---
title: "The cost of attention isn’t the same everywhere"
description: "Some thoughts on why a story published on Daily Maverick does something to enhance a standard media schedule."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Sponsored Content"
author: "Daily Maverick"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/dailymaverick/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-09-15-the-cost-of-attention-isnt-the-same-everywhere/"
published: "2026-09-15T15:03:10"
updated: "2026-09-15T15:08:53"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 456
---

# The cost of attention isn’t the same everywhere

> Some thoughts on why a story published on Daily Maverick does something to enhance a standard media schedule.

By Daily Maverick · Published 15 September 2026, 17:03 SAST · Updated 15 September 2026, 17:08 SAST

## Content

Yes, this is an ad. We've labelled it, and you'd have worked that out anyway.

Most conversations about a media plan begin with how many people will see your message. The more difficult question, and the one that tends to get skipped, is what those people will make of it once they read your message.

The research on that is firmer than you might expect. Comscore found that ads on premium publisher sites produced roughly 67% higher brand lift than the same ads elsewhere, with the widest gap on the middle-of-funnel measures: favourability, consideration, whether someone would recommend you. A 2024 Canadian study by Cossette Media and Vox Pop Labs called it the trust premium and put it at around 25%. There's nothing mysterious in it. A reader who has decided a publication is worth their time tends to extend a little of that judgement to whoever else is on the page.

![Sources: Comscore, Halo Effect study; Cossette Media / Vox Pop Labs / Google News Initiative, 2024. Reader figure: Daily Maverick.](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/P136-R6GptOA3bCY0eTbGlm9QTM=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/attachments/2997/like_seeks_like_977121.jpg)

Which raises the question of who is doing the reading. About 1.2 million people have registered with Daily Maverick. Registering is a small act of commitment, and the people who make it here tend to be educated, discerning, well informed, and reading because they believe in a better country.

There’s another reason worth mentioning. And of course it’s to do with AI. An article published here stays on [dailymaverick.co.za](http://dailymaverick.co.za) permanently, on a domain with genuine authority behind it, and that has started to matter for how AI systems answer questions about a company. Generative engines lean on established news and media sources when they decide what to cite. Something on your own website reads as a claim. The same argument, published here, reads as a source, and it keeps surfacing long after a campaign has closed.

### **Commercial package overview**

**Standard advertorial R35,000 (excl. VAT)**

- 800 to 1,200 words laid out natively in DM CMS
- 1 day homepage placement
- Newsletter distribution & social amplification
- Companion banners at no charge
- Support for images, infographics, and video
- Custom keywords and links
- Permanent article hosting

**Traffic add-on +R10,000 (excl. VAT)**

- Adds 200,000 targeted impressions to drive dedicated campaign traffic

Then the dull but necessary part. Our journalists don't write it, we don't run it without a label, and a booking buys nothing at all from the newsroom. Those rules are what keep the space worth having, for you as much as for us.

If your company has something worth saying to this audience, we'd like to help you say it well.

**Contact us:** [susie@dailymaverick.com](mailto:susie@dailymaverick.com) | [082 882 9391](tel:+27828829391)

*Our newsroom has no involvement in the creation of sponsored content, and sponsorship confers no influence over editorial coverage.***DM**