The digital publishing industry is evolving beyond traditional ads. As AI search and performance advertising reduce organic traffic, publishers must adopt a unified revenue strategy to survive. This requires breaking down internal silos, using shared metrics like ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), and making decisions that focus on giving the audience long-term value.  “Publishers are going to have to create a direct, more engaged, meaningful relationship with readers. Brands are going to matter more than ever.”     

Why traffic is declining

Nearly 30% of publishers are experiencing declining search traffic due to the rise of AI-generated summaries, reporting a decline of 10% or more.  Performance advertising is also taking a toll on publishers. Companies like Google and Facebook create ad-targeting campaigns that individual publishers can’t replicate. As a result, advertisers are taking their budgets away from publishers to the Big Tech as they expect more efficient return on investment.  Publishers must consider adapting their strategy – to one that focuses on earning more from each visitor.

Total monetization as the new strategy

To succeed, publishers must implement a new strategy – “total monetization”. According to Brian Morrissey, Founder at The Rebooting, previously President & Editor-in-Chief at Digiday, it requires publishers to take a structural approach to solving internal issues, such as structural misalignment, metric fragmentation, and ad hoc tradeoff management between ads and subscriptions.    “The playbook going forward is not about choosing between ads and subscriptions, scale and engagement, or reach and loyalty. It’s about managing those tensions with a unified strategy, clear decision-making authority, and shared measures of success. That means breaking down internal silos, aligning incentives, and using data modeling to make tradeoffs explicit”, says Brian Morrissey.    So what does it mean for publishers? In this blog, we’ll cover key strategies that will help publishers succeed in the new era of digital media.    The new report from Brian Morrissey covers the topic in detail. Brian discusses The Rebooting’s insights and shares interviews with revenue leaders (CROs, publishers, executives) at leading publishing companies, including executives from Piano, whose data informed many findings in the report.    

1. Remove team silos

   Michael Silberman, EVP Media Strategy at Piano advises, “Ideally, there should be ongoing conversations between the reader monetization team/the direct-to-consumer team and the advertising team/the B2B monetization team, and the newsroom. Those discussions should focus on where the biggest opportunities lie, how to capitalize on them while maintaining editorial independence and standards, and how to balance the needs of the direct-to-consumer business with the B2B business.” 

   
   

2. Establish common language of success

   “At Piano, we often look at average revenue per user (ARPU) as a “reader monetization” metric, where the denominator is total website visitors, not just subscribers.” – Michael Silberman.

   
   

3. Implement a consistent data-driven process to manage the tradeoff between ads and subscriptions

   Dynamic access models”, says Brian Morrissey, “like propensity-based paywalls or rules based on reader behavior, offer a potential path forward, allowing publishers to optimize for both revenue streams simultaneously.”

   
   

4. Align goals, incentives, and workflows across revenue, editorial, and product

   Have your teams meet regularly to discuss decisions that benefit the whole business.

   
   

5. Invest in products and capabilities that are less vulnerable to search

   First-party data collection should become a must, as well as a direct connection to the audience.

   
   

The next era of digital media

Brian Morrissey shares: “Publishers that can simplify around a shared North Star, reduce dependency on intermediaries, and invest in differentiated products that deepen audience relationships will have leverage in a platform-dominated ecosystem. The next era of digital media will belong to operators who can match strategic clarity with operational discipline – turning the messy reality of today’s revenue environment into a competitive advantage.”    

Read the full report.