I’m Gabriel Dorosz, and I’m excited and grateful to lead INMA’s newly relaunched Advertising Initiative.

With nearly 30 years of experience in digital media and advertising — including the last seven years leading strategy and insights for advertising at The New York Times — I’ve witnessed firsthand the challenges of news media advertising.

The inspiring examples from the recent INMA World Congress of News Media and the Global Media Awards demonstrate that while the challenges are real, news publishers that embrace innovation and experimentation are finding paths forward.

That’s exactly what we want to do with our initiative.

We’re making it our mission to help INMA members navigate and find paths forward through the threats of the “post-traffic era” for news media digital advertising.

From first-party data to premium ad products to AI, measurement and brand safety, we want to advance a deeper, clearer understanding of the evolving advertising landscape by exploring innovations, demystifying complexity, and translating insights into strategies that build sustainable, future-ready advertising models.

This practical initiative is about tailored, forward-thinking guidance that media leaders can use now.

As Earl Wilkinson noted at the INMA Board of Directors meeting in New York: “We want to simplify and demystify what is often opaque or overly complex about the digital advertising ecosystem for media leaders. We want to focus on realistic implementation rather than theory. We want to bridge the gap between cutting-edge possibility and business realities.”

In my first few weeks, I had the privilege of conducting in-depth interviews with 12 INMA Board members and news industry executives across diverse markets — from Mediahuis and Schibsted in Europe to MediaNews Group and Hearst in North America, News Corp Australia in the South Pacific, South China Morning Post in East Asia, and The Hindu Group in South Asia — and presenting the findings to the INMA Board of Directors in New York. 

This, along with extensive analysis of industry research, global and regional spend data, market trends, and industry outlook reports helped us identify eight priorities.

Initiative areas of focus

Here are our eight critical primary areas — four primary and four secondary: 

1. First-party data activation for advertising revenue

While 86% of publishers cite first-party data as their most significant asset for driving ad revenue, many still struggle to effectively monetise it.

The variance is striking: Some publishers like Schibsted and The New York Times have built sophisticated logged-in ecosystems, while publishers in other markets are just beginning this journey.

We’ll provide actionable strategies for data collection, identity resolution, audience insights, clean room implementation, AI-driven targeting tools, and advertiser partnerships that use audience data to help protect premium CPMs.

Our first Webinar will focus on ways publishers have used engagement data to demonstrate the value of their direct audiences to advertisers.

2. Advertising format and product innovation

With digital advertising evolving rapidly — from AI-enhanced contextual targeting to creator-inspired authentic content — publishers need fresh approaches to stand out.

The World Congress and industry reports reveal strong opportunities with premium branded content, video inventory, commerce integration and cross-media packaging.

Learning from creators: The World Congress revealed that one in five adults under 24 use TikTok as a news source, while the creator economy is projected to surpass US$525 billion by 2030.

As Anna-Katharina Kölbl from Funke Media noted: “People brands are more important than company brands” — a lesson news organisations must embrace. 

3. Sales and revenue diversification strategies

Beyond traditional display advertising, publishers are finding success through events (contributing 25% of total advertising revenue for some organisations), branded content studios, affiliate commerce, and balancing premium direct deals with programmatic strategies.

The variance across markets is instructive: Many North American publishers focus heavily on programmatic optimisation, while European publishers maintain stronger direct sales relationships, and Asian publishers highlight integrated commerce experiences.

4. Measurement and attribution excellence

Given the 2025 IAB Outlook Study noted cross-platform measurement remains the top concern for 44% of ad buyers, publishers need frameworks that prove advertising impact and demonstrate ROI.

As Schibsted CEO Siv Juvik Tveitnes emphasised in our conversation: “We need a common methodology for measuring advertising effect.”

We’ll focus on the potential for attention metrics, brand lift studies, incrementality testing, attribution, and media mix modeling (MMM) approaches that articulate news media's unique value.

5. Talent and organisation design

The advertising skills gap is universal but manifests differently by region.

Some 84% of advertisers and agencies report scarcity in data and analytics skills, while only 13% of media leaders believe their organisations are well-prepared for AI integration.

Some publishers struggle with balancing centralised efficiency (or centralised innovation) and local market needs, while others face rapid digital transformation requiring massive skills conversion from print to digital operations.

6. Brand safety and news environment value

Regional perspectives, definitions, and processes around brand safety and brand suitability vary dramatically. It’s a major concern in polarised markets like the United States and Brazil, while Nordic publishers report less severe challenges.

We’ll help publishers focus on differentiation strategies and performance case studies that demonstrate the unique advertising value of trusted journalism environments.

7. AI-powered advertising operations

In his keynote, Earl noted AI adoption in advertising is accelerating faster than in newsrooms, with publishers finding “quicker results in advertising, marketing, HR” than editorial applications.

We’ll explore AI applications for audience segmentation, targeting, creative optimisation, dynamic pricing, and yield optimisation that enhance efficiency and revenue across the advertising lifecycle.

8. Ad industry insight and strategic partnerships

Understanding buyer perspectives, ad tech ecosystem dynamics, and industry trends requires constant learning.

From social media strategies and influencer partnerships to emerging video formats and platform relationships, we will provide insights into what advertisers actually want versus what publishers assume they need.

This is the plan. Yet feel free to push me off this plan. That’s an open invitation to let me know what you think.

We need your voice

INMA’s Advertising Initiative succeeds only with active participation from advertising leaders facing these challenges daily.

Whether you’re a chief revenue officer wrestling with platform dependence, an advertising director implementing first-party data strategies, or a product leader developing innovative formats, your insights and experiences will shape our content and direction.

• Share your challenges: What advertising obstacles keep you awake at night? Anything missing from our focus areas? Most importantly, what are you doing to prepare for and navigate the “post-traffic era” for advertising? 
• Highlight your innovations: Have you explored, experimented, or succeeded in any of our focus areas? We’re actively seeking case studies and best practices to share with the global INMA community. It’s great exposure and highly rewarding to share learnings with your industry peers.
• Feedback welcome: How can this initiative best serve your organisation’s advertising needs? What topics, formats, or resources would provide the most value?

E-mail me directly at gabriel.dorosz@inma.org for any of the above and we can plan next steps from there.

A call to action to get your advertising colleagues involved 

Over the last few weeks, it became clear to me that we don’t just need to define the Advertising Initiative, but we also need to build its community — and I’d love your help. Below are multiple ways for you and your advertising colleagues to help us kickstart engagement:

• Click here to learn more about the Advertising Initiative. 

• Sign up for the bi-weekly Advertising Initiative Newsletterfor insights, case studies, and industry analysis (free to you as a member).

• Join our dedicated Slack Channel (#advertising-initiative) within the overall INMA Slackfor real-time discussions, resource sharing, and peer networking. If you have a Slack subscription, click here. If not, e-mail membership@inma.org to get connected.

Let’s create the future together

The post-traffic era demands new strategies, fresh thinking, and collective action. As my colleague Grzegorz Piechota reflected on the World Congress, the conference itself demonstrated the courage our industry needs — from Earl Wilkinson’s unflinching opening keynote addressing the Trump presidency’s impact on media to the Ukrainian publishers continuing their work under fire and winning the Global Media Awards competition’s grand prize. 

As INMA President Gert Ysebaert reminded us: “The world needs independent journalism. Let’s not compromise on core beliefs.” But we must pair idealism with pragmatism and embrace the business model innovation required in an era of accelerating change.

The publishers that thrive will be those that embrace the post-traffic era, focus relentlessly on direct audience relationships, master their data, innovate their formats, learn valuable lessons from creators, and create distinction to prove their unique value in an increasingly crowded, competitive, and often unfair and irrational marketplace. The World Congress showed us it’s not just possible but necessary.

Ready to embrace the challenge? Let's evolve news media advertising together.

If you’d like to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, INMA members can do so here.

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