NewsGuard will enable Zefr’s clients to create inclusion and exclusion lists, preventing them from “overblocking” legitimate news publishers. (Image: NewsGuard)
On the heels of a joint report estimating advertisers place $2.6 billion annually in digital media buys on publishers of misinformation, Comscore and NewsGuard are launching a new service to help thwart it. Comscore said it will integrate NewsGuard’s data into its pre-bid contextual targeting options for the demand-side platforms (DSPs) it works with, enabling advertisers and agencies to select custom NewsGuard segments that exclude publishers of misinformation from their ad buys.
After raising $6 million, the start-up NewsGuard, co-founded by Steve Brill, has signed Microsoft as its first major client. The main goal: to combat the spread of false stories on the internet.
Media entrepreneur Steven Brill thinks there’s something missing from all the efforts to separate fake news from the real kind: Some smart and discerning humans. Faced with the waves of mis- and disinformation lapping up on social media, Brill is proposing to apply some reader-beware labels to Internet news sources. His idea: ratings, as determined by teams of independent journalists, that would enable readers to understand where their news — or “news” — is coming from.
