UK: Facebook is the news industry's mutual challenge, says Guardian editor

"The idea of the challenging wide-open worldwide web has been replaced by platforms and publishers who maximize the amount of time you spend with them and find clever ways to stop you leaving. That may be great news for advertisers and the platforms themselves, but it's a real concern for the news industry," told guest speaker Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of British newspaper The Guardian, to a record-breaking audience of 400 UK senior marketers at the Annual Lunch hosted by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) in London this month.

In her thought-provoking speech, Viner outlined the interdependency between the publishing and creative advertising industry, the realities of today's media environment and the implications for both journalism and brands.

She referred to a Reuters Institute report on people's current news consumption habits and showed just how dominant Facebook has become as a platform on which people find news and how hard both journalists and advertisers need to fight to be seen in the news feed.

Talking about Facebook's recently tweaked algorithm, which favours content that's shared by people's friends and family rather than what publishers share, Viner described these filters as "echo chambers" that lead to people becoming isolated from opposing views and facts %u2013 and that can perpetuate myths rather than facts, as seen throughout the Brexit referendum.

"Traditional news values are important %u2013 they matter and they are worth defending," she said. Viner recognised the important role advertising plays in the publishing industry, and urged for a change in an environment that sees true journalism take second place to fake stories designed to encourage click through.

Previous speakers at the ISBA lunch were Unilever CMO Keith Weed, former Facebook Managing Director EMEA Joanna Shields, and former The Times editor James Harding.

For more information, visit the event page or contact ISBA.