From the first-ever MAD//UpNorth in February to the spectacular Newsworks Awards in December, it’s been a busy year of events at Newsworks. Catch up with the best of the year all in one place, with full sessions and event highlights on demand
Mad//UpNorth
We took the Newsworks Speakeasy up the M6 to Manchester back in February, as the ad industry across the UK gathered for the first ever MAD//UpNorth. We prepared a delicious tasting session, played our ‘You Think. Youth Think.’ game with our unsuspecting audience and delved into the stories shaping the North’s news agenda.
Key insights from ‘Youth’ research in MAD//UpNorth
While Newsworks brought the best of news brands to the Speakeasy, our research and insight director Heather Dansie brought our recent ‘Youth’ research to the main MAD//UpNorth stage. Check out her full presentation below.
‘Back don’t block’ — webinar
In March, we gathered some of the media industry’s top minds to discuss keyword adblocking, a major obstacle to news brand investment today. They discussed how advertisers were missing out on crucial effective digital ad space for their campaigns, plus the detrimental effect blocking has on news brands’ capacity to hold power to account.
Newsworks Speakeasy at MAD//FEST 2025
Our third Newsworks Speakeasy in London was a particular highlight of the year. We learnt about how rugby legend Gareth Thomas has created strength from the challenges he’s faced during his life, the keys to feelgood fashion from musician and style guru Frankie Bridge and a few tips in the love department from TV’s Rylan Clark.
‘Attention: A Newsworks study’ at Adwanted’s Future of Media London
When we launched our latest flagship research in September, we started a media industry conversation about whether high-attention media such as digital news brands was getting the attention it deserved by advertisers (if you’ll pardon the expression). In November, we followed up our Future of Media Manchester unveiling with a second discussion in London, exploring some of those talking points in more depth.
‘Actions speak louder than words’ — webinar
Also in November, we gathered four top commercial figures from news brands to discuss how advertisers can harness the compelling propositions that news brands offer in 2025.
Newsworks Awards 2025
Our Newsworks Awards party is always a brilliant way to cap off the year, celebrating outstanding advertising in news brands with new and old friends alike. This year’s was surely one of the best ever, with expert emceeing from comedian Catherine Bohart, banging tunes from DJ Emma and, of course, a top-notch array of winning campaigns.
