News Rating Service Adds Nuances To 'Exclusion,' 'Inclusion' Media-Buying Lists

News and information credibility ratings service NewsGuard is expanding the nuances that advertisers and agencies can use to apply its data in so-called “inclusion” and “exclusion” lists in both programmatic and manual media buys.

As part of its BrandGuard service, which enables advertisers to apply NewsGuard’s ratings data to create brand-safety guidelines grouping publishers and their content into buckets that can be included or excluded from their advertising schedules, the company today will begin offering three gradations that can be applied in on either the buy or no-buy sides.

Instead of simple, binary choices of “red” or “green,” the new options include:

  • Exclusion lists:

    • advertisement

      advertisement

      Basic safety (excludes any site labeled “proceed with caution,” rated 60 or below on NewsGuard’s 0 to 100 scale).

    • High safety (excludes any site flagged for one of NewsGuard’s two most flagrant criteria: repeatedly publishing misinformation or irresponsible reporting.

    • Maximum safety (excludes any site publishing misinformation, irresponsible reporting or highly partisan or opinionated content).

  • Inclusion lists:

    • Basic safety (includes sites rated 60 or above NewsGuard’s scale).

    • High safety (includes sites with overall “reliable” ratings/not flagged for NewsGuard’s most flagrant violations).

    • Maximum safety (includes sites deemed “reliable,” with none of the flagrant violations, or partisan or highly opinionated content).

NewsGuard said the tools are primarily used in programmatic media buys, but can also be applied manually when advertisers and agencies are making direct buys with publishers.

"We saw that many of our clients were customizing the way they used NewsGuard, going beyond our binary red and green rating system to create their own custom inclusion or exclusion standards based on the 0-100 credibility scores, nine criteria ratings, and dozens of metadata points that we capture for each site we rate," NewsGuard General Manager Matt Skibinski explains, adding, "These new segments we're launching are based in large part on what we learned from clients from observing those customizations.

"The idea is that brands can apply the same kind of nuance to match their desired safety level, but without needing to become experts on our data fields and rating standards in order to do so."

Next story loading loading..