Stop Blocking, Start Performing: A Marketer’s Playbook for News Media

Avoiding the news has become a reflex. It’s also a mistake. High‑quality journalism delivers unduplicated reach, affluent and influential audiences, and—when bought with modern suitability tools—better acquisition efficiency. As AI shifts audiences from “search” to “answers,” publishers and brands must rebuild value exchange, protect context, and weaponize real‑time signal. Here’s a pragmatic path forward.

Why News Still Matters (+ Why Many CMOs Forgot)

For a decade, marketers over‑corrected on brand safety—domain blocks, sprawling keyword lists, and outright bans on “news.” The result: quality reporting was demonetized while brands forfeited unique reach and trust.

• Unduplicated reach: A meaningful slice of consumers are “news‑primary” when they consume media. You won’t find them elsewhere at the same quality or scale.
• Audience quality: News environments over‑index for education, influence, travel, and purchase power—the very signals upper‑ and mid‑funnel campaigns need.
• Price vs. value: Because demand was suppressed, premium news often clears at a discount. That won’t last; early movers benefit now.

Bottom line: The risk isn’t adjacency to quality news. The real risk is ceding context, credibility, and incremental reach to competitors who buy it better.

Brand Safety ≠ Brand Suitability

Marketers originally sought to avoid truly unsafe adjacencies (e.g., violent UGC). Over time, static controls metastasized:

• Domain‑level bans that ignore article‑level context
• “Roach motel” keyword lists that only ever grow
• Set‑and‑forget policies that never get audited

Today, suitability can be managed at the page/article level with models that read context and intent—not just keywords. The right approach unlocks high‑value inventory that legacy blocks mistakenly excluded.

Quick win: Audit your block lists. Remove outdated names/terms and move from blanket domains to page‑level suitability.

Proof That Context Converts

When brands align buys to reliable, quality news—tuned to their risk appetite—two things happen:

1. Acquisition costs fall: Case work shows dramatic CPA improvements when pre‑bid segments favor reliable journalism and exclude fringe or low‑reliability content.
2. CPMs can drop while outcomes improve: News has been mispriced; pairing it with suitability and contextual signals creates a value arbitrage.

Add in unduplicated reach from “news‑primary” consumers and the media math gets compelling.

“Every impression is an opportunity to make a good impression.”
— Lou Paskalis, CEO and Founder of AJL Advisory and Chief Strategy Officer at Ad Fontes Media

Programmatic: Worst Thing, Only Salvation

Programmatic commoditized impressions and let buyers hammer price. It also did something new and vital: exposed real‑time signal about where and in what context you’re showing up. That signal, combined with AI and dynamic creative, is the backbone of modern effectiveness.

• Treat the auction as a signal network, not just a price engine.
• Use that signal to feed dynamic creative optimization (DCO) so every impression has a shot at relevance.
• Judge channels by business outcomes (e.g., cost per customer), not by CPM alone—a notoriously gameable KPI.

AI is Changing the Traffic—and the Value Exchange

Referral traffic from search and social is falling, while “answer engines” rise. Two implications:

1. Monetization must evolve: Publishers need frameworks that block unauthorized scraping, permit opt‑in, and price content fairly over time.
2. Context and nuance are at risk: Pure “just‑the‑facts” answers strip backstory and counter‑arguments—the very ingredients that build understanding, reduce polarization, and sustain trust.

Brands benefit when audiences engage original, nuanced reporting; publishers need compensation models that keep that reporting viable. Both sides should advocate for context‑preserving formats and fair content licensing.

How Publishers Win (+ Why Buyers Should Want Them To)

Publishers can exit the commodity trap by pairing editorial strength with distinctive signal:

• Hone the commercial narrative: Half editorial story, half data science. Lead with the insights your audience behavior can power for marketers.
• Weaponize first‑party + contextual signal: Build personas and “mindset” graphs off article‑level intent.
• Package outcomes, not just placements: Create pre‑bid segments tuned to reliability and risk appetite; sell measured business impact.
• Invest in measurement: Make it easy to prove lift on brand, mid‑funnel quality, and downstream acquisition.

When publishers do this, brands get relevance and accountability; publishers earn pricing power and resilience.

Agencies and Procurement: Part of the Solution

The mid‑funnel often breaks in translation: senior alignment on “what” gives way to transactional buying on “how.”

• Unify the brief to keyboard level: Make sure planners, traders, and analytics teams are all optimizing to the same outcomes.
• Reframe procurement: Move away from CPM targets and 180‑day terms. Optimize to cost‑per‑customer and verifiable incrementality.
• Pay for learning: Innovation requires room for controlled tests that won’t all win. Bake that into scopes and incentives.

What Marketers Can Do This Quarter

1) Run a suitability reset
• Audit block lists; remove legacy landmines
• Shift from domain bans to article‑level suitability
• Add pre‑bid segments tuned to reliability

2) Test news as a performance channel
• Allocate a small % of budget to quality news with clear CPA/ROAS guardrails
• Compare against your best non‑news contextual buys

3) Treat programmatic as signal
• Pipe contextual signals into DCO so creative matches mindset
• Report business outcomes, not CPMs

4) Align incentives
• Update agency KPIs from “cheapest CPM” to “cost per customer / qualified lead”
• Give teams carve‑out budget for controlled learning

5) Prepare for the answer economy
• Support frameworks that block unauthorized scraping but enable opt‑in licensing
• Advocate for context‑preserving answers that link back to original reporting
• Partner with publishers who bring distinct data and measurement

The Takeaway

If the last era taught marketers to fear the news, the next era will reward those who buy it intelligently. Suitability tech has matured. Publisher signal has become a strategic asset. And audiences who want quality reporting are still there—often first and only there. Re‑enter news with better controls, measure on outcomes, and help fund the journalism that keeps your customers informed. That’s not just good citizenship. It’s good marketing.

For more on this topic, check out our conversation with Lou Paskalis, CEO and Founder of AJL Advisory and Chief Strategy Officer at Ad Fontes Media on the Signal & Noise podcast.

Want to Learn More?

Check out our conversation with Lou Paskalis, CEO and Founder of AJL Advisory and Chief Strategy Officer at Ad Fontes Media on the Signal & Noise podcast.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  |  Brett House, SVP of Product GTM & Growth

Brett, a 20+ year adtech and martech veteran, is the Senior Vice President of Product GTM & Growth at MediaRadar. Prior to MediaRadar, Brett helped build and grow industry-leading data and measurement SaaS businesses, including Neustar Marketing Solutions (acquired by TransUnion) and eXelate (acquired by Nielsen). He’s a frequently published author, public speaker, and podcaster on all things advertising transformation. Brett has an MBA from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.