Avoiding news may shrink German reach by almost 20%

Nearly 1 in 5 German adults consume news almost exclusively, making Germany the most news-obsessed advertising market of any region studied by Stagwell in its latest Future of News research.

The study has previously been conducted across APAC, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. This is the fifth time the study has reached the same conclusion: News is brand-safe and effective. For advertisers, Germany’s consumer habits underscore the question of whether brands can still afford to deprioritize news in their media plans.

This latest study, conducted across more than 11,000 respondents, found that 18% of German adults are “exclusive news junkies” — people whose media consumption is concentrated almost entirely in news, with no meaningful engagement with sports or entertainment content.

That’s nearly double the rate in every other market Stagwell has surveyed: APAC (9%), Canada (11%), the U.S. (11%) and the U.K. (10%).

“If a media plan excludes news, it automatically excludes 18% of the German population and a high-value audience,” said James Townsend, CEO of Stagwell EMEA.

But it’s not only the exclusive new junkies who fervently consume news. Germany also counts the highest share of news junkies at 35%, compared with 25% in the U.S. and the U.K. These readers check the news more than seven times a day and read more than 10 articles daily.

Townsend pointed to Germany’s public broadcasting infrastructure as a factor in content trends: “Germany has one of the strongest and most trusted public news systems in the world, creating habitual daily news consumption.”

Are buyers planning for news?

Industry data tracks with Stagwell’s research. Mediaplus sees around 18% of German audiences consuming news almost exclusively — “on average, even slightly above the 18% figure,” Michael Beuth, managing director at Mediaplus Germany, told The Current. “This underlines that news inventory plays a meaningful role in our media strategies in Germany.”

But keyword blocklists and brand-safety filters continue to penalize news inventory, Beuth said — despite the data consistently showing no reason to.

Indeed, Stagwell found that in Germany, purchase intent hit 66% when ads appeared next to political or crime coverage, versus 67% next to sports and entertainment, with no meaningful differences across Gen Z, millennials, high earners or university-educated audiences. That finding has been true across all five markets studied.

“[Blocking] happens in Germany as well. In particular, American platforms tend to overfilter — for example, blocking terms like ‘war,’ even when they appear in a legitimate news context. While the situation has improved over the years, it is still not fully resolved,” Beuth said.

Stagwell last year pledged a 22% year-on-year increase in news spend across its own portfolio, and Townsend told The Current there is “growing recognition that avoiding news comes with a measurable opportunity cost.”

For buyers running campaigns in Germany, the math is simple: 18% of the adult population consumes news almost exclusively and is unlikely to be reached anywhere else. After five studies, the evidence isn’t what’s missing.