Publishing Trends
Ad Growth To Slow In 2025, But Forecasts Offer Optimism
In the United States, total advertising and marketing grew 9.7% to $708.45 billion in 2024, and is forecast to grow 5.4% this year.
Think Digitally, Act Locally: The Increasing Benefits Of Digital Revenue For Local Media
Nearly half of local media saw an increase in total digital revenue in 2024, with 67.9% increasing their digital revenue budget for 2025.
Growth Charts: Measuring Effectiveness As Programmatic Advertising Continues To Dominate
72% of advertisers and marketers are planning on increasing their programmatic advertising investment this year, up from 62% last year.
Keeping Perspective: AI, Subscriptions, And The State of Journalism In 2025
AI in publishing, digital subscriptions, and the future of search are all top-of-mind for journalists and publishers in 2025.
The Credit They Deserve: As AI Expands Into Newsrooms, Are Publishers Seeing Better Attributions?
The continued rise of AI in publishing has some publishers worried about the risk of their work being misattributed or misrepresented.
Digital Subscription Growth Among Publisher Priorities In 2025
More than half of publishers saw an increase in their digital subscriptions, while 47% plan on prioritizing them in 2025.
Promising Projections: Programmatic Advertising Continues To Dominate For Publishers
U.S. programmatic advertising sales are projected to rise to $21.5 billion in 2025 and reach $22.69 billion by 2027.
Digital Diligence: Why The Right Tech Is Essential For Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Digital Content Needs
77% of creatives expect their production volume to increase in 2025, highlighting the need for the right digital management software.
Act Locally: Ads With Local Messages Seen As More Relevant (New Study)
In a recent study of TV viewers, 68% said ads from national companies are more relevant when they have local messages.
Paid To Play: Canadian Publishers Receive Google’s First Exemption Payment
As part of its agreement with Canada following the Online News Act, Google has sent CA$100 million to the Canadian Journalism Collective, a non-profit of independent publishers and broadcasters.
Tip Of The Iceberg: New Study Shows Vast Volume Of Top Search Terms
New Google Search research found that 46% of the total volume came from the top 10,000 query terms, and the top 15% came from just 148 terms.
Early To Rise: Early AI Adopters Seeing Greater Impacts (New Report)
Early AI adopters are more likely to see a greater impact and positive influence on factors like reducing costs.
AI Advertising Advantages: How AI Is Revolutionizing Media Sales
More than half of ad buyers are using or are planning to use AI-powered products, according to a recent survey.
The Hurdles Ahead: Publishers Rank Digital Media Challenges For 2025 (New Report)
For publishers looking ahead at 2025, the top challenges are consistently inconsistent, with varied answers touching upon audience development, ad delivery, and more.
Quality Time: Top Barrier To Growing Programmatic Is Quality Of Media (New Report)
The top-ranked barrier for growing programmatic advertising is the quality of media (e.g. fraud, brand safety, viewability, transparency).
Just The Facts: With Digital Content Creators Failing To Fact-Check, UNESCO Offers Training Course
As content creators and digital publishers become more important in the "information ecosystem," fact-based information is essential.
The Age(s) of Advertising: Maximizing Engagement With Better Targeting
According to a recent study, Gen X and Baby Boomer consumers are the most receptive to digital ads they see online.
Advertising Outlook: Where The Money’s Going In 2025
A new report on projected advertising spend has connected television (CTV), streaming, and over the top video (OTT) seeing the most growth.
Stay Human: New Study Finds Journalist-Crafted Articles Preferred Over AI
A recent study says readers find journalist-crafted news articles more comprehensible than articles produced with AI automation.
AI Expectations: Why Publishers Must Balance Excitement With Realism
A new report says AI won't likely "alter the fundamental commercial reality for the news” the same way the shift to online did.
AI Companies Collaborating on $10 Million Support Projects For Newsrooms
Monies will support AI focuses varying from text summarization and translation to media analyzation and marketing services.
Advertising Outlook: WFA Predicts Two Years of Rising Media Inflation
The U.S. is just one of the global media markets to see greater media price inflation, rising from 2.1% this year to 3.9% in 2026.
Advanced Advertising: Are Google’s AI Overview Ads Enough To Maintain Search Dominance?
Will the recent announcement of ads in mobile users' AI Overviews be enough to help Google maintain its search dominance?
Money Talks: New Research On What’s Driving AI Investment
The top factor driving responsible AI investment for businesses is differentiating their organization, product, or service.
Audience Abandonment: Are Publishers Moving On From Meta?
Meta has made a few publishing-related headlines recently, touching upon declines in audience engagement as well as tradeoffs in audience opportunities.
Highly Recommending: Magazine Readers ‘More Influential’ Than Other Media Users (New Report)
With so many Americans engaging with magazine media, their high-influence is something digital magazine publishers know all too well and more and more advertisers are quickly discovering.
Ad Brakes: How To Reduce The Carbon Costs Of Media Campaigns
Carbon footprints of media campaigns could be reduced by as much as a third by incorporating certain sustainability measures.
Inbox Engagement: Why Sponsored Content Means More In A Newsletter
Readers find newsletters to be their preferred news source ... and that built-in trust means they’re more receptive to sponsored content.
Br-AI-n Trust: More Advertisers Showing Confidence In AI
A new report shows advertisers are trusting AI for both optimization and, on an ad sales management level, content worthy of being near.
Sign-Up Sweeteners: What Your Newsletter Needs To Offer In Exchange For Emails
A new survey on audience development says 52% of consumers would subscribe to a newsletter if given free, exclusive content.
Moving Targets: How To Reprioritize Audience Targeting Amidst Privacy Laws
A recent digital advertising survey says new data privacy standards will make the largest impacts on audience targeting and measurements.
AI Data Drought? News Sites Leading Pack Of Platforms Preventing Data Harvest
AI is seeing increased restrictions in its training data, particularly from news sites whose share of blocked tokens is at 45% (up from 3% last year).
Red (News)Letter Days: New Report Highlights Why Publishers Continue To Count On Email Newsletters
Email newsletters saw continued growth as effective audience builders in a new report, with production up to 95% from 81% in 2022.
Cookie Cutters: How The Future Is Still Cookieless Despite Google’s Recent Reversal
With so few users actually accepting cookies now, new analysis is predicting most internet browsers will become cookieless in the future.
How AI’s Creative Boosts Can Help (And Hurt) Writers And Publishers
As writers continue to work out the best uses for AI in publishing, a new study is warning against a larger creative toll.
More Hours In The Day: Larger Percent Of Time Being Spent With Digital Media
Digital media continues to distance itself from traditional media in terms of how much time is spent with each by the average American adult.
Big Tech Bargain: Google, California Agreement Commits $250 Million To Journalism, AI Initiatives — But At What Cost?
The deal between California and Google will bring an influx of money to newsrooms ... but does it let the tech company off easy?
Push The Right Buttons: Publishers Leaning More Toward Mobile, Apps, Push Notifications (New Report)
A new report on digital publishing's future is showing more success engaging with young audiences through apps than through sites.
Better Results: New Survey Shows Nearly Half Happier With AI-Assisted Search Results
For those paying attention to the AI Search revolution, 29% say that they use traditional search engines less because of AI platforms.
Performance Matters: What Types of Commerce Advertising Generate The Most Sales For Publishers?
Almost half of the experts surveyed say the importance of commerce advertising is increasing compared to other digital advertising forms.
A Roaring Trade: Trade Media A ‘Significant Factor’ In Sales And Strategies (New Report)
A survey of B2B leaders found that trade media coverage directly impacts purchases, brand positioning, and other decisions.
Programmatic Potential: Retail Leading All Industries In Alternative Programmatic Ad Buys
Just because Google changed its mind on cookies doesn’t mean publishers should throw away their work seeking out cookie alternatives.
Send In The Search Team: Can SearchGPT Dethrone Google Search?
With the announcement of OpenAI's generative search tool, SearchGPT is hitting Google where it could hurt the most.
Ad Infinitum: The Ever-Increasing Role of AI In Advertising
New estimates say that, in five year’s time, 94.1% of all ad spending for digital and analog media buys will be AI-enabled.
Searching Elsewhere: The Getaway From Google And Shift To Social Media
A new survey found that 1 in 4 use social media to search online, and 1 in 5 don’t feel the need to use search engines at all.
Is The Public Ready For AI In The Newsroom?
A digital news study has found that 52% of Americans are not currently comfortable with AI work overseen by humans in the newsroom.
Part Of The Process: How The Public Perceives — And Prefers — AI In The Newsroom
A new survey of news consumers shows a majority wanting a label or some disclosure for AI-produced news with human oversight.
Digital Transfer: Media Consumption Rising Worldwide (New Report)
Total media usage rose 0.3% to 56.15 hours per week worldwide, and the forecast shows further expansion moving forward.
AI Obstacles: The Hurdles To Overcome For Implementing and Maximizing AI’s Potential
Estimating and demonstrating AI's value is the primary obstacle in adopting the technology, but it's a conquerable hurdle.
Wait And See: Publishers Punting On Cookie Deprecation Preparations (New Report)
A recent survey of global publishers found that less than a third (32%) are actively preparing for a cookieless future.
Tech Support: The Latest In Legislation Designed To ‘Level Playing Field’ For Publishers And Big Tech
Recent legislation could help the plight of the publisher and make Big Tech pay for its fair share of news content.
Searching AI And Low: What Google’s AI Overviews Mean For Publishers
Google's AI Overviews is changing Search as we know it, but as users experience this new convenience, publishers need to consider a response.
Rising Costs: How AI & Automation Can Help With Cost Per Lead And More
The cost per click is up $0.44 from last year while the cost per lead is up more than $13 to $66.69 this year.
From Dailies To Digital: Online Overtaking Newspapers, TV For Local News
A recent survey found almost half prefer news sites or social media for getting their local news and information, up from 37% in 2018.
Journalism in The Gen AI Era: The Help Newsrooms Get — And Want To Get — From AI
Nearly three-quarters (73.8%) of news professionals surveyed by AP say they or their organization are using AI in some capacity.
Stay of Cookie Execution: Google Postpones Cookie Deprecation Again
The postponement into 2025 (or beyond?) marks just the latest delay since Google’s announced its phase-out plan for the third-party trackers.
Breaking The News: Google Removing News Links In Response To California’s CJPA
As CA’s Senate waits to hear the California Journalism Preservation Act, Google has taken what some say is an undemocratic measure.
Trillion Dollar Tech: Gen AI Forecast To Be $1.3 Trillion Market By 2032
In addition to a trillion-dollar gen AI forecast, Bloomberg says the training and hardware markets will reach $470 billion and $640 billion, respectively.
Finding Your Audience: Content Strategies For 2024 And Beyond
It takes more than a trending AI prompt for publishers to make amazing SEO-friendly content and engaging social-media-tested content.
On The Record: AI And Its Newsroom Potential
A handful of Pulitzer Prize nominees disclosed their AI use, but you don’t have to take home a medal to win with this technology.
Know Your Audience: Reconsidering The Metrics In Digital Publishing
A healthy publication should constantly consider and reconsider who its audience is, for the sake of both its front-facing offerings and its behind-the-scenes efforts. Are your metrics actually helping?
Visitors Welcome: Paid Search Outperforming Paid Social
As the cost-per-visit increases, marketers are looking at the visitor-intent and lower bounce rates of paid search over paid social.
Open(AI) and Shut Cases? NYT, Musk, And The Latest In OpenAI Legal News
OpenAI is always in the news, but the last few days have seen some major headlines made over matters beyond mere artificial intelligence capabilities.
Safe Ad Spaces: Consumers More Trusting Of Brands Around Appropriate Content
When brands advertise near inappropriate content, 70% of consumers say they trust the brands less and 51% are likely to stop using the products or services.
Leap Forward: Harnessing The Gift Of Extra Time With Generative AI
Generative AI tools have the ability to essentially give you more than just an extra day every year. What will you do with the extra time?
Act Locally: Illinois Joins Those Proposing Journalism Preservation Act
Like California's legislation, Illinois's proposal calls for tech companies to pay a usage fee to local news organizations for their work.
Beyond Cookies: First-Party Data, Zero-Party Data, And Consumer Comforts & Concerns
Almost a third of consumers are likely to decline non-essential cookies when given the option. How does that affect first-party data strategies as we look beyond cookies?
Direct Hit: A Decade of Programmatic Direct Growth And Its Potential Moving Forward
As open exchange continues to shrink and we edge closer to a cookieless future, programmatic direct remains the more popular programmatic advertising transaction method.
Ad Placement, Yield, And Access To Consumer Data Lead Publisher Concerns For 2024
Those on both the sell-side and buy-side say their biggest media challenge is ads delivering alongside risky content.
Publisher Tips To Take Advantage of Programmatic Advertising’s Bright Future
For all its promise and revenue potential, programmatic advertising faced “notable challenges” in 2023, according to Assertive Yield’s 2024 Publisher Trends report
NYT vs. OpenAI: Is It A Winner-Changes-All Battle?
With OpenAI pushing back and saying the New York Times’ recent lawsuit is “without merit,” we could be in for a long, ramification-heavy battle between titans.
Publishing Paradise: What Would An Ad-Free Facebook Look Like?
4Meta is offering an ad-free option for Facebook users in the EU, and a similar subscription model would be plenty promising for U.S. publishers.
Captive Audience: The Larger Costs of Ad-Blocking
Ad-blocking will cost publishers $54 billion in lost advertising revenue next year, according to new data released by eyeo.
