Following the success of our July session on climate, this follow-up event fostered dialogue and developed discussions between publishers/media owners and media buyers. Our objective was to create a thriving media ecosystem by encouraging increased spending in quality media environments while ensuring content quality assurance through best practices.

The event brought together publishers, media agencies, and editorial and commercial teams to address crucial topics in climate communication and media integrity.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• We’re waking up to the dual threat that climate change and toxic information systems present to our future. We need an informed and engaged public if we are going to build solutions for climate change.

• It’s far easier to destroy trust than it is to build it. Co-ordination and regulation are essential to upholding high standards within quality digital publishing.

• We’ve overcomplicated the supply chain within the industry and there is waste baked into the system. Simplifying this process and reducing waste without reducing quality allows us to leverage sustainability into the conversation.

• Brand safety tools are designed to protect advertisers from worst of the internet, but it ends up being most harmful to the best of the internet. We need to trust editors to understand when to run advertisement against articles and when that is inappropriate.

• Traditional advertising metrics have such poor success rates that you need to buy millions of impressions to reach targets. If we had better value metrics around sustainability, we could reduce ineffective ad spend and by being more effective with our targeting, we can reach the right audiences. And as a byproduct, you also have a more sustainable advertising buy.

• We talk about the importance of the plurality of media, but we don’t have plurality of climate coverage; we need to look at the balance of coverage we’re giving to climate issues. Yes, we should critique and challenge new technologies and policies to ensure they’re fit for purpose, but we also need to amplify the positive success stories to accurately reflect the on-the-ground reality.