Publisher strategies: What Forbes, Business Insider, The Guardian and others are focusing on in 2025

Digiday+ Research's second annual report on publishers’ revenues examines the state of the group's revenue streams, from traditional ad revenue to events and subscriptions, featuring interviews with executives from The Guardian, Dow Jones, Forbes, Business Insider and The News Media Alliance.

Mar 25, 2025 - 05:03

Publisher strategies: What Forbes, Business Insider, The Guardian and others are focusing on in 2025

Introduction

Uncertainty continues for the media industry in 2025, but publishers are moving on from jumping on every trend — subscriptions, newsletters, paywalls — to bolster revenue. Now, they’re homing in on more thoughtful strategies, aiming to align their content with the smartest way to increase cashflow. As they do this, publishers’ revenue streams are slowly beginning to equalize, with their income spreading across channels.

Additionally, the U.S. presidential election last fall brought a healthy boost of traffic and new subscribers to publishers, and many publishers welcomed the “Trump bump” to help alleviate referral traffic challenges. Political news coverage and its related ad revenue has continued to be a boon for publishers well into the first quarter of 2025.

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