Global ad spend on professionally produced news content has dropped significantly in recent years, according to recent research from WARC Media.
The report was based on WARC’s dataset of advertising and media intelligence from around the world.
The researchers forecast that global advertising spend on professional news outlets ("newsbrands") will fall to $32.3 billion this year, a 33% decrease from 2019, and will remain flat through 2026.
The researchers found that automotive and retail ad spend has moved away from newsbrands in recent years in the United States, and that news publishers are increasingly targeting tech, healthcare, direct-to-consumer, and B2B advertisers.
The decline in spend on professionally produced news content appears to be part of a larger advertiser shift towards user-generated content.
According to GroupM data, as cited by WARC, professionally produced content is expected to receive only 51% of global content ad spend in 2025, down from 72% in 2019.
About the research: The report was based on WARC’s dataset of advertising and media intelligence from around the world.
