How news publishers are fighting back against ‘broken’ brand-safety tools

Taylor Swift is a global icon, but when Time Magazine named her Person of the Year in 2023, some advertisers were skittish about appearing alongside the online cover story.

“It was flagged as ‘not brand safe’ because it used the word ‘feminist,’” Mark Howard, COO of Time, tells The Current. “It was an 8,000-word article that had massive amounts of traffic and global coverage, but the traditional services flagged it as not being brand safe.”

This incident highlights the ongoing challenge news publishers face in the battle for ad dollars, as many brands and agencies cling to traditional brand-safety verification services that disadvantage news. It was a major theme at the first Stagwell Publisher Showcase this winter, where a dozen major news outlets made their case to advertisers.

One thing was clear amid those conversations: The market is ripe for innovation as ad tech start-ups and stalwarts test new solutions.

Some notables include Mobian, an AI-powered solution from the venture studio Montauk Labs; Mediaocean’s verification platform Protected Media; and The Trade Desk’s News Navigator, which matches advertisers with high-quality news content, as rated by Ad Fontes Media.

Mobian co-founder and CEO Jonah Goodhart wants to fix what he sees as a “broken” and outdated system.

“We are arguing to brands and publishers that the [old] technology appears to be broken,” Goodhart says. “The impact of broken brand safety tech is the demonetization of journalism, and more broadly the defunding of credible, quality content.”

‘We need a systemic change’

Mobian – which is working with publishers like The Washington Post, Newsweek and Time – has found that the vast majority of professionally produced journalism it vets is low risk. It’s contextual AI tool categorizes an article for advertisers as low, medium or high risk, and explains why.

“Without the ‘why,’ brands and publishers are left in the dark with no way to understand why content is being blocked,” Goodhart says.

The platform, along with others in the space, showcases what news advocates like Stagwell have been trumpeting: The news is brand safe.

Stagwell’s Future of News advertiser study, for instance, concluded that it is safe for brands to appear next to quality news content, regardless of the topic.

Citing the importance of preserving journalism, The Trade Desk launched a News Navigator in its demand-side platform that lets advertisers prioritize impressions on well-rated news content. The feature allows brands to support news publishers that would otherwise be hampered by outdated category exclusions or block lists.

And yet, the traditional models continue to punish news publishers, sources told The Current. A recent Adalytics report alleged that ads from major brands had been served on a website hosting child sexual abuse materials, sparking a new round of brand safety debates. Howard says the report highlights how “ad dollars are flowing to where they shouldn’t be flowing,” and away from premium news.

“The Adalytics report continues to suggest that the incentives are completely out of whack,” he adds. “There’s no incentive for ad verification services to dramatically change. We need a systemic change for how ad dollars are flowing to support quality journalism.”

‘This is an easy fix’

Keyword block lists have long been problematic for news publishers. For example, a Time piece on the James Webb Telescope was flagged for mentioning the “violent death” of a star, Howard says. Similarly, at The Independent, articles about tennis have been blocked for using the word “shot.”

“We are living in an unpredictable news cycle that’s not going to change,” says Blair Tapper, U.S. SVP at The Independent. “But we have an audience that wants to stay informed and engaged.”

At the Programmatic I/O event in September, Washington Post VP of Revenue Operations Jana Meron noted that advertisers blocked over 40% of the Post’s inventory. Meanwhile, executives told The Current that keyword block lists flag 63% of Newsweek’s inventory.

In contrast, Mobian found that 98% of Newsweek content was brand-safe during a six-month trial last year. And Newsweek was the world’s fastest-growing English-language news website last year, according to Press Gazette.

So are brands flocking there?

“We need a lot more brands saying that they want to support news,” says Chris Rayner, head of agency relationships at Newsweek.

“Bringing them over the line has been difficult over the last few years. This is an easy fix. IAS and DoubleVerify do a good job, but they’re a blunt tool and not for what’s required now. We have well-written quality stories read by curious minds that brands want to reach.”

An IAS spokesperson told The Current: “IAS’s technology is not reliant on keywords. IAS’s Context Control solution uses natural language processing to classify content down to the sentiment and emotion level across 50+ languages so advertisers do not need to rely on keyword lists.”