Newsworks message is redacted to mimic effect of blocklists
Six years ago, as the global pandemic swept the globe journalism became more important than ever. But while newsbrands were seeing a boom in readership, another surge emerged quietly in the background. Enter blocklists.
Pandemic-related terms such as Covid-19 and coronavirus started spreading across hundreds, if not thousands, of advertiser blocklists.
These are lists prevent ads from appearing alongside news that features specified words. At the time, this would have included everything from front page news from Downing Street, important scientific and practical information, right through to the weather forecast and articles about the nation’s then PE teacher Joe Wicks.
At the time, Newsworks predicted this trend would cost UK news publishers as much as £50 million in lost revenue.
We launched our “Back. Don’t Block” campaign to highlight the problem. The government stepped in and wrote to the 100 top advertisers, asking them to support journalism not commercially censor it.
Since we first launched “Back. Don’t block” six years ago, do you know what’s changed?
Quite a lot. But none of it good.
Blocklists have got even longer. They’ve proliferated and spawned. More have sprung up, and they keep growing. Words get added and rarely removed. It’s impossible to know just how many there are and frankly, it’s a frightening prospect.
Just as an example, one leading UK publisher shared a blocklist with us recently, which contains 34,000 words across 22 languages.
I’ll just let that sink in.
34,000 words is a lot. It’s more than the average UK adult uses in their active vocabulary.
That’s just one blocklist. One advertiser. It’s only the very tip of the iceberg when we’re talking about the scale of the problem.
Advertiser blocklists are directly penalising trusted journalism and the commercial, long-term sustainability of the free press, at a time when global press freedom is at its lowest ebb in a generation, according to the World Press Freedom Index.
There are a few issues here. Not least that in a world marred by fake news and misinformation, trusted journalism is more important than ever, and thankfully, the public agree – with a 20% increase year-on-year of people valuing professionally produced, regulated news, according to Newsworks research.
We can all agree that reporting on the world’s conflicts is a necessity. With blocklists featuring words such as “war”, “nuclear” and “explosion”, advertising around these articles will automatically be blocked, despite all the evidence that ‘hard’ news has no detrimental impact on advertising results .
A couple of years ago, research company HarrisX, a subsidiary of agency holding group Stagwell, published a study based on more than 22,000 adults, which found that ads placed adjacent to stories covering war, politics or crime performed just as effectively as ads appearing around typically more positive editorial such as entertainment and sport.
Despite this and reams more evidence supporting the advertising effectiveness of news brands, a recent poll by The News Alliance – a cross-industry coalition to support trusted news and journalism – found that 47% of agencies and 42% of advertisers say they will not relax their brand safety settings. This means words will keep being added to blocklists and they’ll continue to grow.
And it’s the same words that may appear around stories relating to war and conflict – “strike”, “hit”, “shoot”, “attack” – that will also block vast numbers of football stories. In fact, according to Mantis – Reach’s brand safety and contextual advertising platform – almost half (45%) of the publisher’s Euro 2024 final coverage was blocked from receiving advertising having been wrongfully deemed “not brand safe”.
Next month, news brands will be covering one of the biggest cultural moments of the year – the World Cup. According to Newsworks research, 77% of consumers planning to follow this year’s tournament are news readers. Yet blocklists will ensure that advertising will be excluded.
With 34,000 words on one blocklist alone, you can imagine how many innocuous words feature. Words that will be used in everyday editorial. Anecdotally, I’ve seen words such as “grandma”, “adult”, “Manchester” and “Paris” on blocklists. It’s bonkers.
This is why Newsworks is relaunching our “Back. Don’t Block” campaign . In a year defined by major global events and agenda-setting stories, 23 million people are reading UK national news brands every day (PAMCo). We want advertisers to see what they’re missing, hence our redacted ad campaign with a direct message to the industry.
I would like to see advertisers put their trust back in professional editors and journalists. We know that news brands professionally produced, trustworthy journalism, and highly engaged and attentive readers, are invaluable to advertising success.
We need brands to support quality journalism now more than ever by backing news – not blocking it.
Common words featuring on advertiser blocklists (source Newsworks):
Common keywords featuring on blocklists:
Crash
War
Nuclear
Accident
Injured
Heroin
Hit
Explosion
Strike
Attack
Shoot / Shot / Shooting
Fire
Blast
Adult
Strip
Joint
Escort
Stock
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