Publishers are under siege. Platforms and AI are siphoning off traffic, ad dollars are consolidating, and the rules of digital media are being rewritten in real time. According to a recent forecast by eMarketer, 85% of programmatic display ad dollars will transact via programmatic direct and PMP in 2026, leaving smaller players fighting for scraps. This isn’t a passing storm. It’s a structural reset of the media economy that threatens to push many publishers to the margins.

Yet moments of disruption can be moments of reinvention. Publishers that once relied on stability must now build resilience. They need to diversify revenue streams, cultivate loyal audiences, and lean on partners who can shoulder the heavy lift of technology, brand safety, and optimization. Survival in this market doesn’t come from standing still. It comes from adapting with speed and purpose.

What’s causing the squeeze

Advertisers are consolidating spending on fewer, trusted partners—supply sources that deliver quality, brand safety, performance, and scale. For independent publishers, that means competing against much larger players with deeper pockets and more sophisticated technology.

Meanwhile, running an in-house programmatic stack has become unsustainable. Effective yield management requires continuous testing, demand path optimization, identity and brand safety investments, dynamic pricing strategies, and strong demand partner relationships. 

The result? Media companies are being crowded out. Without adapting, many publishers risk losing visibility and revenue in a marketplace dominated by scale.

The power of programmatic scale

The growth of sales houses isn’t accidental; it’s structural. As the dedicated monetization partner for multiple publishers and a one-stop shop for advertisers, sales houses combine diverse ad inventory in a single channel. The model rests on significant fixed-cost investments in technology, teams, and innovation beyond what a single publisher can rationalize. 

By aggregating supply, sales houses can unlock efficiencies and command more attractive demand relationships. At Raptive, we run over 750 optimization experiments annually across 6,000 sites, generating insights no single publisher could replicate. We believe that, by tapping into that level of learning, publishers can turn programmatic into a resilient engine of sustainable growth.

This explains why the sales house category has grown by 31% in three years: many publishers are tapping into those benefits rather than going it alone. 

The bottom line: ad management is a strategic advantage. It allows publishers to increase revenue, cut costs, compete with scaled players, and adapt to the changing flow of ad dollars. 

Four strategies for surviving the squeeze

What can publishers do in the face of so much change? The rules of digital media are shifting fast, but with the right programmatic approach, audience focus, and monetization plan, there are clear ways to stay competitive. Here are four smart moves to help publishers grow stronger and smarter in today’s disrupted media landscape.

Build your brand

Brand is the ultimate differentiator—and the most reliable antidote to platform volatility. As Gen Z matures beyond its “TikTok generation” reputation, it seeks trusted sources to guide decisions around home ownership, careers, and finances. They value authenticity and expertise, not clickbait or surface-level content. 

Advertisers follow the same logic. They value publishers whose audiences already see them as credible. And strong brands don’t just win loyalty; they also drive more direct traffic, as readers bypass intermediaries and head straight to the publisher’s front door. That kind of audience relationship is invaluable in an era of shrinking search referrals and shifting algorithms. The risk of inaction is steep: our research shows trust drops by nearly 50% when readers suspect content is AI-generated. Publishers who invest in building strong brands now will secure resilience. This results in reader loyalty, advertiser trust, and a steady stream of front-door traffic.

Diversify traffic sources

AI-generated results and the rise of zero-click searches mean that search is an increasingly unreliable source of traffic—an existential threat for publishers who lean too heavily on SEO. Expanding reach through alternatives like Google Discover—already rivaling search in some categories—along with emerging platforms such as Newsbreak, opens new pathways to audience acquisition. 

Social referrals have declined but remain a vital offset to search dependency. For lean teams, subject-matter expertise and dedicated resources are critical to uncovering and executing creative strategies that balance traffic sources and protecting long-term growth.

Prioritize direct sales

Programmatic may be gobbling up advertising budgets, but that doesn’t mean publishers should completely abandon direct sales. The 20% of ad spend not going to programmatic is worth fighting for. In fact, combining private marketplace sales with direct sales can boost inventory value to 2-3x that of the open market. For media companies, the challenge is scale: partnering with the right sales house extends your reach, unlocking premium demand without adding overhead.

Invest in identity solutions

Google hasn’t killed cookies, but that doesn’t mean publishers can afford to sleep on authenticated traffic. The pressure is still mounting—from regulators, from savvier users demanding privacy, and from the nearly one billion people worldwide now invisible to advertisers due to ad blockers. Maximizing email-identified traffic and leveraging the right technology can deliver 30–90% more revenue in cookieless environments. The challenge is scale: no single publisher can match the reach of major platforms alone. But by tapping into networks that have invested in ID solutions for years, publishers can benefit from identity matching across thousands of sites—unlocking richer data, stronger advertiser demand, and long-term competitive strength.

Gain power through partnerships

Sales houses provide access to expertise, technology, and scale that individual publishers can’t easily build on their own, reducing operational strain, unlocking competitive advantages, and freeing up resources to focus on what matters most—delivering the kind of authentic, trusted content that keeps audiences coming back.

In an era defined by shifting algorithms, rising privacy expectations, and tighter resources, resilience won’t come from going it alone. Resilience, and success, are built by combining authentic brands with smart strategies and the right partners.