In a landmark move, newspaper The Guardian is going to forfeit millions of dollars as it stops accepting gambling adverts.
The ban, which comes into affect on Thursday, will be across all Guardian services locally and globally, including Australia and the United Kingdom where The Guardian still has a print edition.
Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor said “Australians lose more on gambling per capita than any other country, and the harms of addiction are well documented. From today, the Guardian will reject gambling advertising globally”
“Most Australians want to enjoy watching sport without being bombarded by inducements to bet on it, and support restrictions on gambling advertising, according to recent research.”
She went on to say that that The Guardian wants to “end any reliance on gambling revenue” and that “support from our readers makes decisions like this possible”.
The move could be costly given that, according to a release from The Guardian, almost $300m was spent on gambling advertising in Australia in 2021.
Marketing personality Mark Ritson praised the publication for the move which he described as “a grown up approach to purpose driven decision making”.
In a LinkedIn post, Ritson said that “unlike the forced, unrealistic dogma of ‘Purpose = Profits’ the newspaper does not expect the move to be a sound financial call. It will cost them millions”.
“The purpose of purpose is purpose, not profit. And The Guardian is making the move anyway”.
The exact loss to The Guardian is not known, however outgoing managing director, Dan Stinton is reported to have said that it will be in the multi-millions.
“I won’t go into the specifics, but wagering advertising has grown really massively for us over the last few years, and that is the reason why we have become more uncomfortable with this, because it has felt like it is not in alignment with our editorial values or our journalism values,” he said.
“But in making this decision, we are effectively turning off one of our largest advertising categories, and our fastest growing one, and the impact is in the multi-millions.”
He added, however, that given the readership of The Guardian, the move will be good in the longterm.
“From an advertising point of view, the reason the vast majority of our clients advertise on The Guardian is because they want to align themselves with a masthead which is incredibly trusted by our audience.”
