The earnings reports we covered in my last blog tell the financial story, but behind those numbers is a clear set of strategies publishers are deploying to diversify revenue.

Events and experiential

Events have moved from a nice-to-have to a core revenue pillar for many publishers. Echoing research we shared last year, the WAN-IFRA World Press Trends Outlook report found events are the most important “other” revenue source for news publishers globally, identified by 32.2% of news leaders surveyed. The AOP Digital Publishing survey similarly found 38% of publishers identify events as a top growth area for the next three years, rising to 69% among B2B publishers.

The models vary widely:

People Inc. now runs 60+ events per year across its portfolio, ranging from Food & Wine’s longstanding Aspen festival to intimate 20-person dinners to the 15,000-visitor Southern Living Idea House. 

People Inc.’s president of lifestyle brands described events as content: They generate stories and impressions before, during, and after the event itself. A one-day Better Homes & Gardens pop-up in New York generated 1 billion online impressions. The company held an upfront-style events showcase for advertisers in February.

Bloomberg Media runs a global slate of forums (New Economy Forum, Bloomberg Invest, Qatar Economic Forum, Tech SF, Screentime) that delivered 30% sponsorship revenue growth in 2025.

Condé Nast has expanded its global events portfolio in recent years, turning franchises like Vogue World, The New Yorker Festival, and the Wired conference series into major sponsorship and ticket-driven businesses. The New Yorker reached record revenue, profits, and subscribers in 2025, a result CEO Roger Lynch attributed in part to diversification away from search traffic, which has fallen from a majority of site visits just a few years ago to about a quarter today.

Semafor co-founder Ben Smith described events as the best business close to journalism: highest margin, quickest to stand up, strongest economics.

Immediate Media (publisher of BBC Gardeners’ World, Radio Times, Good Food) has launched an experiential agency called IX to help brands host live experiences using the reach of Immediate’s 24 titles. The model is notable because the events don’t necessarily need to carry the publisher’s brand at all; Immediate can serve as the audience delivery and production partner for consumer brands seeking live experiences.

For advertising teams, events create direct connections between brands and audiences that no algorithm can intermediate. They generate sponsorship revenue, branded content, data capture, and cross-platform content assets. In a post-traffic environment, they’re increasingly central.

Proprietary ad technology and data platforms

People Inc.’s D/Cipher is perhaps the clearest example. The contextual targeting platform, launched in 2023 and opened to third-party publishers as D/Cipher+, targets advertising based on content rather than cookies. CEO Neil Vogel predicted D/Cipher+ will contribute 2-3% growth to overall revenue in 2026.

The New York Times continues to invest in BrandMatch, its AI-powered targeting tool, after a year of success, alongside new video formats and expanded ad surfaces across its product portfolio.

LADbible Group has developed a proprietary data platform tracking content performance across Web and social in real time, alongside AI tools that translate client briefs into creative opportunities.

Forbes is testing a prediction platform called ForbesPredict, which gamifies news predictions to boost on-site engagement. The platform generates sentiment data for Forbes’ first-party data platform ForbesOne, creating new audience segments for advertising targeting. The move reflects a broader publisher trend. Dow Jones, CNN, CNBC, and Yahoo Finance have each struck deals with prediction platforms Polymarket and Kalshi to integrate betting odds into editorial content and broadcasts. The strategy is generating both new distribution partnerships and advertiser interest, though it has drawn criticism from journalism purists who argue it conflates news with speculation.

Video strategy 

As we’ve been covering throughout the Advertising Initiative, video is increasingly central to publisher advertising strategies. The AOP survey found 45% of publishers identify video as a top growth area, tied for first with subscriptions. An AdMonsters analysis argued that vertical video is becoming the open Web’s “new front door,” with leading publishers rebuilding homepages and article templates around swipe-first video streams.

The New York Times is investing heavily in video, with CEO Meredith Kopit Levien describing it as a major new audience opportunity as linear TV declines and viewing shifts to digital. The company’s video push is creating new ad inventory and monetisation channels.

The Athletic (owned by The Times) is investing in live blogs and video to create content that is both stickier for fans and harder for AI to replicate.

People Inc.’s InStyle launched “The Intern,” a social video franchise now in its seventh season that attracts US$500,000 to US$700,000 per sponsor and costs next to nothing to produce.

Bloomberg Media is expanding across audio (up 16%) and video formats, with podcast advertising growing 36%.

The Economist has invested heavily in a video initiative called Insider, building a TV-quality studio and hiring experienced video staff to transform the publication’s traditionally anonymous editorial voice into recognisable on-screen personalities. Interviews with world leaders garnered millions of views across The Economist’s social channels. The company originally conceived Insider as a premium subscription add-on but folded it into the existing subscription after demand didn’t support a standalone offering — a useful case study in the limits of video monetization even for a profitable, well-resourced publisher.

Direct and premium advertising sales

The shift from programmatic to direct is one of the clearest trends in the data. 

The AOP survey found 68% of publishers say the majority of their advertising deals currently come from direct sales, with 64% identifying it as their biggest growth area. There’s a parallel shift from open marketplaces toward private marketplaces, with 28% highlighting private marketplaces as a growth area (up from just 2% two years ago).

LADbible Group grew direct revenue to 54% of total revenue, with U.S. direct sales up 29%. The company now has three U.S. clients worth US$1 million or more annually, up from one the year before, including Netflix, Dunkin’ Donuts, and PepsiCo. Direct revenue is expected to eventually reach 70% of total revenue.

Semafor funds its journalism through brand sponsorships of e-mail briefings, podcasts, Web site content, and events. Co-founder Ben Smith emphasised that corporate brand and reputational advertising operates in a different, healthier market than consumer advertising.

Axios sells only direct sponsorship advertising and reported its strongest Q4 ever. 

Performance marketing, affiliate commerce, and reader revenue 

People Inc. reported performance marketing revenue (largely affiliate) up 17% to US$101 million in Q4. Off-platform sources now account for 25% of this revenue.

The New York Times’ Wirecutter remains a steady affiliate revenue contributor, with affiliate, licensing, and other revenues reaching US$100.2 million in Q4.

The Arena Group (owner of Sports Illustrated, Men’s Journal, Parade) is leaning into creator-led commerce, acquiring the IP rights for ShopHQ and building retail media network capabilities. The strategy pairs editorial authority with commerce transactions and first-party purchase data.

New York Magazine is taking a creative approach, reviving classified ads as a subscriber benefit, allowing paid New York subscribers in NYC to buy and sell items through curated monthly drops on The Strategist.

Vox has expanded onto Patreon to build reader revenue and two-way audience interaction.

The post-scale model is also taking shape in niche verticals, as A Media Operator reports. In gaming journalism, worker-owned subscription outlets like Mothership, Jank, and Aftermath have found early traction where scaled ad-supported operations have retrenched. Mothership reached 2,000 paying subscribers within a week of launch. 

The model — smaller teams, reader-only revenue, no growth mandates — echoes what Defector and 404 Media have demonstrated in sports and tech coverage. These outlets share cost structures that change the subscriber math: Mothership estimates roughly 1,000 subscribers funds one full-time position.

B2B services, data, and software

Hearst’s transformation is the most dramatic example: B2B now generates 60% of company profits through Fitch Group, healthcare software, aviation data, and automotive services.

Thomson Reuters continues to grow through AI-enhanced professional information services, with organic revenue up 7% and plans for agentic AI capabilities.

Haymarket Group reported £175 million in turnover across medical, automotive, and marketing communications sectors, with ongoing investment in digital platforms and data-led products.

A Media Operator reported on M&A trends and found private equity buyers are prioritising media companies with proprietary data, subscription models, and events revenue. The formula of data plus subscriptions plus events is increasingly what makes media businesses attractive for investment.

Off-platform and social-first distribution

People Inc. reported off-platform views nearly doubling over the past two years, growing 43% year-over-year in Q4. The company is actively building audiences on social platforms, Apple News, e-mail, and its mobile app rather than waiting for Google to deliver traffic.

LADbible Group generates 54% of its revenue through direct sales and 27% through indirect social revenue, with indirect Web (programmatic) declining 13%. The company’s global audience of 509 million is overwhelmingly social.

Reddit isn’t a traditional publisher, but its Q4 results are relevant context: Revenue grew 70% year-over-year to US$726 million, with ad revenue up 75% to US$690 million. Daily active users grew 19% to 121.4 million. Reddit is now actively pitching itself as a platform for consumer insights and lower-funnel campaigns, investing in AI-powered search and performance advertising tools. For publishers, Reddit’s growth represents both a competitive threat and a potential distribution partner.

Condé Nast is one of the clearest examples of a publisher structurally repositioning away from Google dependency. CEO Roger Lynch described Google’s AI Overviews as “another sort of death blow” to search traffic, and said the company now assumes “very dramatic continued declines in search traffic, to the point where in a couple of years it’s just not a meaningful driver.” The company is licensing content to OpenAI and Amazon while building subscriptions and direct audience relationships as its primary growth levers.

Creator partnerships, content studios, and acquisitions

Publishers are increasingly integrating creators into their advertising ecosystem. People Inc.’s InStyle “The Intern” franchise, built around social creators, generates significant sponsorship revenue. The Arena Group is recruiting creators around specific verticals (spirits, surf) to drive commerce and advertising revenue. Condé Nast, Bloomberg, and others integrate creator relationships into their events and content offerings.

Future plc acquired a youth-focused fashion brand as part of its drive away from Google dependency. Hearst acquired the Austin American-Statesman and The Dallas Morning News, continuing to invest in local journalism. Haymarket acquired marketing communication assets from Centaur Media. Outside Interactive built its entire model through dozens of acquisitions over five years. 

Contextual intelligence and advertiser tools

Beyond D/Cipher, multiple publishers are investing in tools and capabilities that help advertisers target contextually, measure effectiveness, and demonstrate outcomes. The New York Times is using data improvements and canvas enhancements to make existing supply more valuable. Digiday reported publishers are exploring selling their AI visibility know-how to brands as a consultancy-style offering, a new revenue line that didn’t exist a year ago.

A survey of nearly 20 publishers by AdExchanger found curation has moved from differentiator to survival skill, as AI-generated inventory floods the open exchange. Publishers are simplifying supply paths with tighter PMPs and cleaner reporting while simultaneously using AI to automate operations — one revenue leader reported replacing their entire ad ops team with conditional workflows. 

The same survey found publishers are “hoping for more clarity around curation and which signals are truly valuable,” pointing to first-party data investment and supply path transparency as priorities.

Also a reminder about my master class

The INMA Advertising Measurement & Effectiveness Master Class starts this Thursday, March 19, at 10 a.m. ET/3 p.m. CET.

Advertising measurement is one of the biggest unresolved challenges in media. Up to 75% of marketers say measurement is flawed, yet it remains one of the top priorities for investment.

Over three virtual modules, leading publishers — including Financial Times, The Guardian, Schibsted, Ringier Axel Springer Polska, and Editora Globo — will share how they measure campaign impact, demonstrate engagement, and compete with platforms.

The master class is fully virtual, takes place over three modules from March 19-26, is open to both INMA members and non-members, and there are discounts for multiple registrations.

• You can see an overview and the full list of speakers here.

• You can see the full agenda here.

• You can see pricing and register here.

Attend and learn how publishers are evolving measurement beyond reach and CTR — and how stronger evidence can help secure a fairer share of advertising investment.

If you’d like to subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, INMA members can do so here.

Banner photo: Adobe Stock By ipuwadol.

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