News Australia pitches advocacy as brand growth strategy at Beyond’27

News Australia has used its Beyond’27 Advocacy & Impact showcase to position reputation and advocacy as increasingly important commercial priorities for brands, as consumer trust becomes harder to earn.

The session also saw the publisher unveil four dedicated Impact Editors, a new Better Australia advocacy framework, and an expanded Let Kids campaign platform.

Michael Miller, News Corp Australasia Executive Chairman, opened the session before The Growth Distillery’s Leigh Lavery took the stage to examine the trust and reputation challenges facing brands.

Trust becomes a business issue

Research presented by Leigh Lavery, General Manager of The Growth Distillery, showed eight in 10 Australians are tired of brands claiming to be trustworthy. Seven in 10 believe institutions including governments, corporations and religious organisations put their own interests first.

The Growth Distillery’s 2026 research also found 73 per cent of Australians are more cautious about trusting brands than they used to be. A further 60 per cent are concerned about online safety, privacy and scams.

Lavery argued that misinformation, amplified by generative AI, is shrinking the amount of time brands have to respond when false information spreads.

“Reputation is no longer a soft brand asset. It’s pre-built resilience,” he said.

He argued that brands need to build trust before a reputational problem emerges, rather than trying to create it once a crisis has begun.

Lavery also pointed to a shift away from broad purpose statements towards visible action closer to consumers.

“Global purpose is a press release. Local contribution is an experience that is remembered,” he said.

READ MORE: News Australia tears up the upfront playbook with Beyond’27

News Australia expands advocacy structure

News Australia National Advocacy Director John Lehmann said the company’s approach remains centred on campaigns originating within its newsrooms.

“The strength of our Advocacy and Impact program is that our campaigns are editorially led. Real advocacy begins when a journalist sees an issue that demands action and decides to pursue it,” Lehmann said.

“Robust journalism is the bedrock of trust. We have the mastheads and the scale to engage millions of Australians and kick-start national conversations.”

The publisher has appointed four senior journalists as Impact Editors to develop and coordinate advocacy work across its portfolio. 

• Sarah Blake will lead campaigns across state and regional mastheads including The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser.
• Lillian Saleh will coordinate national coverage across News Australia’s free mastheads and lifestyle brands including Body+Soul, Escape and Taste.com.au.
• Liz Burke will spearhead advocacy coverage for news.com.au.
• Danielle Long will lead advocacy across The Australian and Prestige brands, alongside her role as editor of The Growth Agenda.

A Better Australia framework

Marketing Director Bettina Brown also introduced the Better Australia framework, grouping News Australia’s advocacy programs under three pillars: Better for Our Nation, Better for Our Communities and Better for Our Families. 

The structure is designed to help commercial partners identify programs that align with their advocacy and corporate responsibility priorities.

Under Better for Our Families, News Australia will expand its children-focused advocacy through three campaigns:

• Let Kids Play, focused on helping children lead more active and healthy lives.
• Let Kids Thrive, centred on youth mental health.
• Let Kids Save, focused on financial literacy for the next generation.

Brown said Let Kids Play is scheduled to launch in February, with Let Kids Thrive earmarked for April and Let Kids Save slated for June.

The Bruce Highway as a proof point

The session also examined how advocacy can produce both public-interest and commercial outcomes.

The Courier-Mail Editor Chris Jones joined Westpac Chief Growth, Brand & Marketing Officer Michelle Klein to discuss campaigns including Help Our Highway and Back Australia.

Jones said Help Our Highway grew from conversations with News Australia editors across Queensland, who consistently identified the Bruce Highway as one of the biggest concerns for their communities.

The campaign called for the full highway between Brisbane and Cairns to meet minimum safety standards. Jones said it initially helped secure an additional $500 million in funding, before the campaign continued throughout the year. 

He recalled later receiving a phone call from the Prime Minister, who told him a $9 billion federal commitment would be made towards upgrading the highway.

“Your advocacy is the reason that we’re going to fund this upgrade,” Jones recalled being told.

Jones said the Queensland Government subsequently committed its $1.8 billion share of the project.

Klein, who worked with NRMA Insurance on the campaign before joining Westpac, said the partnership also contributed to improvements in measures including brand preference, consideration and awareness.

She said advocacy gave the insurer a way to demonstrate its promise to help communities through action, rather than relying solely on brand messaging.

READ MORE: News Corp and NRMA launch campaign to fix QLD’s Bruce Highway

Westpac backs advocacy model

Klein also discussed Westpac’s involvement in Back Australia, which champions Australian businesses, and its new partnership with News Australia on Scam Proof Australia.

She said Back Australia allowed the bank to combine advertising with editorial storytelling about Australian business owners, while supporting measurable commercial outcomes.

“We saw immediate impact on transactions,” Klein said, adding that Westpac also recorded improvements in consideration of its products and services.

The result, she said, has encouraged Westpac to continue investing in similar advocacy programs.

‘Advocacy is no longer just a values exercise’

News Australia Chief Revenue Officer Lou Barrett said the publisher increasingly links advocacy to commercial performance.

“True brand reputation has to be earned, not bought. Advocacy is no longer just a values exercise; it is a growth strategy,” Barrett said.

“We are giving our partners access to trusted environments and high-impact platforms so they can build the kind of reputation that drives real commercial outcomes and makes every other part of their marketing work harder.” 

Barrett told attendees that attention could be bought, but trust had to be earned, arguing that brands would increasingly need to participate consistently in issues that matter to Australians.

Beyond’27 is being run as five separate category-focused sessions, with each examining different consumer forces, behavioural shifts and commercial opportunities.