vertical differences emerged in investment patterns. Automotive and healthcare & pharmaceuticals marketers showed the highest propensity to advertise alongside news, with 63% of respondents in these sectors reporting active news investment. Engineering, manufacturing, and energy & utilities followed closely at 64%. Technology, telecommunications, and electronics marketers invested at 60% rates, while banking and financial services reached 59%.

Fashion and clothing brands showed the lowest news investment rates at 43%, followed by entertainment, media, sports, and travel marketers at 45%. Retail brands invested at 49% rates, while food and drink companies reached 49%. Consumer packaged goods advertisers reported 52% investment levels, suggesting considerable variation across consumer-facing categories.

The sectoral patterns likely reflect regulatory requirements, audience demographics, and content affinity rather than performance differences. Healthcare advertisers often target educated audiences consuming news regularly, while fashion brands may find more efficient reach through social platforms and lifestyle content. The data suggests news works particularly well for considered purchases and business decision-makers rather than impulse transactions.

Agencies demonstrate heightened sensitivity to controversial topics compared with brand-side marketers. Among organizations investing in news, 20% more agency respondents cited concerns about appearing alongside controversial topics as barriers to increased spending. Agency respondents also expressed 16% more concern about negative news adjacency than brand representatives.

The agency-brand divide reveals different risk tolerance levels within marketing organizations. Agencies managing multiple client accounts may adopt more conservative approaches to avoid potential conflicts, while brand marketers with direct business relationships to their products show greater willingness to accept adjacency risks in pursuit of performance. The pattern suggests agencies would benefit from client guidance establishing specific content parameters rather than defaulting to restrictive settings.

Negative news perceptions remain the primary barrier to increased investment. Among marketers not currently advertising in news environments, concerns about appearing alongside negative content represented the most frequently cited obstacle. Similarly, marketers already investing in news identified negative news and controversial topics as the main factors preventing budget expansion.

DoubleVerify addressed these concerns through new suitability categories introduced alongside the survey release. The company added Sensitive Breaking News, Current Events, and Opinion & Editorial classifications to its content taxonomy. These categories apply DoubleVerify's AI classification models to give advertisers granular control over news placements without requiring domain-level blocking that eliminates access to entire publisher sites.

The approach reflects broader industry movement toward content-level controls that analyze individual articles rather than making assumptions about entire domains. DoubleVerify previously launched similar capabilities for Meta platforms in February 2025, enabling advertisers to avoid specific content types on Facebook and Instagram while maintaining access to suitable inventory. The expansion to news environments follows parallel development of brand suitability settings across major advertising platforms including Amazon DSP and Google Demand Gen.

Platform verification requirements are raising standards for what qualifies as brand safety measurement. The Media Rating Council restricted property-level verification services from claiming they provide brand safety unless they analyze images, video, and audio rather than only keywords and domain names. The October 2025 policy change affects how advertisers evaluate verification vendors and what protections they can expect from different service tiers.

DoubleVerify's content-level approach aligns with the MRC standards by examining individual article elements rather than relying solely on domain reputation. The distinction matters because news sites publish diverse content types on single domains, from breaking crime coverage to lifestyle features. Domain-level blocking that aims to avoid certain content types ends up removing access to all articles from affected publishers, including those perfectly suitable for advertising.

The research timing coincides with mounting publisher concerns about advertising revenue as traffic patterns shift toward platform-controlled environments. Google's network advertising revenues, which support third-party publishers, declined 1% year-over-year during the second quarter of 2025 while the company's owned properties grew substantially. Publishers increasingly seek direct audience relationships rather than depending on platform referrals that have diminished as social media and search engines retain users within their own ecosystems.

News organizations face particular challenges as AI-powered search features provide answers without sending traffic to publisher sites. One publishing company earned just $174 from AI crawlers scraping millions of pages, exposing harsh economics as artificial intelligence reshapes content distribution. The meager compensation highlights fundamental imbalances between AI companies extracting value from journalism and publishers receiving minimal revenue for content creation costs.

These economic pressures make advertiser investment in news more critical than ever for sustaining journalism operations. If DoubleVerify's survey accurately represents broader marketer sentiment, news publishers have an opportunity to capture increased advertising budgets by demonstrating superior performance results and providing the targeting controls advertisers require.

The News Accelerator program represents DoubleVerify's commitment to supporting journalism through product development. The initiative monitors advertiser profiles for overly restrictive settings that may block valuable news inventory unnecessarily. DoubleVerify then consults with clients on recommended adjustments including removing excessive keyword restrictions, expanding inclusion lists, and fine-tuning suitability parameters to open access to news placements while maintaining brand standards.

DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski framed news advertising as mutually beneficial for brands and publishers. The research methodology examined both quantitative performance data and qualitative attitudes through the global survey of marketing decision-makers. Respondents represented diverse industries, company sizes, and geographic markets, providing perspective on how different advertiser segments approach news investment decisions.

The findings challenge conventional wisdom that dominated marketing discussions following brand safety incidents on social platforms. Those episodes led many advertisers to implement conservative content exclusions that swept journalism environments into broad avoidance categories. DoubleVerify's research suggests these reactions may have overcorrected, causing marketers to forfeit performance advantages news placements deliver.

News content attracts engaged audiences actively seeking information rather than passive entertainment. These intentional consumption patterns create advertising contexts where brand messages reach attentive users making decisions about purchases, particularly for considered products requiring research. The audience quality differences may explain why news inventory outperforms campaign baselines even when cost-per-impression rates appear similar to other digital channels.

Publishers could leverage the research findings in sales conversations with advertisers hesitant about news placements. The data provides quantitative evidence that most marketers already invest in news and report superior results. News organizations might also use the findings to advocate for less restrictive brand safety settings that preserve access to suitable content while addressing legitimate advertiser concerns.

The survey results arrive as digital advertising continues fragmenting across platforms and channels. Marketers manage campaigns across walled gardens, open web publishers, connected television, retail media networks, and emerging formats. In this complex environment, news represents an established channel with demonstrated performance advantages and sophisticated targeting capabilities through verification platforms.

DoubleVerify trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol DV and positions itself as a leading software platform for verifying media quality and optimizing advertising performance. The company's research initiatives aim to provide data-driven insights that help advertisers make informed decisions about media investments across digital environments.

The news advertising landscape continues developing as publishers adopt new monetization approaches and technology platforms introduce enhanced controls. DoubleVerify's survey suggests these developments occur against a backdrop of generally positive marketer attitudes toward news placements, contradicting narratives that frame journalism environments as problematic for brand safety.

Future research might examine how specific news content types perform across different campaign objectives and advertiser categories. The current survey establishes that news broadly outperforms other channels for most marketers, but more granular analysis could reveal which news segments deliver the strongest results for particular brands or product categories.

For marketing professionals evaluating news investment opportunities, the DoubleVerify research provides evidence that journalism placements deliver measurable performance advantages. The findings suggest marketers should reconsider historical hesitance about news content and explore how sophisticated targeting controls enable access to high-performing inventory while maintaining brand suitability standards.

Timeline

• October 15, 2024: DoubleVerify launches News Accelerator program to align product development with journalism industry needs and encourage advertiser investment in news content
• October 18, 2024: Media Rating Council restricts property-level verification from brand safety claims unless services analyze images, video, and audio content
• February 18, 2025: DoubleVerify launches content-level controls for Meta platforms enabling advertisers to avoid unsuitable content before ads are served on Facebook and Instagram
• July 23, 2025: Google reports network advertising revenue declined 1% as AI features reduce publisher traffic and owned properties capture growth
• November 6, 2025: Google Ad Manager introduces AI brand safety automation learning publisher preferences from manual review decisions
• November 18, 2025: DoubleVerify releases walled garden research surveying 1,970 marketing decision-makers on social media brand safety concerns
• November 20, 2025: DoubleVerify publishes blog post on news advertising performance based on global marketer survey
• November 26, 2025: DoubleVerify announces research findings showing 60% of marketers report news inventory outperforms campaign baselines

Summary

Who: DoubleVerify surveyed 1,970 marketing professionals globally, with Jack Marshall serving as Head of News and Mark Zagorski as CEO of the media measurement platform that trades on NYSE under ticker symbol DV.

What: Research found 60% of marketers reported news environment advertising outperforms campaign baselines, while 95% do not consider soft news unsuitable and 53% currently invest in news content with another 28% planning future investment.

When: DoubleVerify announced the research findings on November 26, 2025, with the survey examining current marketer attitudes and investment patterns in news advertising across global markets.

Where: The research examined global marketing professionals' approaches to news advertising across digital environments including news homepages, breaking news coverage, current events reporting, and soft news topics spanning sports, entertainment, and lifestyle content.

Why: The research addresses persistent concerns about brand safety in news environments while demonstrating that journalism placements deliver superior performance, supporting DoubleVerify's News Accelerator initiative to encourage advertiser investment in news content through granular suitability controls including new Sensitive Breaking News, Current Events, and Opinion & Editorial categories.