In a breakfast event hosted by UM and ISBA, a keynote from former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger warned of the dangerous reality of “information chaos” and the importance of advertisers siding with businesses that care about trust
Comparing the current climate within the media industry and society at large, Rusbridger took attendees back to 1819 and the events of the Peterloo Massacre. The scandal led to the creation of the Manchester Guardian as a vehicle for reform in the UK.
However, Rusbridger was keen to impress the importance of advertisers in making this a viable long-term endeavour: it was only 60 years ago that front pages were ever given over to news as opposed to advertising.
This relationship demonstrates the deep historical relationship between news brands and the advertisers that allow them to pursue journalism that holds the powerful accountable.
Back in the present, meanwhile, and Rusbridger described the current climate as a “world of information chaos”, where it can feel almost impossible to understand the truth of what is happening.
In this context, he called for advertisers, news brands, social media platforms and public institutions to look at the damage misinformation is doing to our society and what they can do to repair it. For advertisers specifically, this meant funding ad spaces that put a true value in trust and transparency.
Following his powerful keynote, a panel opened a discussion on ‘Cultivating Growth and Trust’ heading into 2025. Newsworks CEO Jo Allan highlighted the fear amongst the British public of being misled: a Newsworks study looking ahead to 2024 found a fifth of Brits believe fake news and misinformation are the greatest challenges we face.
Allan also shared research demonstrating that trusted channels such as news brands produce a halo effect for the advertisers seen within them. Newsworks’ 2023 study ‘Fact not Fake‘ found the perceived quality of brands is 1.6x higher when consumers see them advertised in a news brand versus a non-news brand.
Continuing on the keynote theme of journalism and advertising’s vital relationship, Allan raised the issue of blocklists and their impact on news brands.
She highlighted that using blocklisting as a blunt tool around high-traffic stories such as the Euros or the Olympics can be as damaging for brands as it is for publishers when it comes to loss of revenue, with advertisers missing out on the benefits news brands can bring to a campaign’s ROI.
Finally, when asked about concerns around sensationalism in journalism in a climate of distrust, Allan pointed to the rigorous standards journalism is obliged to uphold versus unregulated sources.
She responded: “Journalists are held to an extremely high standard when it comes to reporting the truth… every story in a news brand has a real name attributed to it and that person is putting their job and livelihood on the line to report the truth every time.”
