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No matter where you read or what you read on, Newsweek has a product for you. From a Twitter feed followed by millions to mobile apps across devices to a responsive website to a print magazine, get the news that will reach and influence decision makers anytime and anywhere. Newsweek.com is in sync with the 24/7 news cycle, giving readers a destination for breaking news, exclusives, and commentary on the issues of the day. Newsweek Magazine is a powerful combination of news, culture and ideas with a clear point of view: we get the first and final say on major stories of the day. Newsweek Magazine is edited for the voracious consumer of information, and designed to surprise, educate and delight. In the print component of a modern news ecosystem, Newsweek delivers thought-provoking content to smart, successful readers. Both the digital and print platforms are the authoritative news outlets of choice for the sought-after thought-leader audience.

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TAG Publisher Sourcing Disclosure

TAG Certified Against Fraud Logo

Newsweek is committed to the promotion of transparency and to a fraud free advertising marketplace. As part of such commitment, Newsweek is a participant in the Trustworthy Accountability Group ("TAG") Certified Against Fraud Program and adheres to TAG Certified Against Fraud Guidelines. A key element of TAG certification is the full and regular disclosure of All Traffic Sources, see below for Newsweek property.

If you have any questions regarding IVT monitoring practices or about our TAG Certification, you can get in touch by contacting your Account Manager (if you are an existing client) and/or by sending an email to: advisory.team@newsweek.co

Traffic Sources

Last update: 08/4/2024 - view full table

Description of Methodology

Newsweek is a multinational Publishing Company with Headquartered in New York, the company has offices in New York (USA), London (UK) and Bangalore (India).

Websites subject to this Description of Methodology:

• Site: www.newsweek.com

Newsweek and Anti-Fraud Certification

Newsweek is committed to the promotion of transparency and to a fraud free advertising marketplace. As part of such commitment, Newsweek is a participant in the Trustworthy Accountability Group ("TAG") Certified Against Fraud Program and adheres to TAG Certified Against Fraud Guidelines, which includes:

• Performing an internal audit on a quarterly basis to ensure that the guidelines are being followed;
• Submitting two public affidavits to the TAG annually, one from the Compliance Officer and one from the CEO or COO; and
• Submitting to an annual validation performed by an independent third party approved by TAG, to provide additional assurance that Newsweek complies with the Certified Against Fraud

Newsweek team has engaged with an external auditor to be independently validated on the TAG Certification Against Fraud as an added layer of assurance. This document is not intended to replace TAG standard Terms & Conditions contained in their client contracts and agreements, it is intended to supplement those documents to disclose their practices under the Anti-Fraud Guidelines.

Anti-Fraud Operations and Controls

Invalid Traffic Processes and frequency

Parameter Based and Activity Based Detection

Newsweek performs the following Parameter Based and Activity Based Detection checks:

• Data center IP threat filtering:
  • Newsweek uses a third party IVT tool/platform as part of the Newsweek pre-bid blocking
  • Additionally, Newsweek has an internal IP black-list.
• User-Agent list:
  • Newsweek's third party IVT tool/platform uses the IAB user agent list in their pre-bid blocking process.
  • Additionally, Newsweek keeps an internal User-agent list.
• Domain threat filtering
  • Newsweek identifies and monitors referral domains and blocks domains as needed. Newsweek keeps a domain block list. The list is updated monthly.
• Third party IVT tools are used to 100% of display and video impressions that reach the sites.
• Impression reconciliation between the ad server and the MRC Accredited IVT reporting/detection tools are performed daily, weekly and monthly, to verify that every impression that can be measured by each IVT tool is being monitored.
  • monitoring is performed at the campaign and the site level.
• Traffic sources are analyzed and reconciled weekly and monthly.
• Identifying, researching and resolving IVT levels above internal thresholds:
  • Alerts are set up for all campaigns and/or sites that reach internal IVT thresholds
  • Once alerts are sent, a trouble shooting and resolution process starts, involving MRC Accredited IVT tools, ad server, Google Analytics, and any other analytics tools used by Newsweek, Client and client tools and information.
• Newsweek uses a collection of lists, controls and IVT tools for identifying and filtering invalid traffic; including scans and filters that are performed at page level. Once user reaches our sites, Newsweek monitors every impression (Display and Video) with MRC accredited IVT tools to ensure that Newsweek inventory is within IVT internal benchmarks. On occasions deeper analyses are performed on a sampling of transactions, or when suspicious activity is detected.
• Additional Activity Based Detection are performed on a weekly basis, as part of our IVT management process, to minimize our fraud exposure. These activities are triggered if we detected IVT above internal benchmarks.

Traffic Acquisition

Newsweek reviews sources of traffic before engaging with potential partners, against internal IVT rules and policies before approval. All partners are reviewed by the Business Development and the Business Intelligence Teams, which reviews all sources against Newsweek's internal rules and policies before approval.

Partner Qualification

Every potential partner, traffic source, advertising platform, DSP and/or client goes through a partner vetting process to ensure that they comply with Newsweek's eligibility criteria. The Vetting process includes:

• For traffic sources partners:
• Checking if potential partner is TAG verified and has TAG Anti-Fraud Certification.
• Inventory review from sources and IVT perspective
• Interviews with Client and contract when relation is expected to last more than a month.
• For Advertising platforms, DSP, SSP, and/or clients that buy advertising from Newsweek:
• Check if partner is TAG verified and has TAG Anti-Fraud Certification.
• Check if they follow good business practices.
• Check if client uses IVT tools that are MRC accredited, and verifying they possess pre-biding capabilities, as applicable and needed.
• Ads.txt
• For the on-boarding of every new advertising partner, ads.txt codes are solicited and uploaded, if provided, to the following directories where applicable:
• https://www.newsweek.com/ads.txt
• These are reviewed monthly.
• Before Newsweek commences a relationship with any business partner, the following initial qualification questions are addressed:
• Is the partner a legitimate business with a permanent address, contact information etc.?
• Does the business work in compliance with and promote the standards of major ad-tech organizations, such as IAB, MRC and TAG?
• Is the partner willing to confirm in writing (contract) that they are in compliance with the TAG Inventory Quality Guidelines?
• Has partner been subject to any material fraud (claims) in the past? How did the partner manage such claim/s?
• How does the partner combat IVT? What's their Description of Methodology?

Once these steps have been completed, Newsweek signs a contract with the partner. Newsweek standard provisions against fraud are detailed in this document.

Process and Transaction Auditing

After integration, every partner is monitored on a continuous basis to ensure the levels of IVT and other anomalies are in alignment with Newsweek and industry benchmarks and to discover any substantial trends. To maintain Newsweek certification through compliance with the TAG Anti-Fraud Guidelines, a quarterly internal audit is conducted by the TAG Compliance Officer.

Compliance Process

Newsweek has designated a Compliance Officer who is responsible for:

• Performing any necessary quarterly testing to ensure continued compliance
• Maintaining this Description of Methodology
• Preparing annual attestations to compliance

On an annual basis Newsweek will engage external audit professionals to ensure their continued compliance with TAG Anti-Fraud Guidelines.

Updating Processes

The Advisory Team, which includes members of the Business Intelligence, Ad Serving and Account Management teams, is responsible for invalid traffic identification, process development and process modification on a perpetual basis. The findings and recommendations of these teams are escalated to the team, which includes the IT team, the Product team, the Head of Advertising Operations, Digital Advertising Yield Director, the VP of Product and BI, the CTO and the COO.

Handling of Complaints

Customer fraud complaints originate through Account Managers. If fraud is suspected, the matter is forwarded to the Advisory team. If the suspected fraud is confirmed, the matter is escalated to the Team. The Solutions team takes a deeper dive into the data to identify the source and develop corrective actions and future controls. The Solution team will be in communication with the Account Manager, the IVT technology providers and the Client as needed to solve the problem. Once the issue is resolved the Account Manager is notified and the Account Manager notifies the client in written.

Back-wards Looking Assessment and Correction

In the event that any of the impressions sold by Newsweek to a client is determined or attributed to be fraudulent, invalid, non-human traffic or served on fraudulent websites, applications or properties not included in the contract, and the % of these impressions is above the threshold determined by Media Rating Council (MRC), which today is 5%, or is above the threshold level established in the contract, a backward-looking analysis and correction process will be performed to assess and correct the situation.

• The backward analysis will be up to 14 days prior to the day when the IVT level surpasses the MRC threshold, following MRC guidance.
• Client shall be entitled to a make-good for impressions served to fraudulent, non-human or invalid traffic that is above the threshold deemed acceptable as per MRC (today 5%), or is above the threshold level established in the contract, or up to 14 days since the day the IVT level is above applicable threshold.

Feel free to contact us if you have any question regarding IVT or our TAG Certifications by contacting your Account Manager (if you are an existent client) and/or by sending an email to: advisory.team@newsweek.com