The demise of WCBS-AM in New York has led to increased conversation over the state of news profitability in radio. With brands remaining afraid to advertise alongside the news for fear of what perceptions they might be attached to, those fears appear to be unfounded.
More data from “The Future of News: Ad Adjacency Study” by Stagwell and HarrisX has been released by ThinkNewsBrands, which investigated the impact of placing advertisements next to “hard news” stories and “soft news” stories. The study involved 50,000 adults and concluded that advertising next to “hard news” – topics like Donald Trump, the Middle East, crime, Joe Biden, and inflation – does not negatively affect brand performance.
It shows that the average brand perception score for ads placed near hard news stories is 67.2%, while ads near soft news stories, like business, sports, and entertainment, have a slightly higher perception at 68.3%.
This insight comes from a detailed analysis of various brand metrics such as trustworthiness, value, and quality, assessed against different news categories.
For example, the attribute “Cares about customers” maintains a fairly stable perception across all news types, with only slight variations noted between the hardest of news, such as Middle East coverage, and softer news like sports or business. Similarly, the “Trustworthy” metric shows a consistent score of around 72% across both hard and soft news, indicating that the type of news, whether it’s related to crime or sports, does not significantly sway public trust in associated brands.
Even for metrics like “Good value” and “Quality products,” where one might expect more significant fluctuations based on news context, the data shows only marginal differences.
Interestingly, hard news topics such as crime and inflation occasionally scored higher in these areas compared to politically charged news about figures like Trump or Biden, suggesting that content perceived as more factual or less polarizing might be slightly more conducive to positive brand association.
As radio news outlets desperately seek revenue to fund the vital services they provide their local communities, this data indicates that brands could engage a larger audience by not limiting their advertisements to “safe” subjects like sports and entertainment.
