I have a slightly awkward confession to make — one that I’m hoping I can invoke a bit of Christmas spirit to earn back your forgiveness. Promise you’ll forgive me? Here goes.

When I started out in the media industry, the word “innovation” used to give me the ick. Yes, I know this column is called Print Innovations. It’s not ideal.

Young me felt like he had a good reason. I used to think that, given news brands have been online for more than three decades (just before I had even been born), emphasising their “digitalness” was like a fish bragging about being able to swim.

I’d never truly known a world when news brands didn’t have podcasts, YouTube channels, or social media. It felt a little strange to be celebrating something which, for me, had been a fact of life ever since news had come on my radar.

As I progressed and got to know the industry and, particularly, the pace at which all media is expected to develop in this hyper-competitive, lightning-paced technological age, it became abundantly clear why demonstrating news brands’ laser focus on their editorial and commercial future was so important. And yet, because I was spoiled by news brands’ multi-platform nature since childhood, I’d never really clicked with the subject.

That’s what made the Newsworks Awards such an eye-opener for me this year.

I’m always enchanted by our annual awards: I love seeing how news brands’ enduring strengths like reach, timeliness, and storytelling prowess are pushed to the max year in, year out. However, this year, it was innovation that truly shone more than ever.

We saw how advertisers increasingly harness news brands’ wide-reaching portfolio of formats not only to reach all sorts of audiences but because they value news brands’ voice on those platforms. We saw brilliant innovations away from the creative, with data teams showing how ever deeper insights can capture that winning advantage when it comes to ROI. Plus, we saw how one agency used innovation not only to super-charge its clients’ campaigns, but to benefit the wider news and advertising industries.

With that, here are some of my key takeaways from the Newsworks Awards 2025.

More than ever, the medium is the message

As noted, news brand format innovation is the one I’m most used to seeing. However, what I really loved this year was brands not just taking advantage of news publishers’ various platforms because that’s where their target consumers were. They took advantage of the news brands’ tone of voice and relationship with readers in whatever form that takes.

Allwyn, the operator of the United Kingdom’s National Lottery, demonstrated this with great aplomb in its content partnership with The Guardian for its Euromillions brand.

In its winning entry for partnerships with over £250,000 media investment, Allwyn’s campaign used a viral social meme about players’ dreams to inform ads on print and digital display, plus partnership content across the news brand’s audio, video, and social platforms.

The highly commended recipient in this category was another great example of this. UKTV worked with news publisher Reach to spread awareness of its latest drama about the famous Mitford sisters. It resurrected the Mirror’s iconic Wicked Whispers gossip column to hook readers with original salacious headlines and photos from the 1930s, with shocking rumours drip-fed across print, social, digital, and video.

Innovation under the bonnet

While fantastic display and brilliant content partnership executions may take the creative plaudits, the data driving the best campaigns is becoming more refined, more powerful, and, critically, more effective.

In its impressive winning entry for Aldi in the most effective campaign category, Starcom proved this by producing especially thorough econometric and performance modelling. It truly nailed its objective of increasing ROI in print, a medium that has historically been very effective for the supermarket but has recently dipped.

Using a wealth of data, Starcom ensured placements were optimised down to the news brand, the size, and even the day to maximise effectiveness. All this had impressive effects on several key metrics, including ROI.

The cut and thrust of the fiercely competitive supermarket sector also drove Tesco to redress its approach in 2016. With short-burst promotional advertising no longer commanding the visibility it needed, Tesco’s unprecedentedly long Clubcard trade partnership with Reach and The Sun allowed the supermarket to own the front pages and make its deals national news.

Over time, this partnership integrated Tesco’s first-party data and evolved to meet both consumer behaviour and news brands’ digital development. Now, almost 10 years later, the partnership has delivered fantastic short-term sales, is a leader among Tesco’s value-led campaigns, and boasts impressive long-term ROI and a high value perception. It’s no wonder the entry snatched both advertiser of the year and the grand prix award on the night.

Unblocking potential for advertisers

One highlight from the night was the awarding of the first-ever judges’ special recognition award, given to an outstanding entry outside the remit of the other categories. This was deservedly presented to independent media agency Bountiful Cow, whose “Relative Advantage: Unblocked” initiative flipped the damaging brand safety narrative on its head and proved news brands’ trusted environments could deliver strong returns in hard news environments.

The agency had a specific focus on keyword blocklists, which bluntly block digital advertising from being displayed next to any content containing words such as “shoot” or “murder.” That’s despite the real possibility that words could appear in much more innocuous stories such as a football report or a review of the latest episode of The Traitors. This costs both advertisers effective digital advertising space and news brands vital revenue to re-invest in journalism.

To counter this, Bountiful Cow placed partner brands’ ads in ordinarily “unsafe” inventory to demonstrate the space’s effectiveness — and boy did it deliver. It boosted attention, brand lift, action intent, consideration, and preference, wowing the judges and bagging a very special Newsworks award.

Future-focused, experience-led

While innovation shone throughout the entries this year, plenty also demonstrated how agile, multi-platform news brands still packed a punch with their tried-and-true strengths.

Just a few examples include: PepsiCo Walkers’ brilliant tactical campaign around England’s European football championship win this summer; MSI Reproductive Choices’ astoundingly quick contextual campaign in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s global gag rule on reproductive rights; and Netflix’s striking cover wrap takeover of The Sun.

Timely, attention-grabbing, in tune with the national conversation: In whatever form they take, news brands’ unique strengths are still unmistakeable. While news brands’ formats may be ever-evolving, their DNA remains as relevant and effective as ever.

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