The two biggest adtech companies that help advertisers defund news are hiring to keep up with demand

• Adtech firms DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science have faced criticism from ad agencies and publishers for blocking ads from appearing next to news about the coronavirus.
• While most adtech companies are pulling back on hiring during the pandemic, both firms told Business Insider that they are actively hiring.
• They're especially looking to hire engineering and product experts to focus on so-called brand safety as well as ad verification tools that marketers use to target and measure ads.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Media companies are seeing a spike in readership from coverage of the coronavirus pandemic but struggle to monetize that increase as advertisers shy away from news content presumed to be negative.

While publishers' revenue slumps and advertisers slash spend, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify - the two major adtech firms that help advertisers block ads from news - are the rare exceptions of adtech companies actively hiring during a shaky financial climate.

"We're absolutely still hiring and hiring aggressively," said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of Integral Ad Science. "Since the virus hit, we have prioritized our headcount, and we are focused on which positions we want to hire for first."

Publishers like Vice Media, Group Nine, and BuzzFeed are already feeling the effects of the coronavirus' impact on the economy. The media companies have implemented pay cuts and freezes on promotions and hires to weather the virus.

Major ad agencies including Magna Global and GroupM have advised clients against blocking content about coronavirus because the topic has become a major global news event. In March, Magna Global recommended that its clients stop blacklisting words like "coronavirus" and "COVID-19."

"This is a unique and difficult time for marketers, and if coronavirus becomes the new normal, avoidance of advertising in or around the topic will not be sustainable," the agency wrote in an internal document. "This is why it's important to lean in now and navigate the challenges rather than avoid the issue."

'Brand safety' is a hot area right now

Neither Integral Ad Science or DoubleVerify said that their hiring efforts were directly tied to the increase in blocked ads from coronavirus articles.

However, Utzschneider said "brand safety and suitability is a very hot space right now." She said candidates are expressing more interest in the company's mission to solve industry problems than they have in the past.

"I'm hearing more from candidates saying, 'I'm looking for a company to help transform an industry' or to go to a company where there's a ton of growth," she said.

DoubleVerify's CMO Dan Slivjanovski said that the spike in coronavirus content was temporary and wasn't a factor in recruitment.

"The idea is to invest in people, innovation, and come out stronger in the end," he said.

The companies wouldn't say how many people they're aiming to hire. Both are looking to fill engineering and product roles for their core ad verification and so-called brand safety tools.

Utzschneider said that there are "dozens" of roles open, and DoubleVerify is specifically interested in hiring for commercial teams outside of the US.

"We can't hire data engineers fast enough, especially with video backgrounds," she said.

DoubleVerify reports that it has grown headcount 50% in the past two years while Integral Ad Science said that it has more than 650 employees.