Ads for News, designed to save local news by helping global brands buy display and video advertising space on local news media websites and apps, was announced today as a finalist in Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards, a competition honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.
Ads for News, an Internews-led initiative in cooperation with GroupM, OMD, WAN-IFRA, and the World Economic Forum, is a response to the financial decline and instability of independent media around the world.
Trusted, local news has never been more important than during the COVID-19 epidemic, and as a result consumption of local news has skyrocketed across the globe. Yet sustainable business models for local outlets remain elusive, as major online platforms gobble more than 75% of online ad spend and advertisers are missing many of these audiences.
Ads for News is an “inclusion list” available free of charge as a file that media buyers can import into their campaign management systems and target on programmatic advertising platforms. Utilizing the list, brands can actively support reputable local news, while effectively reaching local audiences on brand-safe outlets.
“I am thrilled for the recognition of Ads for News as a true ‘win-win’ for marketers and the kind of locally-relevant, language specific news that people all around the world rely on,” says Jason Lambert, Senior Director of Media Business at Internews. “Buying into local markets is not an act of charity for advertisers – there are real performance benefits and positive, brand-safe associations that make these placements a smart investment.”
“Much has been said about the potential extinction of local media, but it doesn’t have to be so. Market-based solutions like Ads for News show there can be sustainable financial futures for independent media,” says Lambert.
A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.
“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”