Ad Fontes Media
Ad Fontes Media is a Colorado public benefit corporation founded in 2018 that rates news sources and articles for political bias and reliability via its trademarked Media Bias Chart®, selling consumer subscriptions, education licenses, and enterprise data platform access to advertisers, agencies, ad-tech platforms, educators, and publishers.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersLafayette, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Ad Fontes Media does
Ad Fontes Media, Inc. is a Colorado-incorporated public benefit corporation founded in 2018 that rates news content for political bias and reliability across two axes, producing the trademarked Media Bias Chart® and an Interactive Media Bias Chart (iMBC) application covering 2,600+ websites and 2,000+ news sources at both source and article level. Its core methodology relies on a politically diverse panel of analysts whose individual bias and reliability scores are averaged, with the dataset delivered to enterprise customers via a Data Platform subscription and to consumers via mobile apps and the public-facing chart. The company serves four primary customer segments: (1) enterprise advertisers, agencies, and ad-tech platforms licensing article-level ratings for brand suitability, contextual targeting, and political campaign media planning (with ~15 named platform partners including The Trade Desk, Viant, Index Exchange, PubMatic, OpenX, Xandr, Comscore, Peer39, Pixability, Channel Factory, Freestar, Basis Technologies, Sightly, Newsela, and Ground News); (2) individual news consumers via paid News Nerd and News Newbie subscriptions ($4.95-$129.99 per year); (3) educators and academic institutions via Classroom Premium ($170/year) and Campus Pro ($620/year) licenses; and (4) publishers integrating ratings into their monetization stacks.
The business model combines subscription recurring revenue (consumer, education, and enterprise data platform tiers), one-time merchandise sales (mugs, apparel, posters, downloadable Blank MBC), and optional donation tiers ($250-$2,500) supporting its public benefit mission. Distribution is hybrid: direct enterprise sales for B2B data licensing, self-serve consumer subscriptions via website and iOS/Android app stores, education channel sales, and integration-led distribution via ad-tech channel partners. The company is headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado (2770 Arapahoe Rd), holds NMSDC Certified Minority Business Enterprise and NGLCC Certified LGBT Business Enterprise designations, and has raised approximately $4.2 million in a July 2023 round led by Aion Ventures with participation from NCTF-D, on top of an earlier SEC-registered exempt offering of more than $2.3 million filed November 2022. Founder Vanessa Otero remains CEO and Lou Paskalis serves as Chief Strategy Officer. The company is currently subject to a June 2025 U.S. FTC Civil Investigative Demand as part of an industry-wide inquiry into media credibility organizations.
Ad Fontes Media firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ad Fontes Media
- Legal name
- Ad Fontes Media, Inc.
- Website
- https://adfontesmedia.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Ad Fontes Media is a Colorado public benefit corporation founded in 2018 that rates news sources and articles for political bias and reliability via its trademarked Media Bias Chart®, selling consumer subscriptions, education licenses, and enterprise data platform access to advertisers, agencies, ad-tech platforms, educators, and publishers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Ad Fontes Media industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Media Intelligence and News Bias Analytics
- NAICS
- Newspaper Publishers (513110), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)
- SIC
- Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711), Services-Advertising (7310)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data) (MPAJADAK)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Audience Measurement & Media Research (Ratings, Attribution, Media Mix Insights) (MPAAALAM)
Keywords
Where Ad Fontes Media is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Lafayette
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Ad Fontes Media business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Individual consumer subscriptions (News Nerd / News Newbie): Recurring consumer subscriptions (monthly and annual tiers) sold self-serve via the company website and mobile app stores; tiers include News Newbie from $4.95/month, News Nerd Monthly at $12.99/month, and News Nerd Annual at $129.99/year.
- Education licensing (Campus Pro / Classroom Premium): Annual recurring licenses to schools, universities, and educators (Campus Pro from $620.00/year, Classroom Premium from $170.00/year) for teaching media literacy.
- Enterprise data platform subscriptions (B2B): Contracted data subscriptions and licensing to brands, agencies, and ad platforms consuming article-level bias and reliability data for brand suitability, contextual targeting, and campaign analytics; case studies cite 60% lower CPA, 50%+ higher conversion rates, 20% more attention, and 77% higher brand recall.
- Merchandise and one-time product purchases: Direct e-commerce storefront selling physical goods (Blank MBC $14.00, mug $24.00, t-shirt $29.00, long-sleeve $35.00, poster $24.99) and other downloads.
- Donations: Charitable contribution tiers ($250, $500, $1,000, $2,500) supporting the public benefit mission; Ad Fontes Media is structured as a public benefit corporation.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | News Newbie consumer subscription |
| Subscription | Monthly | News Nerd Monthly consumer subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | News Nerd Annual consumer subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | Classroom Premium education license |
| Subscription | Annual | Campus Pro education license |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Merchandise storefront |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Donation tiers |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels9 records
Ad Fontes Media product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Ad Fontes Media rates individual news articles and full news sources for political bias and reliability using its proprietary Media Bias Chart® methodology, backed by a politically diverse analyst team whose scores are averaged. The company monetizes these ratings through consumer subscriptions (News Nerd, News Newbie), education licenses for schools (Campus Pro, Classroom Premium), and an enterprise Data Platform licensed to brands, agencies, and ad-tech platforms for brand suitability, contextual targeting, and campaign analytics.
Product overview
Ad Fontes Media's offering is a single integrated media-rating platform-plus-modules architecture anchored by the Media Bias Chart brand. At its core sit the static Media Bias Chart and the Interactive Media Bias Chart (iMBC), with vertical extensions for TV/Video and podcasts; these are accessed through individual subscription tiers (News Newbie, News Nerd Monthly, News Nerd Annual) and educational tiers (Campus Pro with Media Literacy Lessons, Classroom Premium) that expose the iMBC to higher-ed and K-12 classrooms. On top of the consumer-facing products sit editorial and analysis modules such as Topic of the Week and the Blank MBC for Analysis template, an iOS/Android app for mobile access, and an enterprise Data Platform that supplies article-level reliability and bias data to advertisers and publishers via integrations with Viant, Index Exchange, Pixability, Channel Factory, Freestar pubOS, and The Trade Desk's News Navigator.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Media Bias Chart®: The company's signature trademarked product — a chart and interactive platform rating news sources for bias and reliability across websites/print, podcasts, TV/video, and films, available in static, interactive, and Topic-of-the-Week formats.
- News Nerd
Products and services
- Static Media Bias Chart Visual chart rating thousands of news sources across two axes of political bias (horizontal) and reliability/quality (vertical); published as flagship version updates and monthly updates for general public, educators, and media literacy use.
- Interactive Media Bias Chart (iMBC) Interactive web application providing article- and source-level reliability and bias ratings with filtering, comparison, and exploration capabilities; core consumer and education-facing product underlying subscription tiers.
- Media Bias Chart for TV/Video Chart extension rating TV news shows, video content, and documentaries on reliability and political bias.
- News Nerd Annual Membership Premium annual individual membership providing full Interactive Media Bias Chart access, member benefits, and merchandise discounts for personal media literacy use.
- News Nerd Monthly Membership Premium monthly individual membership providing Interactive Media Bias Chart access and member benefits on a recurring monthly basis.
- News Newbie Membership Entry-level individual membership offering limited Interactive Media Bias Chart access for new users exploring the platform on a recurring monthly basis.
- Campus Pro with Media Literacy Lessons Higher-education license providing Interactive Media Bias Chart access, media literacy lesson plans, research tools, and optional CSV data download for universities and academic institutions.
- Interactive Media Bias Chart: Classroom Premium K-12 and classroom license providing Interactive Media Bias Chart access and accompanying teaching resources for instructional use in individual classrooms.
- Data Platform (Data Subscription) Enterprise data subscription providing article- and source-level reliability and bias data, licensed to advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad-tech platforms for brand suitability, contextual targeting, and campaign analytics.
- Blank MBC for Analysis Downloadable blank template of the Media Bias Chart axes used by educators and individuals for media literacy analysis exercises.
Quantifiable outcome
- 60% lower cost per acquisition (CPA) for enterprise advertising customers
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Ad Fontes Media
Customer profileNamed customers15 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Ad Fontes Media technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration7 records
Feature5 records
Ad Fontes Media partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core strategic partnership, core integration partner, channel integration partner, core gtm partner, flagship platform partner, strategic platform partner and standards partner.
- Viant Technologycore strategic partnershipStrategic partnership to bring Ad Fontes Media's article-level bias and reliability ratings into Viant's connected-TV (CTV) advertising stack, enabling advertisers to target high-quality news content and avoid low-reliability inventory. Joint go-to-market with custom Prebid wrapper integration.
- Index Exchangecore integration partnerIntegration of Ad Fontes Media's article-level quality and bias ratings into Index Exchange's ad exchange platform, supporting publisher-side content evaluation and brand-suitability decisions for buyers.
- Freestarchannel integration partnerIntegration via Freestar's pubOS to apply Ad Fontes ratings in publisher ad-stack optimization, helping publishers evaluate news content for monetization and brand-suitability purposes.
- Pixabilitycore gtm partnerPartnership focused on YouTube news content; combines Pixability's YouTube expertise with Ad Fontes ratings to help advertisers evaluate and activate against quality news video inventory.
- Channel Factorycore gtm partnerJoint Political Campaign Digital Media Solution combining Channel Factory's video activation capabilities with Ad Fontes ratings to support political advertisers' content adjacency and brand-suitability decisions.
- The Trade Deskflagship platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; relationship integrates Ad Fontes ratings into The Trade Desk's demand-side platform for buyer use cases.
- Comscorestrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership connects Ad Fontes content ratings with Comscore's media measurement and analytics offerings.
- PubMaticstrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; integration enables PubMatic's supply-side platform to leverage Ad Fontes ratings for publisher and buyer content evaluation.
- Basis Technologiesstrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership supports campaign automation and media-buying workflows with Ad Fontes ratings.
- Ground Newsstrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership connects Ad Fontes ratings with Ground News' news-comparison and aggregation product for consumers.
- OpenXstrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; integration enables OpenX's exchange to use Ad Fontes ratings for buyer and publisher content evaluation.
- Sightlystrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership supports brand-intelligence and media-monitoring use cases with Ad Fontes ratings.
- Xandrstrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; integration enables Xandr's ad platform to leverage Ad Fontes ratings for buyer and publisher workflows.
- Newselastrategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership brings Ad Fontes ratings into Newsela's education content platform for instructional use.
- Peer39strategic platform partnerListed as a platform partner on Ad Fontes Media's website; partnership supports Peer39's contextual targeting and brand-suitability offerings with Ad Fontes content ratings.
- IRIS_IDstandards partnerAdoption of the IRIS_ID content identification standard to enable standardized identification and integration of rated news content across platforms.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Ad Fontes Media competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Zefr: Brand-suitability and contextual measurement company focused on video platforms including YouTube and TikTok. Overlaps with Ad Fontes' Pixability/Channel Factory go-to-market around video news adjacency.
- Ground News: News-comparison and aggregation consumer app that helps readers see bias and factuality across sources. Overlaps with Ad Fontes' consumer subscription product and is a listed Ad Fontes platform partner.
- Peer39: Contextual targeting and brand-suitability data provider integrated with major DSPs. Listed as an Ad Fontes partner on the company website, indicating direct integration overlap in ad-tech data workflows.
- Channel Factory: YouTube and CTV brand-suitability platform and an existing Ad Fontes partner. Comparable in combining video activation with content-quality signals for advertisers and political campaigns.
- Pixability: YouTube-focused advertising technology platform and a publicly announced Ad Fontes partner. Comparable as a YouTube brand-suitability and contextual platform that pairs activation capability with content-quality signals.
Broad incumbents
- Integral Ad Science (IAS): Global media-measurement and optimization platform offering brand risk, viewability, and contextual targeting. Competes with Ad Fontes in the brand-suitability category for advertiser budgets and was named alongside Ad Fontes in the 2025 FTC investigation.
- DoubleVerify: Large ad-verification platform providing brand-suitability, fraud, and viewability measurement. Overlaps with Ad Fontes' brand-suitability use case at the advertiser/agency level and is significantly broader in scope, making it a scale incumbent Ad Fontes must differentiate against.
Direct peers
- NewsGuard: NewsGuard rates the credibility of news and information websites using a transparent methodology and is the closest direct competitor in the news-credibility-rating category. Both firms supply article-/source-level ratings to brands, agencies, platforms, and have been named in the same 2025 FTC Civil Investigative Demand.
- AllSides: AllSides rates media bias on a left-center-right scale and exposes ratings to consumers, educators, and libraries. It overlaps directly with Ad Fontes' Media Bias Chart on the consumer and education side and competes for media-literacy curriculum budgets.
- Media Bias/Fact Check: An established consumer-facing site that rates news sources on bias and factual reporting. Overlaps with Ad Fontes' methodology and consumer/educator audience, particularly in academic research citations.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Ad Fontes Media social profiles
Digital presenceAd Fontes Media compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Ad Fontes Media financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ad Fontes Media leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Ad Fontes Media funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ad Fontes Media M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ad Fontes Media
What does Ad Fontes Media do?
Ad Fontes Media rates individual news articles and full news sources for political bias and reliability using its proprietary Media Bias Chart® methodology, backed by a politically diverse analyst team whose scores are averaged. The company monetizes these ratings through consumer subscriptions (News Nerd, News Newbie), education licenses for schools (Campus Pro, Classroom Premium), and an enterprise Data Platform licensed to brands, agencies, and ad-tech platforms for brand suitability, contextual targeting, and campaign analytics.
Is Ad Fontes Media a public or private company?
Ad Fontes Media is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Ad Fontes Media founded?
Ad Fontes Media was founded in 2018. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Ad Fontes Media based?
Ad Fontes Media is headquartered in Lafayette, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ad Fontes Media make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Individual consumer subscriptions (News Nerd / News Newbie) is the primary driver. The others are education licensing (Campus Pro / Classroom Premium), enterprise data platform subscriptions (B2B), merchandise and one-time product purchases and donations.
Who are Ad Fontes Media's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Zefr, Ground News, Peer39, Channel Factory and Pixability. Broad incumbents are Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify. Direct peers are NewsGuard, AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check.
Does Ad Fontes Media have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ad Fontes Media.
What industry is Ad Fontes Media in?
Ad Fontes Media's product category is Media Intelligence and News Bias Analytics. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAJADAK, Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data), with a secondary code of MPAAALAM, Audience Measurement & Media Research (Ratings, Attribution, Media Mix Insights). Its NAICS code is 513110 and its SIC code is 2711.