The US edition of the Guardian is trying hard to capture some of the political advertising money spent during this election period. This is the first time a publisher has done something like this, said Luis Romero, the company’s senior vice president and head of North American sales.
Until now, the U.S. Guardian and its U.K. division only considered political ads on a case-by-case basis, a company spokeswoman said, adding that in the U.S., the publisher had only conducted one inbound campaign for a political candidate. He has only been there twice. Romero did not provide specific details.
But going forward, Romero’s team will be aggressively pitching direct sales ads to advertisers, both political candidates and advocacy groups. He added that he plans to hire a political consultant to help establish guidelines for the content of these ads and what the Guardian will accept (or not accept) based on the publication’s mission.
“Obviously we’re considering everyone, but we have to go through a lot of internal discussions about who and what we hire,” Romero said. At this time, the Guardian’s guidelines have not yet been fully defined.
In addition to presidential candidates, Congressional candidates also have a much better chance of raising locally targeted advertising dollars this year, Romero said. Meanwhile, his team will also pursue ads from groups advocating for social issues such as reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights and gun rights.
Romero said the first three months of 2024 were tough for advertising revenue. The current quarter (first quarter in the publisher’s fiscal year) seems to be looking up, with the advertising team operating at a good pace. However, he added: “It’s still a little too early to tell whether this will bode well for the second half of the year.”
Therefore, the hope is that by opening another valve for advertising revenue, they can cut off some business.
“If you ask me anything, [non-political advertisers] endure because of [November] Romero added that the goal is to “try to make sure we can weather” any further decline in the advertising market, which he said could be offset by political funding.
The Guardian is entering the race for political ad dollars later than other news publishers that have traditionally operated in this space. But Andrew Mullins, vice president of advertising and data operations at digital ad agency IMGE, said if Romero’s team acts quickly, political ad budgets will actually start to be directed to digital platforms in June and July. He said there’s still a chance he could get some deals in May.
Mullins, who has previously worked on ad campaigns for Gov. Ronald DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee, said he welcomes the Guardian to the ranks of major publishers that accept political ads. “We’ve seen that political candidates get the best results when major publications release their inventory to candidates,” he says.
That said, Mullins added that now is a “crucial moment” for the Guardian to start pitching to political advertisers. Because once summer begins, political ad buyers are “too busy to be involved with many new publications.”
By comparison, The Independent’s advertising team began pitching the magazine to political advertisers in the lead-up to the presidential election during the fourth quarter of 2023, nearly a year before national political campaign money actually started flowing. Blair Tapper, the company’s senior vice president for the United States, said in a conversation on stage at the event. Digiday Publishing Summit in March.
Mr. Tapper said that so far this election cycle, political spending has slowed because each party’s candidates have been finalized earlier than in past elections, and candidates do not have to spend on advertising. He said that Additionally, Super Tuesday, which typically attracts significant political ad spending on behalf of candidates, has fewer candidates running for the Republican nomination this cycle compared to the number of candidates running for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He said that because of this, it is not very profitable. .
Mr Mullins said that to capture a share of the political advertising dollars spent this election cycle, the Guardian would need strong demographic data, a “persuasive” audience and what the publication would or would not accept. He said they needed to prove that they had clearly defined guidelines. As for the content.
“One of the things that worries me is that I think the Guardian is spending money on political activities. [ads]They are really hungry for money and want to make more money, but they don’t really know what they are getting into. [and] What compromises will they have to make?” Mullins said. “You shoot great fluffy, positive ads, but you also shoot ads that are sometimes very unpleasant and negative.”
Mullins said that even if the Guardian rejected certain topics or types of ads, the paper would not lose trust with political ad buyers. However, these limitations must be made clear before the deal is finalized.
Meanwhile, Tapper said it’s important for publishers to think carefully about guidelines for political ads, given that ads in this category tend to contain misinformation. “Not having these guardrails on the site is obviously a huge risk, not just from an information standpoint, but from an integrity standpoint,” she said.
