The subscription media landscape continues to evolve, reshaping how consumers engage with digital content and how businesses strategize to maintain their market share. As digital media matures and price sensitivity increases, the market has responded with innovative pricing models and premium offerings.
The DCN Digital Media Subscription Tracking Report provides insights into these changes, offering year-over-year trends and brand-specific data exclusive to DCN members. Here are key highlights from the latest report:
Subscriptions Decline, Spending Rises: While the average household subscription count fell by 4% in Q4 2024, annual spending on digital subscriptions grew 7%, indicating a shift toward prioritizing high-value services.
Bundling Gains Popularity: 59% of SVOD subscribers opted for bundles in Q4 2024, up from 52% earlier in the year, as consumers seek value-driven solutions.
Ad-Supported Tiers Surge: Consumers increasingly choose ad-supported streaming services to cut costs. SVOD with ads saw a 14% increase, while no-ad services declined by 12%.
Top Performers in SVOD: Amazon Prime Video with ads quickly ascended to the top spot among users. Hulu with ads rose to third, Peacock with ads rose to fourth, while Disney+ Premium with no ads dropped to fifth place.
As the media subscription landscape continues to evolve, innovation in bundling and tiered options remains crucial. These findings underscore the resilience of premium digital content and the importance of staying attuned to evolving consumer needs.
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Apps are hot again. After the boom in investment in interactive publisher apps in the early 2010s failed to produce much in terms of audience growth or return on investment, many publishers quietly closed their apps, turning instead to putting content on social platforms and relying on responsive design for the mobile experience. But app strategy for media brands is shifting.
As the cost of producing apps comes down, coupled with the intense competition for attention on platforms, publishers are reconsidering their app-approach.
The intent is different this time, however. Rather than being a vehicle to drive discovery, publishers like the FT with lightweight offering FT Edit, the New York Times’ subscription-only NYT Audio app, and even start-ups like the Baltimore Banner are using their own apps to build deeper relationships with superfans.
New York Magazine is the latest publisher to take another look at apps. They previously launched one in 2013; a replica of the print magazine with interactive features, which was shut down a few years later.
Last month, they announced the launch of a new flagship mobile app. Notably, it includes all six of New York Magazine’s verticals as well: Intelligencer, The Cut, Vulture, The Strategist, Curbed, and Grub Street.
So what made an app an attractive proposition this time around, and what are their primary aims with it? “Over 70% of our readers read on mobile,” Priyanka Arya, SVP of consumer revenue at Vox Media said. “Mobile is the primary point of entry, and the primary reading experience for our subscribers and readers. So we wanted to create the best reading experience for those users.”
Arya also said that an app was one of the top features requested by subscribers, both through solicited and unsolicited feedback. As a result, the team decided to look at creating a mobile-first experience that would first and foremost serve subscribers.
Strategy: One app, six titles
The decision to have all six verticals within one app may seem unusual, but it reflects the subscription setup of New York Magazine. Rather than offer standalone subscriptions to each vertical, readers who wish to access Vulture or Curbed instead pay for a New York Magazine subscription which gets them access across all verticals.
Arya emphasized that having the verticals and the appropriate branding was important rather than pooling articles across the portfolio by topic, for example.
“We see very different behavior across our audience,” Arya said, explaining why they offered them all in one app. “There’s folks who really go deep into one vertical, there are folks who enjoy multiple and go across our portfolio, and we wanted to create an experience that served both users as well as enhanced discovery for those who may only be single-vertical readers.”
When users enter the app, there are a variety of different experiences they can have. If they’re very focused on one vertical, they can set it as their homepage and tailor the experience. But Arya said that they make an active effort to encourage people to read across the brands with toggle options for quick takes, deep divers and long reads. “We see folks who do read across verticals are among the highest engaged and highest retained,” she noted.
The app therefore also serves as a discovery vehicle for these other brands. Readers may have different levels of familiarity with other verticals when they subscribe. “We see through our newsletter efforts that there may be loyal Vulture readers or The Cut readers who are just going to those home pages, so they’re not experiencing everything that we’re putting in print or we’re putting in some of our other verticals,” Arya pointed out. “But they tend to really enjoy it when they do find [others].”
A premium reading experience
Rather than a bells-and-whistles experience, app users these days seek clean, fast-loading reading. But publishers still have to develop a strategy that differentiates their app experience from web browsing to encourage downloads.
The New York Magazine app has built in a number of features to offer a premium experience. As noted above, there are convenient toggles between brands, and the ability to set a homepage while easily navigating to other sites. The app also offers personalized notifications so readers can get alerts for what they most care about, and a better ad experience than on browser.
Perhaps the most compelling proposition of the app is curation. The app includes a ‘Great Stories’ section that pulls together a curation of timely stories and the best pieces from across the portfolio, selected by editors.
“Our feature stories that run in our print magazine and across the portfolio online are among our most popular no matter what interests you may have or vertical affinity you may have,” Arya explained. “That is a place that doesn’t exist on web that can really help you navigate through some of our best pieces and read what our editors are recommending.”
Helping users find the best stories without the help of algorithms is an increasingly appealing prospect. Because personalization was available for push notifications, the team were keen to have somewhere to showcase the best of their editorial across brands, with human curation.
A long-term play
For many publishers, return on investment (ROI) can be a stumbling point for apps. Although they’re cheaper than ever, they do still require upfront investment, often without the promise of short-term, or even medium-term returns.
For Arya, the app is a long-term investment. “What we’re hoping is by getting as many subscribers as we can to download and use the app, we can increase engagement and therefore retention,” she explained. “There’s a pretty lucrative argument around retention, which is always a longer term play, but a much more sustainable play.”
“Our top 20% engaged subscribers have a 30 to 40% higher retention rate than our average subscriber. That’s substantial. So our goal is to continue to move more people into higher engaged tiers.”
Retention increases are far from an overnight task. But a better retention outcome translates to a solid – and more sustainable – revenue outcome in the long term.
Although the New York Magazine app is primarily a retention play, Vox has a strategy for encouraging non-subscribers to download the app with the goal of converting them later. Users have to create an account up-front. Then they get a number of free articles before hitting the subscriber wall, similar to the web experience.
“We built the app with our subscribers in mind; a lot of the feature development was looking at those reader habits and building for them,” said Arya. “But we are encouraging readers who aren’t subscribers to download the app, and we do have a strategy to engage them within the app and ideally convert them.”
Promising early results
At the time of writing, the New York Magazine app is in the top #10 of the Magazines and Newspapers section of the app store. It also has very good ratings and feedback, and requests are already coming in from subscribers for features such as saving and favoriting articles. An Android version of the app is also in the works.
Crucially, Arya sees it as more important than ever that publishers focus on their own properties. “With algorithms changing and platforms constantly changing, betting on your direct traffic and your loyal audience is something that’s been really important to us, and I think should be for other publishers,” she emphasized.
Media companies are increasingly exploring innovative revenue models as a strategic element of ongoing efforts to reduce their reliance on advertising and subscriptions. This is significant because, although the global advertising market continues to grow, the proportion of these revenues coming to publishers has long been in decline. Similarly, despite the fact that the media industry has seen numerous subscription success stories, research suggests that the opportunity may be leveling off.
Given these financial realities, revenue diversification is essential. Fortunately, there are many ideas out there to learn from. Here are five alternative – and well-established – revenue sources that are poised to become more prominent, and important, for publishers in the year ahead.
As Generative AI continues to gain traction, many media companies are signing licensing agreements with the companies behind these technologies.
There are pros and cons to this, with several publishers currently litigating against their content being used by these platforms. However, for some media companies, AI licensing agreements offer an alluring mix of copyright protection and monetization opportunities.
Examples that we have seen in the past year include:
Hearst’s partnership with ChatGPT which promises “appropriate citations and direct links.”
Reuters, Axel Springer and the USA TODAY Network are featured content partners for a voice delivered summary of the news and weather that is built into Microsoft’s Co-Pilot product.
Reuters also agreed a multi-year deal with Meta, supplying content for queries asked about the news in Meta’s AI chatbot.
However, not all publishers are ceding the AI opportunity to tech companies, which could offer licensing revenue closer to home. One major publisher, Dow Jones, recently signed up nearly 4,000 news publishers for Factiva Smart Summary, a new Generative AI feature in its business intelligence platform. These licensing agreements span more than 160 countries and 29 different languages. Partners include The Associated Press, Swiss News Agency AWP Finanznachrichten AG, News Corp Australia, and The Washington Post.
As Generative AI continues to expand, expect more of these partnerships and products in 2025.
2. Live events and experiences
Pre-pandemic, live events offered a major source of revenue optimism for publishers. Post-COVID, this has morphed into a mix of in-person, online, and hybrid models. To draw sponsors and sell tickets, events work best when aligned with your brand and the content you are known for, an approach that a growing number of media outlets are leaning into.
Forbes has capitalized on its 30 Under 30 list by wrapping a live multi-day event around it. Their 2025 program includes a private concert, networking opportunities, industry-focused excursions, as well as sessions with speakers.
Condé Nast leveraged one of its best known brands to launch Vogue World in 2022, which are going strong. Hosted in global fashion capitals like New York and Paris, these annual one-day events are also live streamed. Hollywood is the location for their 2025 event. The company is also hosting an immersive exhibition in London, narrated by Cate Blanchett, which explores the history of the modern runway show.
The Innovation Consulting Group notes that some publishers derive up to 20% of their income from events. Events, they observe, can “help hike circulation, attract advertisers who might not advertise in the magazine’s media,” as well as “give magazines “face time” with their subscribers and potential subscribers.”
Given these strategic and financial benefits, we can expect more publishers to explore the burgeoning events market in the year ahead.
3. Podcasting revenue innovation
Podcasts have been a bright spot for many publishers for a while, with many doubling down on the medium despite wider financial challenges. For the biggest shows and brands this can be a particularly profitable space.
Continued optimism for this medium means that some publishers are looking to expand their podcasting portfolio and innovate on the ways they monetize.
Meanwhile, the merging of events and podcasts is growing in prominence and revenue potential. Fans can connect with hosts and each other, deepening loyalty to brands and shows. All the while, podcasts offer media companies multiple monetization opportunities that go beyond advertising and subscriptions.
This summer, The Ringer hosted a residency for six of their podcasts at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. “As an audience engagement tool it takes fandom to a different level,” says Geoff Chow, Head of Podcast Studios & Managing Director for The Ringer.
The Wall Street Journal’s recent dive into “The Rest Is History” podcast revealed that its hosts were netting nearly $100,000 a month, through a combination of their podcast, monetizing clips on YouTube and live events. “History professors struggle to get students excited about the past,” the Journal wrote. “Yet at a recent live show in London, Holland and Sandbrook drew a raucous Gen Z audience with a rock-concert vibe.”
Wondery is similarly looking to create live tours for some of the most popular podcasts. With more than 200 active shows, over a quarter of which hit No. 1 on Apple Podcasts, they have a potentially large paying audience to tap into. Participants in their membership plan, Wondery+, get early access to these live events, a membership benefit deployed by Slate and others.
As podcasts continue to evolve, these types of live events and tie-ins with wider memberships programs, will only become increasingly intertwined.
4. E-commerce and affiliate partnerships
With e-commerce now worth nearly $1.2 trillion in the USA alone this year, this is too big a market for media companies to ignore. In response, media entities are progressively integrating e-commerce into their platforms, selling merchandise and other products directly to consumers.
The Daily Wire generated over $22 million from commerce in 2023. nearly 10% of its revenues. Axios reports that much of this derived from its Jeremy’s Razors products, which produced $19 million in sales. Their merchandise store made up most of The Daily Wire’s remaining commerce income.
Recommendation sites are another area of e-commerce that media players continue to explore. The Associated Press partnered with Taboola in March to launch AP Buyline, offering how-to guides and reviews in areas such as fashion, beauty and wellness, tech, pets and Black Friday deals.
This launch came against a backdrop whereby some of AP’s core business is being squeezed. Local publishers Gannett and McClatchy ended their long-standing partnerships with AP, due to a desire to cut costs and invest elsewhere. As the AP themselves note, fees from U.S. newspapers were at one point responsible for “virtually all of its revenue.” However, diversification means “U.S. newspaper fees now constitute just over 10% of its annual income.”
Across the pond, The Independent, a UK newspaper, reported a 26% increase in revenue from e-commerce in the past year. Although review sections have potentially been impacted by recent changes to Google’s site reputation abuse policies, some publishers are growing their e-commerce revenues, despite inflationary pressures and a cost-of-living crisis.
Such initiatives highlight how publishers can leverage their editorial authority to benefit from reader’s purchasing decisions. Effectively creating affiliate partnerships can assist audiences and a publishers’ bottom line.
5. The games people play
The last piece of our revenue puzzle for 2025 sees publishers continuing to invest in games.
As twipe explains, games “engage readers differently than traditional news content.” “They provide a mental break, foster daily engagement, and satisfy psychological cravings… forming daily habits crucial for subscriber retention.”
Subsequently, games can be a valuable plank in helping to drive loyalty. Jonathan Knight, head of games at The New York Times, says that “when we see subscribers engage with both games and news in any given week, we’re seeing some of the best long-term subscriber retention from that pattern.” Subsequently, the Gray Lady has expanded their portfolio of games. They’ve also made games more prominent on their app, encouraging audiences to “come for the games, stay for the news.”
In that vein, French outlet Ouest-France publishes a game called “mystery photo of the day”. Readers must match the photo with the article in which it featured. “It’s a way to get them to discover our articles,” says Emmanuel Chevalier, head of Ouest-France’s digital acquisition department. Meanwhile, Hearst’s acquisition last year of Puzzmo is another example of a publisher flexing their financial muscles to expand their games offering.
Games can offer an escape from an often bleak news agenda, providing a means for audiences to come back every day, and thereby create a deeper connection between readers and publishers. Because of this, games are poised to play an even more critical role in engagement in revenue strategies in 2025 and beyond.
Looking ahead at the importance of revenue diversification
From AI licensing to live events, e-commerce, podcasts, and games, publishers are actively diversifying their income strategies in response to shifts in markets and consumer needs. While advertising and subscriptions remain critical components of the media revenue landscape, media companies continue to experiment and innovate to leverage their brand strengths to create other revenue streams.
Through these efforts, publishers are finding new ways to connect with audiences and drive revenues. In doing this, they are also trying to lay long-term foundations, with several of these strands focused on fostering loyalty, deepening engagement, and connecting with audiences in innovative ways.
As we head into 2025, the challenge will be scaling these initiatives in an increasingly competitive landscape. When many publisher peers are doing similar things, distinctiveness, brand value and relationships, as well as pricing points, will be paramount.
At the same time, given the need to reduce reliance on traditional revenue models, diversification remains more important than ever. Doing this successfully requires flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to experiment.
If this is executed well, like some of the examples that we have seen here, then innovative strategies to create income offer more than just means for survival. After all, revenue diversification offers perhaps the only pathway to long-term growth and resilience in an ever-evolving media ecosystem. As such, the need to explore some of the types of ideas outlined in this article, and to actively move away from a reliance on advertising and subscriptions, is non-negotiable.
As 2024 comes to a close, it’s clear that this year has been defined by transformative shifts in how publishers and broadcasters approach digital media monetization. From advancing privacy-first strategies to adapting to the dominance of Connected TV (CTV), the industry has shown resilience and innovation.
Looking back, these pivotal moments offer valuable lessons, while also pointing toward the priorities for 2025:
1. Brand safety took center stage
In 2024, publishers prioritized brand safety, recognizing its essential role in maintaining trust with advertisers and audiences. Advanced contextual targeting tools, coupled with stringent editorial standards, helped build confidence in ad placements. As content environments become more complex, this focus on safety and transparency will deepen in 2025, with publishers investing in more precise, AI-powered brand safety solutions to enhance advertiser confidence.
2. Sustainability became non-negotiable
This year saw sustainability move from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have.” Publishers adopted greener technologies and committed to measurable ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals. Advertisers partnered with eco-conscious media outlets, aligning campaigns with consumer demand for responsible practices. In 2025, sustainability metrics like carbon impact will become more sophisticated, and partnerships around ethical advertising will deepen.
3. Subscription models found their groove
2024 solidified the role of subscription models as a key revenue driver. Publishers balanced subscription growth with ad-supported strategies, creating hybrid models that appealed to a broader audience base. Enhanced user experiences, including personalized content and seamless interfaces, became the standard. Heading into 2025, these strategies will be refined to further integrate advertising and subscription revenue streams without sacrificing user satisfaction.
4. The Cookieless landscape remained in transition
Despite Google cancelling the phaseout of third-party cookies, publishers prepared diligently for a cookieless future, which–regardless of the future of cookies–was not a bad thing. First-party data ecosystems matured in 2024, with publishers focusing on fostering direct relationships with audiences to enhance consented data collection. Contextual targeting gained momentum as a privacy-compliant alternative to behavioral targeting. In 2025, publishers will double down on these efforts, enhancing collaboration within industry consortiums to scale identity solutions and ensure consistent audience addressability.
5. Algorithms challenged publishers yet again
Platform algorithm changes disrupted referral traffic and revenue streams throughout 2024, prompting publishers to seek greater independence from big tech. Many pivoted to direct traffic strategies, premium content offerings, and diversified revenue streams. Looking ahead, 2025 will likely see media companies make an increased push toward leveraging first-party data for direct monetization and strengthening collaborations with advertisers on transparent revenue-sharing models.
6. CTV dominated the monetization landscape
Connected TV (CTV) solidified its role as a top revenue driver for broadcasters and publishers in 2024. With programmatic capabilities maturing and advertisers shifting budgets to CTV, the sell side capitalized on high-impact formats and premium inventory. Heading into 2025, cross-platform measurement tools will gain prominence, addressing fragmentation and unifying reporting across linear, CTV, and digital platforms to maximize revenue opportunities.
7. Interactive and video content drove engagement
Interactive and video content stood out as key formats in 2024, delivering higher engagement and monetization opportunities for publishers. Shoppable video, gamified experiences, and dynamic storytelling resonated strongly with audiences and aligned with advertisers’ goals. In 2025, publishers will explore more immersive formats like augmented reality (AR) and metaverse integrations to maintain their competitive edge and deliver differentiated ad experiences.
8. Privacy-first innovations gained momentum
Stricter global privacy regulations spurred publishers to adopt privacy-by-design strategies in 2024. Building robust consent management frameworks and exploring privacy-preserving technologies, such as federated learning and differential privacy, allowed publishers to continue providing actionable insights while protecting user data. In 2025, these innovations will become integral to the sell-side toolkit, as publishers work to balance data privacy with advertiser demands for precision targeting and measurement.
9. Commitment to supply path optimization (SPO) grew
Publishers focused on providing greater transparency into their inventory through tools like ads.txt and sellers.json, bolstering trust with advertisers. Supply path optimization (SPO) became a cornerstone strategy for reducing inefficiencies and maximizing revenue. In 2025, publishers will continue to refine their SPO strategies, emphasizing collaboration with trusted partners and leveraging advanced fraud detection tools to ensure quality ad experiences.
10. Enlisting support for quality journalism became critical
In 2024, publishers emphasized the critical value of quality journalism, recognizing its role in fostering trust, user loyalty, and timely access to reliable news. With global elections drawing attention, traditional news sites stood out for delivering brand-safe environments, engaged audiences, and measurable performance.
Teads’ “Value of Traditional News” study highlighted a strong correlation between ad attention and upper-funnel brand outcomes, revealing a 77% lift in brand outcomes when ads appeared alongside trusted news content. As we move into 2025, supporting journalism must remain a cornerstone for advertisers and publishers, driving long-term value and reinforcing the vital role of trusted information in democracies worldwide.
Looking forward to 2025
As we turn toward 2025, the themes of trust, sustainability, and innovation will remain paramount. Publishers and advertisers who focus on privacy-first strategies, advanced contextual advertising, and cross-platform collaboration will be well-positioned to navigate the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Expect to see further advancements in AI-driven creative optimization, more sophisticated approaches to audience addressability, and a continued push for transparency across the entire digital advertising ecosystem. By building on the lessons of 2024, industry leaders can drive meaningful connections with audiences while maximizing monetization opportunities.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Apple took podcasts mainstream, but the tech giant seems to be losing its grip on audio audiences: A recent study out this summer found that YouTube is now the most used podcast platform in the U.S.
That’s left some publishers and podcast production houses scrambling to figure out a video strategy to complement their audio-only offerings. But there’s at least one player in the game that seems well prepared for the platform shift: Crooked Media.
The company, which is focused on news, politics, and liberal-leaning commentary and analysis, currently boasts more than 40 podcasts in its portfolio. And video is a big part of Crooked Media’s strategy — but they’re not just playing on YouTube. The company is also pushing video content on TikTok, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter). And even better? Crooked Media is generating revenue along the way.
The YouTube video-podcasting strategy
“We started putting streams of Pod Save America on YouTube in early 2018,” says Matt DeGroot, the company’s vice president of production.
These days, every audio-only episode of an ongoing and regularly published Crooked podcast also has a video component, which is uploaded to YouTube. For Crooked, the foray into video has been part of a deliberate plan to grow its audience.
“Really the biggest impetus there and why we’ve pushed so hard is that people who consume podcasts on a traditional platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, tend to go to those platforms knowing exactly what they’re looking for. So, there isn’t a ton of discoverability,” DeGroot says.
“Everyone uses YouTube, and YouTube — for better or for worse — knows what people want to see. YouTube will find our shows and basically serve it up to people,” he says. “And people on YouTube might be a little more curious and willing to take a chance on new content.”
Over time, Crooked has built a significant audience that is unique to the platform. It has 10 channels and playlists that are updated regularly, and the company currently claims more than 1.2 million YouTube subscribers.
When a big news event happens, Crooked can leverage its political commentary and analysis from a show like Pod Save America and tap into an audience who may already be searching YouTube for information. “If there’s a big story happening and Pod Save America is doing an episode, reacting to it or explaining the context, that’s a great opportunity for someone new to sort of stumble upon it,” DeGroot says.
For example, earlier this month, the company posted a segment from Pod Save America that featured the hosts of the show discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’ debate performance, and global superstar Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Democratic candidate.
Those events were dominating broadcast news, digital media outlets, and social platforms. And Crooked was there, ready and waiting for curious YouTubers to find them. Their video on the subject got nearly 730,000 streams as of this writing, and is one of the top 15 most popular videos on their channel.
“We’ve really been able to harness that power and seize those moments in a way that is hard to do on a podcast platform, where, like I said, people really know what they’re looking for when they open the app,” DeGroot says. “YouTube just gives us more opportunity to find new people.”
Beyond giving people a new entry point to their content, video gives audiences a new format to access the Crooked universe. “More and more with the advent of smart TVs, we’ve been seeing a lot of people who are really consuming the YouTube product from their televisions and treating it like watching the evening news,” DeGroot says.
This is especially true for older audiences.
“My mom, bless her heart, she does not know how to use a podcast,” DeGroot says. “She doesn’t know how to find a show there. But she knows YouTube and she knows how to type in Pod Save America and get to the channel and pull up the latest episode.”
However, while video has helped build Crooked Media’s audience, the experience remains audio-centric. “We get anecdotal comments of people saying, ‘Oh, I put this on while I’m making dinner.’ They may not be watching it a hundred percent with their eyes on the screen the whole time, so it’s still somewhat of an audio experience, because they’ll have it on in the background while they’re cooking.”
Cashing in on YouTube
Because the company publishes Crooked Media’s podcast content as YouTube videos, its ad sales team has more touch points to offer potential sponsors.
“YouTube runs ads and we have that aspect of monetization. But then our sales team also does sell against that for the podcasts,” DeGroot says. “So an episode of Pod Save America, for example, the ads that appear in the podcast when you listen are also in the YouTube version.” In this way, a client gets a two-for-one. It can buy ads from one media company and get two distinct audiences.
In addition to selling to two audiences, Crooked is also leveraging video content to create exclusive offerings for advertisers. “That’s something we’ve started doing this year — having a single sponsor,” DeGroot says. “Someone like ZBiotics sponsors Hysteria’s ‘This F*cking Guy’ series. So we’ll include a 30 second ad read in the middle of the video, and maybe a short mention of the sponsor at the beginning. It’s a great way to add that additional revenue and help pay for the production costs that do naturally come with video, because it is a time consuming and work intensive thing.”
However, Crooked is looking beyond advertisers when it comes to monetizing video. The company has a paid subscription offering — called “Friends of the Pod” — which provides subscribers with ad-free podcast feeds, bonus content from Crooked hosts, and the ability to talk directly with on-air talent on Crooked’s subscriber-only Discord server.
“Friends of the Pod” also get subscriber-only YouTube shows. “One is a weekly, called, Terminally Online, and then we have a couple biweekly shows — Dan Pfeiffer’s Poller Coaster, and another election special called Inside 2024,” DeGroot says. “Those are available as both audio and video components to subscribers.”
Social video strategy
While Crooked Media is going big on YouTube, it’s not the only social video platform the company is publishing on. “There are real opportunities in that sort of shorter form content,” DeGroot says. “We are not oblivious to the fact that a lot of people, if they see a video on YouTube even if it looks really appealing to them, if it’s 90 minutes long, they’ll say, ‘I don’t have time for that. I’m not gonna take a chance on this random video.’”
To counter this, Crooked Media will splice one of its full length episodes into shorter clips — something that’s 60 or 90 seconds long — and upload that content to TikTok, Instagram, or X. “People are willing to give that a chance,” DeGroot says. “They’ll see a video short clip and be like, ‘Oh, what are these people saying?’ And from there it draws them in and makes them curious to hear more,” which could lead them to YouTube or a podcast platform.
Pod Save America has about 14,000 followers on TikTok, but their short videos reach way more people than that. A recent post discussing a press conference that former President Donald Trump had garnered more than 100,000 views.
Crooked’s podcast host will also create what DeGroot calls “ancillary” content — behind the scenes moments that still speak to the brand’s broader tone. That might include the hosts’ live reaction to Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his recent criminal trial, or an on the ground video message from the Democratic National Convention.
“For those videos that live on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube shorts, it’s a feature that we’ve been really pushing lately and finding a lot of success with,” DeGroot says. “We’ve found that doing those types of things really helps the content spread on those platforms and bring in new people who then get excited to watch the podcasts.”
For DeGroot, the video strategy across platforms is all about creating more touch points — for audiences and advertisers.
“It’s gonna take some time to build that audience, and you really have to nurture it over time,” he says. “As long as you keep on your patterns, stay with it, and stay consistent, you will get the rewards from that.”
Despite the challenges thrown at publishers by obfuscating metrics or deliverability changes, newsletters continue to grow in importance. Media companies increasingly use email newsletters as a key tool for maintaining relationships with audiences away from social media, finding new readers, building habits, and opening new revenue streams.
At The Publisher Newsletter Summit, publishers came together to share strategies, advice and case studies on everything from newsletter monetization to audience growth.
Here are some of the strategies that they shared:
1. Don’t be afraid to center personalities
The role of journalists with followings has grown more complicated than ever in recent years. One theme that emerged at the Summit from a number of the sessions was that – if managed right – individual members of your team can serve as an incredible audience-building tool.
Women’s membership and community publisher Black Ballad started a newsletter from founder Tobi Oredein as a way to create a bond with the reader, because people build connections with humans, not brands. “Social media is very noisy,” Oredein outlined. Given that Black Ballad has paywall, she finds that “there is a barrier with people who can’t afford a membership. The newsletter is free, so everyone that’s signed up with their email gets that newsletter every week. So it’s a way to create that personal relationship.”
Leaning into this has also opened up revenue opportunities, although Oredein said that she chooses partner organizations very carefully. A recent campaign with the Founder’s Letter newsletter saw Black Ballad work with Maltesers around maternal mental health as Oredein was about to give birth to her second child.
“I wrote this newsletter on letting go of the Superwoman complex as a mum, second time around,” she explained. “It all came together and the newsletter opened the partnership; we had an editorial video that went alongside the essay, and it just went nuts. People loved the partnership. We realized that my personal newsletter opens up partnerships. Now the newsletter stands alone as the most requested advertising channel and is the most popular source of revenue for Black Ballad.”
There are risks with building newsletter audiences around individual journalists, but these can be managed. It’s an issue UK news brand The Telegraph faced when a big-name writer for their political newsletter left, and the team had to decide what to do next.
“We’ve grown [the newsletter] substantially since then,” Head of Newsletters Maire Bonheim said, explaining that they gave another political journalist a chance to fully front the newsletter. “He’s in your inbox at exactly 1pm every day. He’s really passionate about it, and he gives it his own edge. People have built up a habit and a relationship with him.”
2. Prioritize newsletters for retention and conversion
Special interest publisher Immediate Media monetizes many of its brands like Good Food and Gardeners’ World through subscriptions. Head of CRM and Customer Retention Matt Nash sees newsletters as playing a vital role in their subscription strategy, especially for long-term relationships.
“One of the big reasons why we’re so focused on newsletters from a subscription capacity is that 25% of our app subscribers received or read a newsletter before going on to subscribe,” he said. “So on average, there’s about 18 months between someone registering on Good Food and then converting to an app subscriber.”
“We also find that conversion from trials – mainly we run free trials going into paid subscriptions on the app – is around 10 percentage points higher for people that have previously been on our newsletter base before converting to a subscription.”
Nash shared that they have a two-part email strategy for pre- and post-subscription. The first half is focused around getting eyes on the website, showcasing the product and the subscription offers. “Every newsletter we send is an opportunity for us to try and convert someone if they look like they’re likely to subscribe,” he explained.
Once someone has converted, the focus switches to the “core readership phase,” where newsletters are part of a multi-channel tech stack optimized to try and get existing users to continue their subscription. The publisher uses a range of personalization options, from content type to send frequency and time to hit the readers at just the right frequency for them.
3. Consider repackaging content for educational courses
A number of publishers offer newsletter “courses” with a clear start and end point as an alternative way of engaging audiences. As part of its newsletter strategy, Pew Research Center launched an email course, which allowed them to leverage their reports and blog posts on U.S. Immigration. More recently The Guardian released a five-week email coaching plan called Reclaim Your Brain, which has attracted over 140,000 sign-ups.
Seeing examples like these, Ruth Hardy-Mullings, Head of Content at Community Care, a publication for social workers, wondered if newsletter courses could help solve some of their challenges. Their biggest driver of traffic was their weekly newsletter. She was also aware of the friction readers faced finding time to log onto the website and proactively seek out training content. A course delivered straight to their inbox would be a good way to prove value.
They launched some test courses in March 2021, delivering six emails a week over a three week period. “We took the content from longer guides and hosted it within the body of the email itself, so it solved that problem of having to go and log in on the site,” Hardy-Mullings explained. “Someone was able to open up their email, read the content and get that learning wherever they are, whether they’re in a car before they go and do a home visit, on their commute home, making use of those small amounts of time that people do have.”
Each email had a recap section at the beginning, a progress bar to keep people motivated, further reading links, and a reflective exercise at the end. Hardy-Mullings noted that signing up for a finite period of time was helpful for professionals who get thousands of emails. “The general feedback was that people really loved the convenience of the course and that format of learning, a good way that could genuinely fit into their working week,” she said.
Email courses may not suit every publisher. However, they can be a strong way of repurposing evergreen content, reducing friction points for membership organizations, or giving samples of journalism for paywalled publications, to name a few use cases.
4. Prioritize list-cleaning for a healthy newsletter strategy
One of the most revealing sessions at the Summit was Maire Bonheim and David Alexander, Head and Deputy Head of Newsletters respectively at The Telegraph. They talked about how to turn around an underperforming newsletter, and noted that they often have to use different tactics across almost 40 newsletters in their portfolio.
Alexander was keen to emphasize that although metrics have a place in your newsletter strategy, they need to be the right ones. “If you put all your effort into getting a massive list, and you trick people into signing up to your newsletter, they’ll get it. But no one will care because they didn’t mean to get it in the first place,” he explained. “You’ll have a massive list, and over time, your email provider will think it’s spam, and they’ll just put it in everybody’s junk. Pursuing vanity stats is a fool’s game. Massive lists are not the aim. You want people to read your stuff.”
Clearing lists and pursuing slower, more genuine engagement is a braver path to take, especially with other commercial and business pressures publishers face. Bonheim said that they have different time periods for list cleaning different newsletters. “If a newsletter is a daily send, then we wait a shorter amount of time before we list cleanse, whereas if something’s weekly or even monthly, we wait longer,” she explained.
The Telegraph was also facing an issue where when some marketing emails were sent to editorial newsletter segments, readers were getting confused and newsletters were ending up in the promotions tab.
“As a whole at The Telegraph… the volume of emails had gone up hugely, and we needed to get smarter about our overall email strategy and cleverer about who we segment and target,” Bonheim said, explaining that they send warnings about removing readers from lists if they don’t ‘Click to stay’. “So to combat that, we became much more stringent with our list cleanse emails, and that seems to be having a positive impact.”
The takeaway
These strategies may not work for every publisher, and one theme which emerged strongly from the Publisher Newsletter Summit is that newsletters can be used for a wide range of different purposes. The key is to be very clear for each newsletter what its purpose is, and how that will be measured.
“[Key metrics] are so different across all our titles,” said Alexander of his work on The Telegraph’s newsletters. “I’ve worked on newsletters that have had almost 1,000 words in them, and people want to read them more than anything. I’ve also looked after newsletters where it’s all about getting people through to the site. You have to be really clear on what’s important.”
Whether it’s exploring the potential of short email ‘courses’ or letting editors take a personal lead, there are plenty of ways to freshen up a newsletter strategy. But whether this is through iterative changes, pivots or launches, keep the newsletter’s purpose front and center.
The Economist is an industry leader when it comes to subscriptions innovation: Last year, they paved the way in audio by paywalling all but one of their podcast portfolio. The Economist’s multi award-winning Espresso app has been used as a blueprint for other publishers looking to offer a sample of content behind a cheaper paywall. Earlier this year they also launched the largest brand campaign since the early 2000s in a bid to attract younger readers.
What binds these initiatives together is a strong consumer research team. In addition to brand building and surveying about new initiatives or products, this team is also involved in almost all aspects of the organization, from retention efforts to optimizing its growing B2B business.
The Economist’s Global Head of Consumer Research Seema Hope believes that this is a function more publishers should be seriously considering to optimize subscription efforts. There is real value to be gained in getting to know audiences on a deeper level, even for those without paywalled products.
Getting to know consumer research
Hope’s Consumer Research team is one of the few which has ongoing communication with readers. “We get a lot of dialogue through editorial; people write in,” she noted. “But that two-way conversation is where we come in, and we take that really seriously. We’re there to represent what consumers are saying, and it’s our job to be frontline and independent on that.”
The team is made up of a mixture of disciplines, from UX and design to data and research. Hope firmly believes that it is more important than ever to bring these together rather than operate in silos. “You want to make sure that you’re understanding everything about the consumer, not just the way they’re interacting with a product. You want to understand their needs and motivations,” she explained.
This does add a layer of pressure on research teams to specialize in multiple methodologies. But Hope has seen this be advantageous for careers. Her team has people who are strong in UX, qualitative research and talking to people, as well as experts in qualitative and statistical methodologies. As consumer researchers, being able to operate across all of these means that they can work more effectively with teams across the business, from product to consumer marketing. “We touch nearly every aspect of the organization. And that can only get wider,” Hope said.
An internal and external independent voice
One reason the consumer research team at The Economist is so effective is because they believe in taking stakeholders on the research journey with them. “We won’t just deliver a project and say: ‘Here you go,’” Hope said, explaining how they anticipate any resistance to findings. “We start in partnership with them, working out what the objective is, what the business challenges are. Then our job is finding the right methodology to get them to a deeper understanding.”
Most of the projects the team are involved with are “quite iterative, with constant dialogue,” so findings aren’t a surprise. Hope also outlined that her researchers are often embedded in other teams while a project is ongoing so that everything is transparent. For example, if a consumer has made a statement about user experience in a video, that video is shared with the relevant people in The Economist’s Slack channels.
This perception extends to their interactions with participants, too. “It’s really important that we’re independent when we’re talking to consumers, and we make it really clear that you’re not going to hurt anyone’s feelings [with honest feedback],” Hope said. Constant and open dialogue with customers helps, as does keeping each other’s biases in check internally, with the team ensuring they’re not asking leading questions or putting a spin on data interpretation.
Currently working on growth and retention – once customers are acquired, how do we best keep them, as well as brand perception. Also students and what loyalty means for a news org.
Uncharted territory with Podcasts+
One prominent example of the Consumer Research team’s influence was in in shaping The Economist’s Podcasts+ program. Last October, the publisher moved all but its daily The Intelligence podcast behind a paywall, offering a separate podcast subscription product.
Planning for this was a challenge as virtually no other publishers had made such a move (and still haven’t!). Many consumers will have never come across a paid-for podcast until they hit The Economist’s paywall.
The decision to charge for podcasts was one the whole company stood by. It seemed incongruous to have such a significant product available for free when nothing else was? But they had concerns about how audiences would respond. Hope’s team started with needs, behaviors and motivations. This shaped their messaging and approach.
“It was interesting the way the project evolved. Our consumers were telling us, ‘I can see why you’re doing this. You value your journalism. It’s really in-depth. It’s well-researched. It’s amazing to hear the voice of the journalists in my ear. I feel a real personal connection to this person,’” she explained. “So in the end, our consumers told us the kind of language that we should use when talking to them.”
It took months of conversations and rigorous testing before they arrived at a model that made sense for the publication, as well as one consumers would take up. The Intelligence daily podcast would remain free as a daily touchpoint. However, all other weekly and daily shows would be available for $4.90/month, or as part of the full Economist subscription package.
Hope says that there has been uptake not just of the podcast-only package, but also to the full subscription. One finding that her team were able to pick up was the perception of increased value now that the podcasts were paywalled. “Once you start charging for something, people put more of a value on it. So it’s changed that perception of quality content because they’re now paying for it, and increasing their listening,” she noted.
Now, their focus is on understanding how to move people along the funnel from free to podcast to full subscriber. Hope’s work is never done; consumer research is an ongoing dialogue as tools, technology and behaviors evolve. “I think it’s naive to think you get it right the first time. It’s naive to think that you stop learning. So we rarely say, ‘That’s the end of a project’,” she said.
Lessons from The Economist’s consumer research
Hope has had over 16 years working in audience research, and firmly believes it’s a role all publishers should have to inform decisions across the business. It’s a role that changes and evolves. “But at the very crux of it, we are, as publishers, curating and creating content for a person,” she emphasized. “If you don’t understand what they’re thinking and the why, what, who they are as people, it’s very difficult to adapt what you’re doing.”
We may have more data and insights than ever before into our audiences. But this can’t always provide the full picture about what is going on with consumers. To truly create products that audiences not only enjoy, but are willing to pay for, benefits greatly from insights that run deeper than data. For The Economist – ranked sixth most effective subscriber conversion publisher globally – having a dedicated consumer research team to get under the skin of what really makes their audience tick is clearly paying off.
Podcasting — it’s been a hot business since Serial became a cultural phenomenon back in 2014, spurring SNL skits and inspiring satirical spinoffs on streaming networks. In the years since the true crime megahit launched, there’s been a podcasting goldrush among publishers, and for good reason.
There’s a hunger among audiences for quality audio content. More and more people are tuning into podcasts: Last year alone, nearly 100 million Americans listened to podcasts every week, according to Edison Research.
But as an increasing number of media companies, brands, and individuals have ventured into a growing sea of audio productions (there are 450 million podcasts out there in the world), the water has become rough and murky. Last year, the audio industry saw mass layoffs, canceled productions, and shrinking ad revenue.
It’s led some to question whether podcasting itself was just a passing trend, a la the disastrous 2015 media industry “pivot to video.” Yet, as the audio industry and the publishers who create podcasts come off a “year of reckoning,” it’s clear that one brand seems to have figured out a way to build something solid from podcasting.
A podcasting business with sustainable revenue
Slate dove into the podcasting business with the Slate Political Gabfest in 2005, back when people were still listening on iPods, which is how the medium got its namesake. Since the early aughts, the Slate Podcast Network has put out dozens of shows. Its audio catalog currently boasts more than 20 titles, including listener-loved and award-winning programs like Slow Burn,Decoder Ring,and Death, Sex, and Money.
Today, podcasting accounts for a whopping 50% of the company’s advertising revenue. But audio isn’t only about ad sales for Slate. “We know membership is a huge part of keeping our business diversified overall, and podcasts are a big part of that,” says Heidi Strom Moon, Slate’s Director of Subscriptions.
The Slate Plus membership program started in 2014, and podcasts have been woven into its fabric since the jump. In each of the Slate Podcast Network’s shows, podcast listeners will hear on-air hosts encouraging them to join Slate Plus, via the Slate website, or hear pre-recorded ads directing listeners to sign up.
To support the company’s overall subscription business, “We do things like run remnant inventory ads (for Slate Plus) across the network to let people know about different shows and episodes that we’re doing,” says Strom Moon.
When signing up for Slate Plus, a member can get a three month trial for $15.00, and a full subscription runs $119.00 per year. You might be wondering: Why, exactly, would someone stop listening to a free podcast to sign up for a paid subscription? The answer is built into Slate’s strategy.
“Within each show, we talk a lot about what the benefits you’ll get by joining Slate Plus,” says Heidi Strom Moon. “Those include ad free (listening) benefits, extended listening, and premium episodes that you’ll get as a member. And a lot of that is what drives people to subscribe. Across many of our shows, we have exclusive episodes, extended episodes, and other kinds of bonus content, which we’ll be doing even more of in the weeks and months to come. ”
And the strategy is working. Last year, company revenue from Slate Plus increased 33%. Strom Moon says that AMICUS, Slate’s podcast on jurisprudence and the law, is one of the Slate Plus’ stand-out success stories.
Using podcasting exclusivity to drive paid subscriptions
“AMICUS is one of our big drivers of membership,” she says. “They do weekly standalone bonus episodes for members. So (on air), they’ll talk about what members can get in their bonus episodes each week.”
When listening to AMICUS, the benefits of the Slate Plus membership program are touted, and some of those benefits are intrinsically tied to content strategy. As the Supreme Court reached the end of its term this year and dropped major, bombshell decisions every week of June, AMICUS hopped into action to cover and dissect the rulings in weekly emergency podcast episodes — unscheduled content designed to react to the breaking news — and integrated Slate Plus into the strategy.
“For example, just going into that regular weekly cadence of having a standalone Slate Plus exclusive episode, especially when we do the emergency drops, we’ve seen a 146% increase in (Slate Plus) conversion since we’ve gotten to that regular weekly cadence (covering new Supreme Court decisions),” Strom Moon says.
So how does Slate Plus work from a technical standpoint? When members sign up on the Slate website, Slate Plus listeners get exclusive podcast feeds — the place where new episodes appear and live within a listening app ecosystem. The exclusive feeds can be accessed through the Slate mobile app, or anywhere listeners are already getting their audio content.
“Slate Plus members can subscribe directly on the Slate website, and from there if you’re already using a podcast app that you love and you wanna continue using, you can go ahead and add your premium feeds to any of those apps,” Strom Moon says. “We have partnerships with platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts to make it easier for people to subscribe on those platforms, if that’s where they’re listening and subscribing. We offer all of those options so that people can pick and choose what works best for them.”
While AMICUS may be offering listeners something immediate — quick reaction to what’s going on with Supreme Court rulings on a given day — Slate Plus is also tapping its audio back catalog to drive subscriptions.
“One thing we recently did is we resurfaced an evergreen series that we had done a few years back, calledThe Queen,” Strom Moon says. “We decided that was really good content that people would be interested in again. So we resurfaced that, and that has led to new conversions as people rediscovered this really interesting story.”
Gaining control of your audience through podcasting
While podcasts are a huge driver for Slate Plus, audio is only part of the success story.
“So it’s a combination of benefits for both listeners and readers,” Strom Moon says. “So on the written side, because of the metered paywall (on the Slate website), Slate Plus members get unlimited access to everything Slate — hundreds of articles a month, plus our extensive written archive of almost 25 years of content. We also have member exclusive advice columns. So if you’re an advice fan, and a lot of our readers are, you get even more advice as a Slate Plus member. We also have a member newsletter and a Facebook group.”
For Slate, it’s all about creating multiple touch points and offerings to get audiences to sign up.
“Slate Plus continues to be a big priority because we do think there’s a lot of opportunity for growth there,” Strom Moon says. “It’s the line of business we have the most control over.”
Video streaming services (SVODs) are entering a new phase of maturity, characterized by moderate growth in an increasingly crowded market. SVODs are shifting their focus from subscriber acquisition to implementing strategies to achieve profitable growth. Marketplace trends show that advertising and bundling services are integral to the next stage in the SVOD landscape.
According to Antenna’s new State of Subscription report, most new SVOD subscribers selected ad-supported tiers in Q4 2023 and Q1 2024. This practice will likely continue, as ad-supported subscriptions account for over half of the gross additions during this period. Notably, 61% of SVOD consumers opted for the ad-supported service, indicating a significant shift toward ad acceptance. Antenna identifies subscribers in four distinct choice groups:
Ad Takers – Always opt for ads.
Ad Avoiders – Never choose ads.
Ad Managers – Mix and match ad-supported and ad-free plans.
Ad Oblivious – Have not encountered an ad choice.
With 38% of subscriptions now ad-supported, reflecting a 7-point increase from 2023, consumers are increasingly open to ad-supported options. This trend is further apparent by the growing segment of Ad Takers, which has increased by 11.2 million since Q1 2022.
Benefits of bundling
Bundling SVOD services proves to be an effective strategy for reducing churn. Disney and Apple observed a 2 to 6-point improvement in churn rates for their bundled services compared to standalone offerings. Bundling Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ helps retain more subscribers than offering each service separately.
Antenna’s Bundle Benefit Ratio (BBR) measures the potential upside of bundling. It suggests that most premium SVODs have more curious customers than committed ones. This indicates the potential for bundled offerings to convert these curious customers into loyal subscribers.
Curious Customers: Users who have either canceled a service or are currently subscribed to a service for 6 months or less.
Committed Customers: Users who have subscribed to a service for over 6 months and have not canceled it before.
All Premium SVODs, except Netflix, have a higher number of Curious Customers compared to Committed Customers. Netflix’s exceptionally low Bundle Benefit Ratio indicates a higher risk of cannibalization from bundled offerings than other services. Notably, Netflix’s bundling strategies have mainly targeted its Ad-Supported tier. Conversely, Starz and Max have the highest ratios of Curious to Committed customers, indicating substantial potential gains from bundling strategies.
Effective acquisition strategies
The method of subscriber acquisition significantly impacts customer lifetime value (CLTV). Users acquired at full price can have CLTVs that are 52% higher than those acquired via free trials. Full-price subscribers tend to have higher retention rates and greater long-term value. In 2022, 65% of SVOD sign-ups came at full price from day one, continuing into 2023 and Q1 2024.
Promotions also play a critical role in driving annual plan uptake. For instance, when discounted in late 2022, the uptake of Max’s (formerly HBO Max) annual plans increased more than fivefold. This demonstrates that well-timed promotions can significantly boost long-term subscriber commitments.
Growth and churn dynamics
The overall growth of SVOD subscriptions has slowed to a more moderate pace, with a 10.2% year-over-year increase compared to 18.8% in 2023. However, specialty SVOD services have outpaced premium ones, growing at 15.8% YoY versus 9.4%. This growth is driven by niche content that appeals to specific audiences, highlighting the importance of content differentiation in the competitive SVOD market.
SVOD services must optimize pricing and packaging strategies to drive healthy performance. Ad-supported tiers will continue to play a crucial role, with increasing consumer acceptance and the potential for significant revenue from advertisements. Bundling and effective acquisition strategies will also be vital in maintaining and growing subscriber bases. The video streaming industry is evolving towards sustainable and profitable growth. As SVOD services navigate the landscape, they must balance subscriber acquisition with retention strategies, leveraging ads, bundles, and pricing tactics to achieve long-term success.
Last month, I co-led a week-long journalism program during which we visited 16 newsrooms, media outlets and tech companies in New York. This study tour provided an in-depth snapshot of the biggest issues facing the media today and offered insights into some of the potential solutions publishers are exploring to address them.
We met with everyone from traditional media players – like The New York Times, Associated Press, CBS and Hearst – to digital providers such as Complex Media and ProPublica, as well as conversations with academics and policy experts. Based upon these visits and conversations, here are four key takeaways about the state of media and content publishing today.
1. Hands-on AI experience matters
Not surprisingly, AI dominated many conversations. Although recent research shows the American public is both skeptical and surprisingly unaware of these tools, the emergence of Generative AI – and the discussions around it – are impossible to ignore.
One mantra oft repeated throughout the week was that everyone in the media will need to be conversant with AI. Despite this, research has shown that many newsrooms are hesitant about adopting these technologies. Others, however, are taking a more proactive approach. “I like playing offense, not defense, Aimee Rinehart, Senior Product Manager AI Strategy at the Associated Press, told us. “Figure out how the tools work and your limits.”
With many media companies having to do more with less, AI can help improve workflows, support labor-intensive work like investigative journalism, as well as streamline and diversify content creation and distribution. By harnessing these AI-powered functions, smaller outlets may benefit the most, given the efficiencies these resource-strapped players may be able to unlock.
Reporting on AI is also an emerging journalistic beat. This is an area more newsrooms are likely to invest in, given AI’s potential to radically reshape our lives. As Hilke Schellmann, an Emmy‑award winning investigative reporter and journalism professor at NYU, told us “we used to hold powerful people to account, now we have to add holding AI accountable.”
Echoing Schellmann’s sentiments, “every journalist should be experimenting with AI,” one ProPublica journalist said. “We owe it to our audience to know what this is capable of.”
2. Demonstrating distinctiveness and value is imperative
One fear of an AI-driven world is that traffic to publishers will tank as Generative Search, and tools like ChatGPT, remove the need for users to visit the sites of creators and information providers. In that environment, distinctiveness, trustworthy and fresh content becomes more valuable than ever. “You need to produce journalism that gives people a reason to show up,” says Ryan Knutson, co-host of The Wall Street Journal’s daily news podcast, The Journal.
In response, publishers will need to demonstrate their expertise and unique voice. That means leaning more into service journalism, exclusives, and formats like explainers, analysis, newsletters, and podcasts.
Bloomberg’s John Authers, exemplifies this in his daily Points of Return newsletter. With more than three decades of experience covering markets and investments, he brings a longitudinal and distinctive human perspective to his reporting. Alongside this, scoops still matter, Authers suggests. After all, “journalism is about finding out something other people don’t know,” he says.
Media players also need to make a more effective case as to why original content needs to be supported and paid for. As Gaetane Michelle Lewis, SEO leader at the Associated Press, put it, “part of our job is communicating to the audience what we have and that you need it.”
For a non-profit like ProPublica that means demonstrating impact. They publish three impact reports a year, and their Annual Report highlights how their work has led to change at a time when “many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting.”
“Our North Star is the potential to make a positive change through impact,” Communications Director, Alexis Stephens, said. And she emphasized how “this form of journalism is critical to democracy.”
The New York Times’ business model is very different but its publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, has similarly advocated for the need for independent journalism. As he put it, “a fully informed society not only makes better decisions but operates with more trust, more empathy, and greater care.”
Given the competition from AI, streaming services, and other sources of attention, media outlets will increasingly need to advocate more forcefully for support through subscriptions, donations, sponsorships, and advertising. In doing this, they’ll need to address what sets them apart from the competition, and why this matters on a wider societal level.
“This is a perilous time for the free press,” Sulzberger told The New Yorker last year. “That reality should animate anyone who understands its central importance in a healthy democracy.”
3. Analytics and accessibility go hand in hand
Against this backdrop, finding and retaining audiences is more important than ever. However, keeping their attention is a major challenge. Data from Chartbeat revealed that half the audiences visiting outlets in their network stay on a site for fewer than 15 seconds.
This has multiple implications. From a revenue perspective, this may mean users aren’t on a page long enough for ad impressions to count. It also challenges outlets to look at how content is produced and presented.
In a world where media providers continue to emphasize growing reader revenues, getting audiences to dig deeper and stay for longer, is essential. “The longer someone reads, the more likely they are to return,” explained Chartbeat’s CMO Jill Nicolson.
There isn’t a magic wand to fix this. Tools for publishers to explore include compelling headlines, effective formats, layout, and linking strategies. Sometimes, Nicolson said, even small modifications can make all the difference.
These efforts don’t just apply to your website. They apply to every medium you use. Brendan Dunne of Complex Media referred to the need for “spicy titles” for episodes of their podcasts and YouTube videos. Julia D’Apolito, Associate Social Editor at Hearst Magazines, shared how their approach to content might be reversed. “We’ve been starting to do social-first projects… and then turning them into an article,” she said, rather than the other way round.
Staff at The New York Times also spoke about the potential for counter-programing. One way to combat news fatigue and avoidance is to shine a light on your non-news content. The success of NYT verticals such as Cooking, Wirecutter, and Games shows how diversifying content can create a more compelling and immersive proposition, making audiences return more often.
Lastly, language and tone matters. As one ProPublica journalist put it, “My editor always says pretend like you’re writing for Sesame Steet. Make things accurate, but simple.” Reflecting on their podcasts, Dunne also stresses the need for accessibility. “People want to feel like they’re part of a group chat, not a lecture,” he said.
Fundamentally, this also means being more audience-centric in the way that stories are approached and told. “Is the angle that’s interesting to us as editors the same as our audiences?” Nicolson asked us. Too often, the data would suggest, it is not.
4. Continued concern about the state of local news
Finally, the challenges faced by local news media, particularly newspapers, emerged in several discussions. Steven Waldman, the Founder and CEO of Rebuild Local News, reminded us that advertising revenue at local newspapers had dropped 82% in two decades. The issue is not “that the readers left the papers,” he said, “it’s that the advertisers did.”
For Waldman, the current crisis is an opportunity not just to “revive local news,” but also to “make better local news.” This means creating a more equitable landscape with content serving a wider range of audiences and making newsrooms more diverse. “Local news is a service profession,” he noted. “You’re serving the community, not the newsroom.”
According to new analysis, the number of partisan-funded outlets designed to appear like impartial news sources (so-called “pink slime” sites) now surpasses the number of genuine local daily newspapers in the USA. This significantly impacts the news and information communities receive, shaping their worldviews and decision-making.
Into this mix, AI is also rearing its ugly head. While it can be hugely beneficial for some media companies—“AI is the assistant I prayed for,” saysParis Brown, associate editor of The Baltimore Times. However, it can also be used to fuel misinformation, accelerating pink slime efforts.
“AI is supercharging lies,” one journalist at ProPublica told us, pointing to the emergence of “cheap fakes” alongside “deep fakes,” as content which can confirm existing biases. The absence of boots on the ground makes it harder for these efforts to be countered. Yet, as Hilke Schellmann, reminded us “in a world where we are going to be swimming in generative text, fact-checking is more important [than ever].”
This emerging battleground makes it all the more important for increased funding for local news. Legislative efforts, increased support from philanthropy, and other mechanisms can all play a role in helping grow and diversify this sector. Steven Waldman puts it plainly: “We have to solve the business model and the trust model at the same time,” he said.
All eyes on the future
The future of media is being written today, and our visit to New York provided a detailed insight into the principles and mindsets that will shape these next few chapters.
From the transformative potential of AI, to the urgent need to demonstrate distinctiveness and value, it is clear that sustainability has to be rooted in adaptability and innovation.
Using tools like AI and Analytics to inform decisions, while balancing this with a commitment to quality and community engagement is crucial. Media companies who fail to harness these technologies are likely to get left behind.
In an AI-driven world, more than ever, publishers need to stand out or risk fading away. Original content, unique voices, counter-programming, being “audience first,” and other strategies can all play a role in this. Simultaneously, media players must also actively advocate for why their original content needs to be funded and paid for.
Our week-long journey through the heart of New York’s media landscape challenged the narrative that news media and journalism are dying. It isn’t. It’s just evolving. And fast.
Consumers value local news media, with a large majority saying that local news outlets are at least somewhat important to the well-being of their local community according to new research from Pew. Most people also say local journalists are in touch with their communities and that their local news media perform well at several aspects of their jobs, such as reporting the news accurately.
Interestingly, Republicans and Democrats both display significant confidence in local reporting, with 66% and 78%, respectively, which showcases bipartisan support. This widespread trust highlights the local media’s role in ensuring accountability and integrity in governance.
Nevertheless, the landscape continues to shift as more consumers engage with local news through online forums and social media groups. Unfortunately, these days intermediaries have moved to the forefront and diminished the direct influence – and perceived value – of news publishers. In fact, a mere 15% of Americans say they have paid or given money to any local news source in the past year – a number that has not changed much since 2018. Oddly, this coincides with the finding that a majority of Americans (63%) say they think their local news outlets are doing very or somewhat well.
Consequently, local news outlets are re-evaluating their strategies to engage audiences effectively. Addressing how local news businesses can adapt, serve their communities, reignite an interest in, and support for, news media to flourish in the current media environment remains a critical challenge for the industry.
Local news is appealing, but to smaller audiences
Around 85% of those surveyed indicate that local news outlets are at least “somewhat important” to the well-being of their local community. Similarly, a majority believe that local journalists are in touch with their communities and perform well in various aspects of their jobs, such as accurately reporting the news.
However, despite reporting significant value and trust, Pew’s trending data shows that the share of U.S. consumers who actively follow local news very closely dropped from 37% to 22% in the last eight years. Additionally, many consumers are unaware of local news’s significant financial challenges. Of these, 63% (slightly fewer than in 2018) believe their local news outlets are doing very well.
Demographics impact the perception of local news
If attention correlates to valuing local news, the industry needs to pay attention to audience behavior. A decline in attention to local news has occurred across demographic groups, though there are significant differences by age. Young adults are much less likely than their older adults to say they follow local news: In 2024, only 9% of U.S. consumers 18 -29 say they follow local news very closely, compared with 35% of those 65 and older.
Americans with higher levels of formal education are less likely than those with a high school diploma or less education to follow local news very closely. While 17% of college graduates follow local news very closely, 28% of those with a high school education or less say the same.
Among U.S. adults ages 30 and older who have not paid for local news in the past year, the most common reason they cite is that they can find plenty of free local news. This is likely influenced by the sharing of local news – or at least information about things happening locally – via social platforms. However, as platforms “distance themselves” from the news, the likelihood of people encountering news from a publisher are increasingly diminished.
While 37% cite the availability of free alternatives, the most common reason given by Americans ages 18 to 29 is a lack of interest: 46% in this group say the main reason they don’t pay for local news is that they are not interested enough in it.
Local news consumption shifts to streaming
Streaming offers a viable outlet for local news. With nearly 40% of U.S. households reachable only through streaming TV, local news can deliver a converged linear and streaming advertising strategy to access the total TV audience in a local market. This shift to streaming enables personalization in local news content while catering to individual viewer preferences. It also allows local broadcasters to monetize local inventory across a broader spectrum of premium publishers, reinventing the advertising paradigm.
The evolving landscape of local news presents challenges and opportunities for the future of journalism. While digitization transforms how news is accessed and consumed, local news’ fundamental role in informing communities remains unchanged. Local news outlets can find new and direct paths to the consumer by adapting to changing consumer preferences and embracing digital innovation. By leveraging technology and engaging more interactively with their audiences, these outlets can enhance their relevance and sustain their crucial societal role.
In the age of artificial intelligence, it could be argued that the calculus of content is changing.
Since the advent of publishing metrics, the goal has always been more: more page views, clicks, keywords and SEO. And while AI can automate various aspects of content creation and production to save digital media companies time and resources, the convenience of the technology has also allowed for a firehose of low quality content to proliferate.
But, amid the sharp increase of these junk content farms, is there a new opportunity for quality journalism to quietly reclaim its place at the fore? It’s certainly on the minds of the leadership at The Atlantic.
In April, The Atlantic announced it had reached 1 million subscribers and become profitable, by investing in areas where the company had “fairly high confidence of good returns,” according to CEO Nicholas Thompson. The 167-year-old publication currently boasts financial stability and is well-positioned to think about where it is headed as it approaches its 200th birthday.
The Atlantic’s one-million milestone is just the foundation for further growth. In a recent memo to staff, Thompson and Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote:
“The key to continued success is to be constructively dissatisfied with the present, and so both of us believe very strongly that our 1 million subscriptions represent merely the foundation of future excellence and growth.”
Goldberg says that he would like The Atlantic to double, then quadruple its current size, saying the company needs to figure out how to reach larger audiences around the world. “I want to set a course as The Atlantic heads towards its bicentennial in 33 years. Now is the time for us to decide this is where we want The Atlantic to go and this is how we’re going to get there,” he said.
In terms of excellence, The Atlantic’s awards speak volumes to the quality of the journalism it produces. For the third year in a row, The Atlantic was awarded General Excellence for a News, Sports, and Entertainment publication at the 2024 National Magazine Awards. No one else has done that in this century, Goldberg remarks.
“So, we have the recognition of our industry that we’re doing something right, and I feel like this is the year when we need to really focus on: what are the next large steps we take?” Goldberg said. “Because we’re in a very good spot. But I don’t want to spend the next five years defending the hill that we’re on. I want to move to some other mountain entirely.”
And, that means not just defending their reputation for journalistic excellence, or growing iteratively. It means figuring out how to reach enormous audiences around the world – and getting a whole lot of them to subscribe.
Subscription strategy with an editorial focus
Prior to the pandemic, Atlantic Chair David Bradley and Laurene Powell Jobs decided they should move into the digital subscription space. They’d had a lot of success through scale – growing web traffic and advertising, Goldberg said. The company hired Alexandra Hardiman, (currently New York Times’ Chief Product Officer), as Chief Business & Product Officer in 2018-2019, to build The Atlantic’s digital subscription model.
“We launched basically six months before the pandemic started when advertising collapsed. And we did very well in those early months. There was a lot of demand,” Goldberg recalled.
The 2019 metered model offered three annual subscription plans for readers: digital, print and digital and a premium tier, which offered exclusive access to podcasts, product discounts and priority access to events among other perks. The Atlantic earned 300,000 new subscriptions in the 12 months that followed.
The following year, the pandemic impacted the publication’s in-person events and advertising, forcing layoffs of 17% of its staff, and losses in the millions.
Now, overall revenue is up more than 10% year over year. The company says advertising booked year-to-date is also up 33% year over year. And, subscriptions to The Atlantic have increased by double-digit percentages in each of the past four years. In fact, they’ve surged 14% in the past year alone.
By 2023, The Atlantic was back on the path to profitability. According to Axios, The Atlantic adjusted its paywall to be more flexible for subscribers and was working to add new revenue streams. Then, roughly 60% of its revenue came from subscriptions, which included print magazines and digital subscriptions through Apple News.
Flexible paywalls meet journalistic excellence
The strategy was to have the best, smartest, most dynamic, flexible subscription, acquisition and retention strategies, Goldberg said. “We’ve always believed that you can have the best systems in the world for acquiring people easily, but if you don’t have a quality product to sell them, they’re not going to come, they’re not going to stay.”
“We pivoted, I would say, to a total quality model on the web. We were doing good stuff on the web for years. We had a large team of young reporters doing news analysis and quick summaries and that sort of thing. But I’ve always believed that the aspect of The Atlantic that differentiated us from everyone else was a commitment to having the highest standards and producing the most complicated, interesting, aesthetically-pleasing, well-written journalism. I think that strategy has borne fruit,” Goldberg said.
The Atlantic focused on editorial excellence, publishing stories that exemplified depth and range and drove news cycles. It recruited high-profile writers including New York Times’ Jennifer Senior and Caitlin Dickerson, who won Pulitzers in 2022 for Feature Writing and Explanatory Journalism, respectively.
“My goal here is to build the greatest writers collective in the English language. We’re halfway there,” Goldberg said. “I don’t need the biggest one. I just need the best one. There are tremendous numbers of readers of English, who want access to our writers, and so as long as there’s an audience for quality journalism, quality non-fiction, we will be okay.”
Reaching new subscribers with newsletters
In addition to a flexible digital subscription strategy and editorial excellence, The Atlantic invested in new newsletters for subscribers in 2021, bringing nine newsletter writers into the fold. Newsletters help reach different audiences, build loyalty and repetition. And as Goldberg pointed out, The Atlantic is launching new ones all of the time. Thus far, the strategy appears to be a moderate success.
“One of the best things to happen out of that is we found more great staff writers, Yair Rosenberg, Xochitl Gonzalez and Charlie Warzel, just to name three and so, it ultimately brought their following,” Goldberg said. “They’re integrated into our writers collective in a way that’s great for our readers and great for our journalism.”
High-quality content reckons with AI
As digital media companies reckon with the changes artificial intelligence brings, deciding on how to adapt or adopt, it’s becoming clear that high-quality journalism retains immense value in the AI era. It offers authenticity, context, and deep analysis that AI-generated content lacks. It provides meaningful insights, informs people and counters misinformation.
Despite the one million subscriber milestone, Goldberg isn’t ready to relax. “It’s not like a breath out. We’re not breathing easy because you’ve got to run scared in this business,” he said. “But those three things, the subscription health, financial health, journalism health and recognition, give us a great place to have meetings where we can actually think through, alright, what are we going to do with The Atlantic on its approach to its 200th birthday.”
“Because it is a very unstable industry, obviously, and I worry about small mistakes or small missed opportunities snowballing over the years. I worry about missing the opportunity to do something newer and bigger.”
Few of The Atlantic’s contemporaries are left. As Goldberg points out, many venerable magazines that came after The Atlantic – like Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post – have disappeared.
“So it’s kind of a miracle that The Atlantic has made it through the beginning of the internet age successfully. It survived the Great Depression and the Civil War and World War II. And, so we really have to focus on what is it that made it survive? And what do we do to increase its chances of surviving and flourishing into the next phase?”
