News brands have had a bad rap over the last decade. Newspapers have been written off as old, declining media, out of touch with modern audiences. Despite the huge growth in digital audiences for news brands, they still haven’t been perceived as shiny or new enough. The lure of social media and new types of influencers has been too strong. Surveys show that both marketers and agencies view news brands as low in the pecking order for both brand building and sales effectiveness.
This issue has been exacerbated by the industry’s attitude to online advertising, a world of hyper-targeting and...