Rival newspaper publishers Fairfax Media, News Corp and Seven West Media have launched a joint campaign across their print and online publications to urge brands to advertise around trusted journalism rather than spend with digital platforms in the era of fake news.

Industry group NewsMediaWorks has placed advertisements in several titles including Fairfax's The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Australian Financial Review, News Corp's Herald Sun and The Australian, and Seven's The West Australian, outlining the findings of a study about trust and encouraging brands to consider the importance of truth when spending their marketing budgets.

The campaign was developed by creative agency Thinkerbell and points to the news articles in the paper as "why this ad works" and what "makes this space so powerful". Digital versions of the advertisement encourage marketers and agencies to "surround your brand with articles your customers trust".

Digital giants, such as Facebook and Google, are widely considered competitors for advertising dollars online and have been grappling with how to manage the phenomenon of "fake news" amid a global backlash against the internet behemoths for allowing inaccurate and misleading content.

While the campaign doesn't explicitly name the digital platforms, the campaign points to TheTruthBuildsTrust.com.au website, which includes results of a survey showing information presented on social media and search were least trusted, while community, regional and national news outlets, were the most trusted.