On this episode of the MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire head of marketing Grainne Reid is joined by head of content John Still and Rob Bradley, SVP of Digital Revenue, Strategy and Operations at CNN to discuss the latest in the media and marketing sectors. 

They look at the latest news surrounding Google, including the reversal of its plan to eliminate third-party cookies, and the recent ruling that the tech giant has monopolised the digital advertising market. They also discuss declining news ad spend, and the fall in overall marketing budgets for the first quarter of 2025. 

Google making headlines

​Google has reversed its plan to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome, opting instead to maintain them while "enhancing user control over privacy settings".

Elsewhere, a US judge ruled that Google illegally monopolised key online advertising markets, potentially leading to the breakup of its ad tech business.

News ad spend down

According to WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report, ad spend on news content is in steep decline across multiple channels, with brands shifting investment away from professionally produced journalism in favour of user generated content and creator journalists.

The report forecasts that global ad spend on news brands will fall to USD$32.3bn (£24bn) this year, marking a 33.1% drop since 2019. Globally, only 51% of ad spend now goes to professionally produced content, down from 72% in 2019.

IPA Bellwether Q1 2025

Overall marketing budgets for Q1 2025 fell for the first time in four years, the latest IPA Bellwether report reveals. A net balance of –4.8% of firms cut their marketing budgets, contrasting the previous quarter which recorded a net balance of almost +2%. Evidence suggests that marketing spend was allocated elsewhere as a result of declining sales and reduced revenue.