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Publisher strategies: How publishers are optimizing revenue streams

By Li Lu and Catherine Wolf 

Publishers are placing their bets on both traditional and alternative revenue streams in 2024 — even after a tumultuous 2023, when publishers’ revenues turned out to be less lucrative than expected and the media industry saw a seemingly endless cycle of layoffs.

Despite those challenges, direct-sold display ads remained a top revenue driver for publishers throughout 2023 and, in actuality, direct-sold ads have been publishers’ top revenue stream since 2020. This is according to Digiday+ Research surveys of publisher professionals conducted over the past four years. Programmatic ads have consistently come in second place among publishers’ revenue sources, followed by branded content and video advertising, according to Digiday’s surveys.

However, with publishers facing declining referral traffic from search and social platforms, steeper competition for scale-focused campaign budgets, and a myriad of other woes impacting ad revenue, some publishers are growing their focus on events in 2024, while others are placing a renewed focus on subscriptions. 

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