CEO of global media organization News Corp, Robert Thomson, said that he had discovered that staff at advertising agencies were allowing personal “political prejudices” to guide their work. He made the remarks at the International News Media Association (INMA) World Congress of News Media in New York.
“I asked the chief executive of one of the world largest companies why he had an ad ban against the New York Post … (with around 158 million monthly uniques),” he said, according to The Australian.
“The chief exec said he was completely unaware of any such ban – so he checked, and to his genuine and annoyed surprise, a hyper-politicized agency flunkey had a Post prohibition.
“The medium may be the message but unless we are more assertive and there is more transparency, certain advertising agencies will indulge their worst instincts, ad nauseam.”
Thomson said that the frustration with the Global Disinformation Index, a firm funded by the US and UK that provides blacklists of conservative websites to advertisers, was justifiable.
“These arrogant armchair amateurs have undue influence on ad spend by agencies and companies,” he said.
“No masthead is immune to sudden, capricious changes in algorithmic ranking that can affect your ad revenue.”
