INMA will host the inaugural Media Advertising Week in New York from December 7–10, 2026, uniting global advertising and news media professionals. The four-day event will explore AI, measurement, premium audience strategies, diversification, and future revenue models, featuring a two-day conference and study tour to reshape the future of news media advertising.
The International News Media Association (INMA) has announced a landmark step for the global advertising and media ecosystem with the launch of the first-ever INMA Media Advertising Week, set to take place in New York from December 7 to 10, 2026. Positioned as the world’s first major event built specifically for the teams that conceive, create, build, and sell news media advertising, the four-day gathering aims to bring together the entire value chain of modern media advertising at a time when the industry faces unprecedented disruption and opportunity.
The event marks a significant milestone for an industry that has spent the past decade navigating seismic shifts driven by digital transformation, changing consumer behaviour, rapid technological advances, and the ever-evolving demands of advertisers. With these forces accelerating further through the rise of artificial intelligence, measurement overhaul, traffic fragmentation, and new forms of storytelling, INMA Media Advertising Week arrives at a critical moment. It is designed not only to assess the state of media advertising in 2026 but also to chart the future path for news media companies seeking to modernise and scale their advertising revenues.
Curated by Gabriel Dorosz, INMA’s global Advertising Initiative lead, the weeklong program will include a two-day conference and a two-day study tour. The official venue will be announced soon, but the organising team has confirmed that the event will be held in New York, the global centre of advertising, media innovation, and brand-building ecosystems. The city’s significance is not lost on industry leaders, who view it as the ideal location for conversations that require boldness, vision, and real-time exposure to some of the most advanced advertising operations and strategic hubs in the world.
For INMA, the launch of Media Advertising Week reflects a long-standing commitment to strengthening the business foundations of news publishers. “INMA’s commitment to advertising is about one thing: helping news publishers grow advertising that actually works for buyers and sellers,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, the organisation’s executive director and CEO. He emphasised that the event represents a doubling down on that mission — a deliberate effort to convene sales teams, product leaders, innovators, and agencies in the same space to tackle the big questions shaping advertising’s future. “Media Advertising Week is our way of doubling down on that commitment — putting sales teams, product people, and agencies in the same room to discuss how we modernise the ad offer, prove outcomes, and rebuild confidence in news as a premium marketing platform.”
In recent years, news organisations have grappled with extraordinary changes in the media landscape. AI-driven content flows, shifting traffic sources, declining organic reach, and the rise of platform intermediaries have complicated the path to sustained advertising success. Advertisers, meanwhile, are demanding clearer outcomes, transparency, flexibility, and assurance that their message appears in safe, premium environments. INMA Media Advertising Week aims to address all these dimensions, offering a space for reflection on recent disruptions while simultaneously providing insights into emerging strategies for the year ahead.
As Dorosz puts it, the industry is “navigating the largest media and technology evolution of our lifetimes,” but the fundamentals of effective advertising remain constant. “At its core, our work is still about defining how we get the right message to the right audiences, backed by the right data, delivered with excellence, and driving results that leave buyers genuinely delighted,” he said. This philosophy will guide the curation of the event’s keynote discussions, workshops, case studies, and networking opportunities. Rather than being a theoretical conversation about what advertising could be, INMA Media Advertising Week is intended to be a practical, solutions-driven forum where publishers demonstrate how they are modernising their offerings and building stronger pathways to revenue.
At the centre of the conference will be a two-day deep dive into the pressing issues, innovations, and opportunities shaping the future of media advertising. One of the biggest themes will be the impact of AI and its profound influence on traffic flows, targeting, creative development, operational workflows, and measurement. As generative AI reshapes content production and as algorithmic shifts alter the distribution patterns of news, publishers face new challenges in predicting audience behaviour and quantifying attention. AI is also influencing creative workflows, enabling hyper-personalised messaging and transforming how campaigns are conceived and executed. The conference will explore how media companies can harness these capabilities while staying ahead of the curve.
Another key stream will focus on deal strategy for premium publishers — including how they frame their value proposition, differentiate against competitors, build strong pricing models, bundle offerings, and create outcome-led campaigns that appeal to both brand and performance-driven advertisers. With the market increasingly focused on effectiveness, this track will highlight emerging frameworks for demonstrating real business impact and proving the relevance of news media as a premium environment.
Audience value will also be a major point of discussion. As scale becomes more fragmented, publishers are increasingly turning toward premium audience segments — particularly “superusers” who show high engagement, strong loyalty, and deeper behavioural signals. The conference will address how publishers can package and sell these audiences, build holistic revenue strategies, and diversify their ad portfolio in an era where third-party data continues to decline and first-party data strategies become indispensable.
Diversification and innovation will be another highlight, exploring new revenue lines that extend beyond traditional display advertising. Whether it’s branded content, premium video formats, sponsorship integrations, events, newsletters, commerce, or creative studio offerings, the track will showcase how publishers are finding new ways to monetise their platforms while maintaining editorial integrity. In parallel, a dedicated focus on data strategy and advanced measurement will examine how media companies can build attribution systems, invest in attention metrics, and adopt measurement tools tailored to protecting and growing revenue.
Crucially, the buyer’s perspective will also have a dedicated platform. INMA recognises that the future of news media advertising cannot be defined without the active involvement of brands and agencies. Brands will share what they want from publishers, where they see the greatest opportunities for collaboration, and what will drive their investment decisions in the years ahead.
Complementing the conference, the two-day study tour will unlock a rare opportunity for participants to step inside leading publishers, studios, platforms, and agencies across New York. These visits are expected to expose attendees to cutting-edge processes, innovative sales operations, creative briefing systems, and cross-functional workflows that typically remain behind closed doors. The study tour experience will encourage open conversations with the people building the next generation of advertising — the ones solving problems in real time and shaping the practical future of media monetisation.
INMA Media Advertising Week is designed for a broad cross-section of professionals: advertising sales teams, strategists, creative leaders, insights specialists, ad operations teams, partnership leads, affiliate commerce managers, product teams, and external partners, including agencies and brands seeking high-quality news inventory.
With more than 24,000 professionals across 1,000+ organisations in over 100 countries, INMA has long served as a global nerve centre for best practices in news media. Through events, reports, Webinars, research, and its extensive archive, it helps publishers navigate a fast-changing marketplace. Its Advertising Initiative, in particular, supports the development of first-party data strategies, AI-powered ad operations, premium formats, measurement advancements, and brand safety frameworks — all of which will shape the core agenda of Media Advertising Week.
With its first edition scheduled for December 2026, INMA Media Advertising Week signals a new era of global collaboration, insight exchange, and collective problem-solving for an industry that remains vital to public discourse. By bringing leaders together at the intersection of creativity, technology, strategy, and commercial innovation, INMA aims to help shape the future of news media advertising — guided by trust, grounded in data, and ready for the next wave of transformation.
