INMA today released a groundbreaking report exposing how flawed brand-safety systems have drained billions from quality journalism — and offering a data-backed road map for recovery.

Once a legitimate effort to protect advertisers from harmful content, brand safety today has morphed into a broken, automated system that routinely blocks ads from legitimate news stories. As How News Advertising Reclaims the Brand Safety Narrative illustrates, the global news industry loses billions in revenue each year to blunt keyword filters and outdated verification tools that mistake context for risk.

Written by INMA Advertising Initiative Lead Gabriel Dorosz, the report details how early brand-safety systems emerged to combat genuine threats — such as extremist or violent content — but now penalise quality journalism.

The report looks at the problem of how brand safety demonetises news, then offers solutions for how publishers move forward.

Legacy verification vendors and processes depend on rigid keyword blocklists that flag words like “death,” “shoot,” or “feminist,” regardless of context. A tennis “shot” and a “mass shooting” trigger the same block, stripping ads from credible reporting.

According to Dorosz, the damage is measurable:

• U.S. publishers lost an estimated US$2.8 billion in 2019 to over-blocking.

• Black-owned publishers have seen as much as 75% of their traffic blocked.

• Even harmless content, such as Time’s “Person of the Year” feature, has been marked unsafe.

Despite industry belief, there is little to no peer-reviewed evidence that advertising near news harms brands. In fact, the report finds the opposite is true.

In the report, INMA points to a new generation of AI-powered contextual tools, such as Mobian, Mantis, and Illuma, that analyse full content, tone, and sentiment to distinguish between risk and relevance:

• Newsweek found 98% of content brand-safe with Mobian vs. 63% under traditional filters.

• Immediate Media unlocked 50% more ad delivery using Mantis.

• News UK increased brand-safe inventory 20% with Illuma.

These tools, combined with strong data evidence and strategic diversification into lifestyle, gaming, and video content, offer publishers a pragmatic road map to recovery.

The INMA report outlines three immediate priorities for publishers:

1. Deploy smarter technology: Replace keyword blocking with AI tools that understand nuance and sentiment.

2. Arm sales teams with evidence: Use new research to challenge myths about advertising adjacency.

3. Diversify strategically: Expand into brand-safe verticals and package them for advertiser appeal.

“Brand safety is not an existential threat; it’s a solvable market failure,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, INMA executive director and CEO. “Armed with AI, performance data, and new storytelling formats, publishers can reclaim lost revenue and reshape how advertisers value journalism.”

How News Advertising Reclaims the Brand Safety Narrative is available for free to INMA members and for purchase by non-members at INMA.org/reports.

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