Earlier this month, Allwyn’s global media director Ross Sergeant announced he would be joining GB News as its chief revenue officer.

The appointment comes amid what Sergeant has referred to as an “inflection point” for the company. GB News has cumulatively lost £131.5m since its inception in 2021, with funding provided by owners Sir Paul Marshall and Dubai-based investment firm Legatum. But losses have been narrowing amid double-digit revenue growth and audiences have been growing as well. According to Barb figures, GB News has beaten both BBC News and Sky News in average audience and audience share in seven of the last eight months.

But with growth comes scrutiny – from us here at The Media Leader and elsewhere. An investigation by Alan Rusbridger at The New World last week found that “GB News has essentially become Reform TV”, while broadcasting regulator Ofcom has “more or less given up the ghost”.

Not only is GB News regularly airing incendiary, biased political views that align with the Reform Party — including by employing the party's sitting MPs, such as Nigel Farage, as presenters — but it’s also arguably doing so in contradiction of Ofcom regulations that, seemingly, aren’t being enforced.

The Media Leader wanted to raise these topics and more with Sergeant, who is now being tasked with selling GB News to advertisers. Many such advertisers, particularly larger brands, have been skittish over concerns around brand safety and suitability and the nascent nature of the fledgling broadcaster.

Highlights:

1:43: Sergeant's background in media and why he joined GB News.

13:30: Is GB News 'Reform TV'?

24:40: Flouting Ofcom rules and incendiary rhetoric — does GB News have a brand safety problem?

39:23: GB News's growing audience and Sergeant's blueprint for making the broadcaster profitable.

50:42: Considering the state of the wider TV market and GB News's sales strategy within it.

Related articles:

Ross Sergeant joins GB News as chief revenue officer amid growth push

Twitter on TV: the real reasons why advertisers avoid GB News

Screen scandal: How Ofcom lets GB News get away with it (The New World)

Digital assets are have for several years been the main growth drivers for most media owners. This is as true of TV – ITV just announced it saw 10% growth in digital revenues compared to flat overall revenue growth – as it is in publishing, as seen in the latest consumer ABC figures, as it is OOH, as it is in, of course, social media and search.

So it was little surprise that, according to IAB UK’s latest digital adspend report, in 2025 the UK’s digital ad market grew 10% to £40.5bn pounds. It’s a staggering number, especially when you consider that AA/Warc estimated the total UK ad market reached £46.9bn pounds last year.

Adspend on social media grew 21% year on year to £11.5bn, even as industry leaders at both agencies and competing media owners made the case to "turn down the toxic" by divesting from social and reinvesting in more trusted media channels.

Elizabeth Lane is the head of insight at IAB UK. She sat down with host Jack Benjamin her to unpack the latest adspend report, and why video in particular was a driving force for digital growth last year.

The duo also discussed how AI is changing search to the detriment of publishers, what to watch out for in retail media, and why gaming and digital OOH also saw double-digit growth in 2025.

Highlights:

1:21: Toplines from IAB UK's 2025 Digital Adspend Report

3:41: Social's pivot to video helps explain its 20% growth rate

13:39: Search, retail media and gaming: disruption and missed opportunities

24:06: How AI could change digital investment

Related articles:

UK adspend expected to surpass £50bn for first time in 2026

High-attention media is more profitable, finds Peter Field, Lumen and Newsworks

Reddit looks to scale through search, performance and insight

Why audio is embracing video — with News Broadcasting’s Dave Wilcox and Russell Pedrick

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In February, the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) released its latest Agency Census. The findings showed an agency market in contraction: employment at creative agencies fell 14.3% last year – and that’s before Omnicom completed its acquisition of IPG and subsequently announced it would cut thousands more jobs globally.

New hiring dropped over 40%, with young people especially finding careers in media and advertising hard to break into, let alone remain in.

However, the Census also registered continued progress in gender representation and ethnic diversity at agencies, even if pay gaps persist and geographical diversity is lacking.

Lianree Robinson is the campaigning chair for Women in Advertising & Communications Leadership (WACL). She also works as the CEO of The Marketing Academy Foundation and as a mentor for Who’s Your Momma London.

If that wasn’t enough to keep Robinson busy, she’s also begun writing a monthly column for us at The Media Leader.

Robinson joins host Jack Benjamin to discuss the findings of the IPA Agency Census, and provide a sense check of the progress the media and advertising industries have made with regard to gender and ethnicity inclusion.

Highlights:

5:38: IPA Agency Census toplines

7:16: What has caused the creative agency labour market contraction?

10:20: Challenges faced by under-25s employees

19:24: Progress, but "relatively slow progress", on gender representation and ethnic diversity

24:43: Persistent gender and ethnic pay gaps

27:59: WACL's key priorities

31:33: Geographical diversity needed

Related articles:

Agency employment declines 6.8% as creative roles hollowed out

Why do female-founded agencies remain the exception?

I didn’t take the ‘traditional’ route into media. That’s exactly why it worked

Ask Nabs Anything: Handling redundancy, rejection and mental health — with Nabs’ Annabel McCaffrey

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In January, an anonymous group of senior leaders at creative, media and adtech agencies released a memo warning that the industry is failing in its moral and civic duties to society.

The memo argued that without an interruption to the status quo, advertising will “be a critical enabler to tech platforms that stoke hatred and division, facilitate hate groups to monetise their content at a time of increasing division in this country and many others, support the social license of the fossil fuel industry and provide broader greenwashing and social-washing services to industries that are under public scrutiny, and roll over in the face of anti-DEI rhetoric and desert those individuals, teams and communities that our industry has made commitments to.”

It also argued that British business interests are losing independence to US political interests, that working groups have failed to drive internal change, and that the presence of Big Tech companies at industry-wide events and initiatives has stymied attempts at progress.

The memo caused a stir, particularly given its timing just days ahead of the annual LEAD conference convened much of media and advertising's top brass to discuss the importance of trust.

Its authors were criticised for remaining anonymous, but they nevertheless succeeded in sparking a conversation and renewed interest in key ethical issues that have arguably been suppressed since Trump’s re-election as US president in late 2024.

Ned Younger is the director of Inside Track, the non-profit that was responsible for convening these anonymous individuals and facilitating their production of the memo.

He sat down with The Media Leader earlier this month to discuss his takeaways from the group, and whether he thinks they will drive real change in the advertising industry.

Highlights:

2:04: What is Inside Track and how did it convene this anonymous group?

6:41: Main concerns expressed by the group

10:27: Future direction, calls to action, and the need for better forums of conversation

15:16: Why remain anonymous?

22:58: The risk of insufficient progress

Related articles:

Anonymous group of senior ad industry leaders warns of industry-wide moral failing

Government plans new powers to tackle online harms: ‘No platform gets a free pass’

Meta admits revenue from fraud and scam ads ‘might’ have accounted for 3-4% of total revenue

The crisis in advertising: things we can do today

Act Climate Labs launches blueprint to phase out fossil fuel advertising

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Late last month, a group of six magazine publishers – Bauer, Future, Hearst UK, Hello!, Immediate and Time Out – launched Atria, a single marketplace through which advertisers can engage with the combined reach of those publishers’ brands, equivalent to about 33m consumers.

The effort is powered by publisher-owned first-party data. It is hosted by audience platform Permutive.

Cath Waller is the managing director of advertising at Immediate Media. She is also the chair of PPA Magnetic, part of the Professional Publishers Association, the trade body for publishers.

A leading voice behind the Atria effort, Waller sat down with host Jack Benjamin to discuss the marketplace's launch and where it might be headed next.

The pair also discussed the current state of magazine publishing, and the headwinds and tailwinds facing Immediate.

Highlights:

2:43: The launch of Atria: how it works and how it came together

10:12: "The industry is where it is": Magazine media is disinvested and publishers are under pressure

15:25: The value of trusted editorial and a cleaner supply chain

20:41: Future-facing goals

26:59: How to handle AI? Embracing innovation as AI search reduces traffic

Related articles:

Why quality pays: the power of trusted editorial in media planning – PPA Magnetic and The Media Leader

CMOs on what makes publisher partnerships work: ‘Great partners push back’

PPA asks CMA to require greater transparency of Google’s AI search features

The Fishbowl: Cath Waller, Immediate Media

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At the end of January, The Media Leader held its first ever Audio In Focus Week. The audio landscape is evolving at a breakneck pace – with growing digital audio audiences, and audio businesses moving into video production. So, we decided to dedicate an entire week’s worth of our coverage to exploring the innovations, strategies and voices shaping the media channel.

The week was launched in partnership with Octave Audio, the digital audio marketplace owned by News Broadcasting.

During the week, host Jack Benjamin sat down with Octave’s managing director Russell Pedrick, as well as News Broadcasting commercial director Dave Wilcox, at in News' London Bridge studio to discuss how the company’s audio offering has developed over the past year.

Octave came under the full ownership of News UK last summer, after News bought out Bauer’s share. Bauer went on to launch its own digital audio marketplace, AudioXi.

Pedrick was appointed MD in April ahead of the relaunch of Octave, and he’s since worked to expand the service to encompasses visual inventory as well, as News Broadcasting products talkSport, Times Radio, Virgin Radio and Talk Radio transform from radio and podcast shows to visual shows commonly watched online and on TV screens.

Pedrick and Wilcox discussed audio's transition to video, Octave’s new AI product, and why they believe digital audio is undervalued in the current market. Hint: it involves needing better measurement standards.

Highlights:

5:03: Octave's strategic priorities

7:31: Octave AI: balancing generative AI creative with desire for the human element

12:04: Audio and video are merging, creating new commercial opportunities

18:53: Embracing an omnichannel approach and a platform-led audience strategy

24:04: Does podcasting need its own JIC?

27:24: World Cup opportunity and why digital audio is undervalued

Related articles:

Octave MD reflects on how ‘audio is becoming a bit of a bolt on’ in podcasting

Predictions for audio in 2026 from industry experts

Why the 2026 World Cup should be the ultimate multi-channel showcase

Rajar Q4 2025: Top Takeaways

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This month, advertising industry trade bodies the IPA, Isba and the Advertising Association are spending a great deal of combined energy highlighting the issue of trust.

That includes at the annual LEAD conference, which takes place this Thursday, and in a report released last week by the IPA that found trust-building ad campaigns improve business outcomes.

Trust is what drives consumers to purchase goods and services from one brand over another; to give their attention to one media channel over another. And in a world of AI slop, misinformation, and falling trust in traditional institutions — a world in which trust is increasingly at a premium — it’s no surprise that the issue has been a core topic among executives in recent months, particularly those leading media channels like publishing and audio.

Matt Bourn is the communications director at the Advertising Association. James Best is chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Credos, the Advertising Association’s think tank.

On February 3rd, the duo are releasing a new book, published by Kogan Page, titled Trusted Advertising – How to harness the value of trust in your brand.

Bourn and Best joined The Media Leader to discuss takeaways the book, whether advertisers are sufficiently valuing trusted media channels, and what they can do to better build trust in their brands.

Highlights:

7:37: How the dynamics of trust have changed in the 21st century

15:27: Understanding the public's trust in the advertising industry and trust in individual ads

22:40: The business case for trust

28:18: The tricky phenomenon of trust in influencers

34:01: The AI issue: More slop, but also more monitoring

36:56: What makes a trusted advertising campaign? Media choice, creative, measuring trust as a KPI

Related articles:

Trust-building ad campaigns improve business outcomes, IPA research finds

Bauer Media Advertising MD Simon Kilby: We’re in a world that needs to start supporting trusted environments

Why quality pays: the power of trusted editorial in media planning – PPA Magnetic and The Media Leader

Does trust matter in media?

Trust is essential to the future of media. But how can advertisers measure it?

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