The Guardian is ramping up its online advertising services to embrace a “privacy-first” model, as it ditches third-party cookies to provide more consistent and effective campaign performance while maintaining a high-quality ad experience for readers.
The title, published by Guardian News & Media (GNM), claims to be one of the largest English-speaking “quality” news websites in the world. It is one of the few online publications that does not have a paywall, although it is reportedly investigating the introduction of a “consent or pay” subscription model.
Since launching its US and Australian digital editions in 2011 and 2013, respectively, traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience.
Now, it has entered into a global partnership with identity provider ID5, designed to improve audience addressability and deliver more impactful advertising opportunities across its digital properties.
The move marks the first step in the Guardian’s broader identity strategy, as it explores additional use cases designed to respect readers’ privacy while improving engagement for advertisers.
The Guardian joins a growing list of premium publishers including CNN, EuroNews, and Future Today investing in ID5 solutions built to serve their interests and those of their global audience.
Guardian chief advertising officer for North America Sara Badler said: “Adding ID5’s identity layer to our tech stack will help us to better understand our readers, which means more strategic collaboration with our ad partners.
“Our readers are an influential audience who have a deep affinity with our global brand. It is important to us to ensure an exceptional ad experience for them and deliver more meaningful and relevant opportunities for advertisers and marketers.”
The partnership reflects the Guardian’s commitment to a long-term ID strategy that moves beyond third-party cookies to support more resilient and effective advertising revenue.
ID5 vice-president of publisher development Morwenna Beales added: “The Guardian is a global leader in progressive, transparent publishing, and we’re proud to support their identity strategy.
“This partnership reflects the evolution of digital identity toward a sustainable, privacy-first model that empowers publishers to take control of their audience relationships and future-proof their monetisation strategies.”
The move follows last week’s call from publishing trade body the PPA, which has urged the Government to relax the laws around data sharing for advertising purposes to allow the industry to pursue greater personalisation, or risk its future.
Although the Guardian is a member of the News Media Association and not the PPA, any change in the law would benefit all publishers.
Picture credit: Photograph by David Levene 22/4/25
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