NEW YORK – At the IAB NewFronts 2026, Abbey Thomas of Anoki AI had a message that might make media buyers do a double take: thanks to a new partnership with Allen Media Group, advertising in news may no longer feel like a reputational gamble.
Speaking with David Kaplan of Beet.TV, Thomas laid out how AI-powered contextual analysis is turning what used to be a blunt instrument into something more precise. Or at least something that does not panic at the word “news.”
Why news is no longer the third rail for advertisers
For years, advertisers treated news inventory like a cursed object. Touch it and something bad might happen. Thomas thinks that era is overdue for retirement.
“Advertisers have been afraid and have been blocking the news as a genre for far too long,” she said, pointing to the lack of transparency tools as the main culprit.
The issue, she explained, isn’t the content itself, but how it has been categorized. Entire programs get labeled “news” and written off, even when much of the content is perfectly suitable.
“Allen Media Group has incredibly safe and suitable information and content that is being aired and distributed,” Thomas said. “We can help them tell the story about suitability that exists across local news.”
In other words, not every segment is a crisis, even if the lower third suggests otherwise.
Aiming to fix a blunt system
That thinking is now being put into action. Anoki AI and Allen Media have launched a strategic partnership to bring Anoki’s ContextIQ technology across AMG’s streaming portfolio, which spans live news, weather, sports and entertainment.
The collaboration introduces scene level intelligence, allowing advertisers to evaluate content moment by moment instead of blocking entire categories. It is a shift away from static keyword filters that have historically shut out large portions of premium inventory.
By analyzing programming in real time, the system generates structured suitability signals that help advertisers make more informed decisions. For live news in particular, it tracks tone, topic sensitivity and story transitions so that ad placements reflect what is actually on screen, not just a generic label.
The result is a more modern framework for connected TV advertising. It gives brands access to high attention environments while maintaining control over where their ads appear. It also helps publishers better monetize trusted local content, including streams in key markets like Los Angeles and Orlando.
From brand safety to brand suitability
Brand safety and brand suitability aren’t the same thing, even if they often get treated as interchangeable, Thomas said.
“In suitability, oftentimes a brand has a particular taxonomy or prescription for how they approach what’s suitable to them,” she said.
Translation: what makes one marketer uneasy might be perfectly fine for another.
To reflect that reality, Anoki’s platform incorporates industry standards while also allowing advertisers to define their own rules. The system uses multimodal AI to interpret sentiment and context, rather than relying on rigid filters that treat every story the same.
“What’s important to you might be different than what’s important to the next person,” Thomas said.
It is a rare moment of personalization in a space that has long relied on one size fits all solutions.
Bigger push to bring advertisers back to journalism
Behind the product rollout is a broader ambition. Thomas framed the effort as part of a larger push to support news organizations at a critical moment.
“Responsible journalism is at an inflection point,” she said, emphasizing the importance of restoring advertiser demand across both local and national outlets.
The shift to streaming has made news more accessible than ever, but monetization has lagged behind. Many advertisers have simply opted out rather than navigate the perceived risks.
“Our partnership here with Allen Media Group is about allowing the industry to come back to the news with new suitability standards and a new look at transparency,” Thomas said.
If that vision holds, the payoff could be meaningful. Publishers gain revenue, advertisers regain reach and viewers get to keep watching their local news without wondering why the ad breaks feel like a public service announcement.
You’re watching Beet.TV coverage of the 2026 IAB NewFronts. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
