NewsGuard, the news reliability data service that relies on trained analysts to assess the credibility of news and information publishers, is expanding into podcasting to help ad buyers navigate what is safe in audio. The new podcast-focused product will give advertisers and agencies what it calls “credibility ratings” for the most listened-to news and information podcasts. NewsGuard says the move will help bring more ad dollars to shows that are determined to be safe and responsible, while also allowing advertisers to avoid other content due to brand-safety concerns.
The ratings are produced and regularly updated by NewsGuard’s team of analysts, who apply basic, apolitical journalistic criteria and a transparent process to rate the credibility of each podcast. It looks at factors such as whether the show conveys false, unchallenged information; whether it reports news responsibly; it is not dominated by one-sided opinion; it includes a disclosure about its political agenda; and differentiates ads from editorial content. Based on NewsGuard’s judgment with regard to whether the podcast generally adheres to each of the criteria, a podcast receives a score from 0-10, a corresponding risk level, and is accompanied by a detailed “Nutrition Label” that explains the score.
The company says its ratings are used by brands and agencies to direct their ad spend toward highly trustworthy, brand-safe news podcasts while being protected from brand-safety and brand-suitability risks inherent in advertising on news and politics content.
NewsGuard has already partnered with three of the largest podcast streaming platforms – it did not say who they are, however. But using the NewsGuard ratings, agencies and brands can decide to target only trustworthy podcasts by filtering based on overall score or risk level—for example, only buying ads on podcasts that score a seven and above or receive a “lowest risk” rating. Or they could avoid altogether advertising on podcasts that are heavily biased or politically slanted news shows or that regularly convey false information.
To illustrate the process, NewsGuard has made its ratings and each show Nutrition Label available publicly for five podcasts:
- Wall Street Journal’s The Journal received a Green 10 out of 10 score
- Crooked Media’s Pod Save America received a Green 9 out of 10 score
- SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Show received a Green 8 out of 10 score
- MSNBC’s The ReidOut received a Red 5 out of 10 score
- Louder with Crowder received a Red 5 out of 10 score
“New and existing partners can now benefit from greater NewsGuard coverage across their omni-channel campaigns, using our transparently sourced ratings for news podcasts to enable advertising on trusted news and reach engaged audiences they might otherwise miss,” said Sruthi Palaniappan, NewsGuard’s VP of Operations and New Products. “These ratings will be especially valuable for brands that until now have been reluctant to support news and information podcasts with their advertising because there has not been an independent journalist-led transparent assessment of these podcasts to ensure advertisers’ brand safety.”
It is not just advertisers that could benefit. NewsGuard says podcast streaming platforms can also use these ratings to moderate content on their platforms and promote highly trustworthy news and information podcasts in user searches and curated sections.
The podcast ratings are a work in progress. NewsGuard says its global team of misinformation experts will have rated the top 200 news podcasts on the largest streaming platforms by January 2024. These podcasts comprise the bulk of overall news and information podcast listenership and present valuable audiences for brands to reach. NewsGuard says it determines which news and information podcasts to rate based on factors including reported engagement, estimated ad revenue, and the volume of news and information content in the podcast’s episodes. The podcasts rated by NewsGuard include those that cover topics including politics, current affairs, health, business, and finance.
Podcast ratings join NewsGuard’s earlier ratings for news and information websites as well as for TV news networks and programs.
Launched in March 2018 by media entrepreneur Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard rates all the news and information websites that account for 95% of online engagement across the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.