Consumers Value Brands that Support the Creation of News

News content presents an opportunity for advertisers to connect with receptive, highly-engaged, and high-income audiences, according to new research.

DoubleVerify surveyed 22,000 consumers globally to understand their attitudes and behaviors around news content — and their perceptions of brands that advertise alongside it. Key findings include:

• Engagement with news content is greater than with other types of online content.

• News audiences actively value brands that support journalism by advertising alongside it.

• Advertising in news environments is considered to be as appropriate as advertising in social media.

• Some news topics may influence consumer attitudes towards brands more strongly than others.

• Consumption of online news content is positively correlated with household income and is growing across all consumer segments.

The findings show that advertisers opting to avoid all news content could be overlooking opportunities to reach valuable, engaged audiences in high-quality environments, potentially leaving performance advantages on the table as a result.

The nature of news audiences

News audiences are highly engaged

Consumer engagement with news is greater than with other types of online content. News content generated 16% higher engagement than the global benchmark during the second quarter of 2025, according to DoubleVerify attention measurement data. DV measures engagement by aggregating over 20 signals related to users’ interactions with their devices and the ads they view.

News consumption is positively correlated with household income

About 50% of consumers report engaging with news content frequently, and consumption rises with household income.  

Many consumers rely on online news sources

Nearly half of consumers access news primarily through digital channels, with 46% of respondents engaging with news mostly via websites or apps. This trend is more pronounced among wealthier households, with a clear positive correlation between income and frequency of news engagement.

Consumers expect their news consumption to increase

72% of consumers globally expect the time they spend engaging with online news to increase or remain steady over the next 12 months. Among households earning over $100K, that number rises to 81%. 

Consumer perspectives on advertising alongside news

While it’s clear that news audiences are highly engaged, the research also revealed that news content has the potential to positively influence consumer perception when brands advertise alongside it. What’s more, advertising alongside news content is broadly considered by consumers to be as appropriate as that appearing in other online environments.

Consumers actively value brands that support the creation of news

84% of consumers globally said they either value or have a neutral view of brands that support the creation of news content by advertising alongside it. 42% of all consumers said they actively value brands that support the creation of news content, increasing to 51% for respondents in households with incomes of $100K or more.


Consumer attitudes to brands appearing alongside news may vary depending on the nature of the specific content they're adjacent to. This highlights the need for advertisers to take a nuanced approach when navigating news. For example, a previous DV study of U.S. adults found that:

• 11% of respondents said they would think less highly of a brand appearing adjacent to a science-related news story, but 28% said they would think less highly of a brand appearing alongside opinion content.

• Coverage of war, federal politics and municipal politics fell in between, with 22%, 14% and 11% of consumer respondents respectively saying they would think less highly of brands that advertised alongside those types of content.

Advertisements alongside news content are generally considered appropriate

A small minority of consumers — just 6% — said they believe it's unsuitable for advertisements to appear alongside all forms of online news content.

Respondents also said they consider some types of news content to be more suitable for advertising than social media. News homepages and current events content were considered on par with social platforms in terms of suitability, while content related to “soft” news topics such as sports and entertainment was considered more suitable than social media news feeds and videos or reels.


DoubleVerify is committed to encouraging greater advertiser investment in news content and journalism and to ensuring that DV’s product innovation continues to support the needs of the news industry.

DV’s News Accelerator™ is powering these efforts and is investing in ongoing research highlighting the brand-building opportunities of news content to ensure advertisers have the insights they need to unlock its full potential.