Ad spend on news down a third in six years | Cision closes journalism jobs board
Plus major publishers' display ad revenues stabilise after two years of decline and we have national newspaper ABC figures for March
Good morning and welcome to your daily media briefing from Press Gazette on Wednesday 16 April, brought to you today in association with Arc XP’s Connect London 2025.
We’ve got two pieces of research today that make for mixed reading about the advertising market for news.
WARC global data reveals global advertising spend against news content will be down by a third this year compared to 2019. Ouch. Brand safety concerns are still a major factor being blamed despite it being debunked as an issue last year.
I also feel like the figures revealing the change in percentage of ad spend going to professional content providers versus creators/influencers should be a major wake-up call.
But an AOP survey of major publishers found that display revenue stabilised for the first time after two bad years at the end of 2024. Although overall digital revenues were flat, this is a reassuring sign - as long as it wasn’t a blip.
The only thing to note is that this AOP research represents the biggest publishing groups, so can’t be seen as a barometer of the sector as a whole meaning smaller sites may not have seen the same boon.
Also today, two major developments at Cision. Its journalism jobs board - one of the biggest for the UK industry - is closing down in a stark reminder of how hard it is to be a job-searching journalist right now with cuts and recruitment freezes proliferating.
But Cision seems to be moving away from providing services for our industry more generally. After rebranding Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to Connectively and then closing it in December, it has now been bought by another expert finding service - US-based Featured.com.
In light of our recent stories about dubious experts duping journalists through other enquiry services, I asked Featured.com’s founder what they do, and will do at HARO, to vet experts and stop similar issues happening at theirs. He came back with a robust response - but also pointed out that the best guardrail is really for journalists to check the sources that come through rather than blindly using a comment.
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On Press Gazette
Google and Meta advertising tools, which are now preferred by many brands over advertising with news publishers. Pictures: Shutterstock/IB Photography and Shutterstock/Funstock
Global ad spend against news down by a third since pre-Covid
Alex Brownsell, head of content at WARC Media, said brands are still becoming “increasingly squeamish about hard news content. Keyword blocking hinders the ability of publishers to monetise newsworthy moments.”
Comment: Digital publisher display revenues stabilise for first time in two years
“After a decade of double-digit growth, it seems the subscription star is finally fading, but only after turning the distribution of publisher revenues on its head.”
Cision closes journalism jobs board and sells expert enquiry service
Cision Jobs website to close on 30 April. Separately, Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to relaunch under new owner on 22 April.
Newspaper ABCs: Sunday People sees biggest annual print circulation decline
The Financial Times was the only paid-for title to see month-on-month growth, up 1% to 107,936.
News in brief
Non-profit newsroom Houston Landing is closing down by mid-May, resulting in 43 job losses. Despite launching with $20m seed investment in February 2023, it "has been unable to build additional revenue streams to support ongoing operations". (Press Gazette)
CNN chief executive Mark Thompson says the network will debut at least one digital subscription streaming product this year with more to come in 2026. The first will be non-news, with a features/lifestyle focus, and launch in the US first. He also said CNN's paywall is ahead of target. (Financial Times)
The Los Angeles Times is unlikely to bring back an AI-generated "bias meter" on stories after a controversial KKK wording. Managing editor Hector Becerra said "it was written in such a passive kind of voice… that I think some people misread it as almost being too soft". (The Wrap)
European publishers have called for the European Commission to take action against Google's site reputation abuse policy which has penalised many sites with an e-commerce offering if they work with third-party providers. They called it a "clear abuse of dominance". (European Newspaper Publishers’ Association)
Russia has jailed four journalists convicted of working for an anti-corruption group founded by Alexei Navalny. They all said they were innocent and being prosecuted for their work as journalists. One said: "Independent journalism is equated to extremism". (The Guardian)
The start of Sarah Palin's libel retrial against The New York Times heard the newspaper admits it made an error with the editorial it published but it “corrected the record as loudly, clearly and quickly as possible". (Associated Press)
Last week on Press Gazette
Reach digital pioneer Belfast Live marks 10 years: ‘We’re positive and proudly non-partisan’
UK ‘at risk of evolving into propaganda regime’ with unenforced FOI rules and official secrecy
Long-serving Daily Mail travel and property editor Mark Palmer to stand down
G/O Media CEO says future for Quartz ‘extremely bright’ despite newsroom being laid off
Guardian investigation into Noel Clarke was ‘careful and thorough’, court told
Publishers delete and amend stories based on dubious experts
Dotdash Meredith makes major investment in ‘Tiktok-like’ People app
Latest podcast: Jim Mullen's legacy at Reach | Value of news to Google | Sun losses, Times profits
Press Gazette's editorial team share their insights into big stories from the world of news. Charlotte Tobitt talks us through the latest News UK accounts, which show losses at The Sun shrank in the year to June 2024 while The Times reported a £60m profit.
We react to news that Jim Mullen, the divisive CEO at Reach, is stepping down. And Bron Maher looks at the arguments and counterarguments being made by publishers and Google over what news is really worth on its platforms.