Alicia Campbell, Strategy and insights director, Seven West Media.
In the modern media landscape defined by infinite content, attention is no longer just a metric, it is a rare commodity. Across mediums, content is accessible at our fingertips 24 hours a day.
It can be in our ears via podcasts, on our commutes via billboards and vibrating in our pockets via notifications. But the dominant drain on attention remains the social feed, an endless loop designed to keep us scrolling.
For consumers, it can be overwhelming. For advertisers, it presents a fundamental challenge: how do you get someone to focus on your brand in a world where the next piece of content is just a swipe away? The answer lies in trusted news environments.
Escaping the scroll
Social feeds present a frenetic sequence of posts, hot takes, videos and commentary, designed to encourage constant movement, serving up repeated dopamine hits to keep users hooked.
But research now suggests people aren’t absorbing what they’re seeing; they’re moving too fast for anything to stick.
In a world where attention is scarce, not all impressions are created equal. Image: supplied
As one Gen Z respondent put it in the ThinkNewsBrands News Nation report: “Sometimes you log on to social media and you’re absolutely inundated. Like, there’s so much, you just want to switch off”.
Rather than opting out entirely, people are becoming more discerning.
They are consciously choosing what deserves their focus and, increasingly, that means turning to journalism: credible, considered, verified content that makes the time spent feel worthwhile.
About half of Australians begin their day consuming news, with engagement building throughout the day as people repeatedly return to check in. News is not a passive habit. It is a deliberate one.
The lean-in advantage
What distinguishes news consumption from many other digital behaviours is the mindset people bring to it. According to the News Nation report, 75% of Australians shift into a more focused state when engaging with journalism, pausing other activities to absorb the information in front of them.
That is a fundamentally different cognitive experience from flicking through a social feed. When people read an article, they limit multi-tasking. They follow the argument, the facts, the narrative. They are curious and they want to understand.
This kind of active, purposeful engagement is increasingly rare in digital environments, and it creates a connection between reader and content that carries real value for brands.
What attention is actually worth
For marketers, this behavioural shift carries direct implications. In a world where media reach is abundant, but attention is scarce, not all impressions are created equal.
When people spend more time with content and engage with it more deeply, advertising embedded within that environment benefits from what researchers call a “mental dividend”.
Research from the United States (cited in the News Nation report) shows that higher levels of attention and time spent on a page can improve advertising recall by as much as 77%.
But the numbers that should focus every media planner’s attention are these: Advertising placed alongside journalism delivers 6.4 times higher brand recall and 3.5 times stronger intent to act compared to non-news digital environments.
That is not a marginal difference. It is a structural one, and the quality of attention news environments command drives it entirely.
Trust plays a key role in how receptive our brains are to information. Image: supplied
Where trust changes the equation
Attention, however, is only part of the story. Trust plays an equally key role. Behavioural science tells us that when information comes from a source people recognise as credible, the brain perceives lower risk and becomes more receptive to what it is seeing.
That mindset shapes not just how people process editorial content, it also shapes how they absorb and respond to advertising. News environments carry inherent credibility because audiences know journalists have verified, contextualised and produced the information within professional editorial standards.
When advertising appears within that context, it benefits from a powerful trust halo, a transferred authority that no algorithm-driven feed can replicate. This combination of attention and trust is what makes news environments uniquely effective. It creates the conditions for brand messages to land with audiences who are attentive, curious and genuinely receptive.
The value of quality attention
Ultimately, building a brand requires more than appearing in front of audiences. It requires space for audiences to notice, process, and remember ideas, messages and brand attributes. That takes time. It takes focus. It takes attention.
The question for advertisers is no longer simply where to appear. It is, what kind of attention are you buying and is the environment you are investing in working for your message or against it?
In a world where distraction is constant and attention is fragmented, premium journalism remains one of the few environments that can hold an audience’s focus.
For brands serious about effectiveness, that is not a nice-to-have, it is the starting point.
Feature image- Alicia Campbell, Strategy and insights director, Seven West Media: supplied.