Vice Media Urges Marketers to Reassess ‘Antiquated’ Blocklists

For a second year, Vice uses NewFronts to call for industry change

Marsha Cooke, svp of content strategy and community at Vice Media, said advertisers have not changed their ways after a similar call to action in 2019. Vice Media

By Kelsey Sutton

June 24, 2020

Key insights:

Blocklists are negatively affecting publishers' ability to monetize content around Covid-19 and nationwide protests.

In the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice, marketers and agencies that work with Vice Media have added terms like “Black Lives Matter,” “protest,” “Minneapolis” and even “Black people” to blocklists. As a result, the publisher’s news coverage related to those ongoing nationwide protests was monetized at a rate 57% lower than other news coverage.

Kelsey Sutton

@kelseymsutton kelsey.sutton@adweek.com Kelsey Sutton is the streaming editor at Adweek, where she covers the business of streaming television.