By Pete Doucette, Senior Managing Director of Consulting, Dustin Tetley, VP of Operations and Data Science, Katherine Ruane, Director of Strategic Marketing, Madelin Zwingelberg, Director of Consulting, Luke Magerko, Director of Consulting, Dan Kirchberger, Director of Consulting, Arvid Tchivzhel SVP of Technology at Mather.
December 31st, 2024
The year ahead holds exciting opportunities for the news media industry. With insights drawn from over 700 global brands, this outlook highlights seven key trends shaping the future of monetization, operations, and technology.
A key evolution is how publishers approach artificial intelligence (AI). Instead of treating it as a standalone strategy, publishers are asking, “Where can we integrate AI into our broader strategies for success?” AI has become a foundational tool for driving growth, streamlining workflows, and enhancing audience engagement.
These trends demonstrate how innovation and audience-focused strategies are transforming the way publishers deliver impactful journalism, grow revenue, and navigate an evolving landscape.
Shifting to More Balanced Revenue Strategies
The era of prioritizing volume growth at all costs is over. Publishers are moving away from traditional one-size-fits-all approaches, adopting more precise targeting to maximize value across diverse revenue streams, including direct-to-consumer-revenue, premium advertising, and programmatic ads.
AI and predictive analytics are set to play a pivotal role in this evolution, enabling publishers to identify high-value segments and adjust strategies in real time to optimize for total revenue. This shift reflects a growing emphasis on capturing digital revenue potential and achieving a balanced mix for long-term sustainability.
To meet these demands, publishers must restructure teams to foster collaboration between advertising and subscription revenue streams, modernize their tech stacks for seamless data access, and implement tools that allow for dynamic, audience-specific decisions across the entire lifecycle.
Image 1: Mather’s Proposed Demand Curve
AI and predictive analytics are set to play a pivotal role in this evolution, enabling publishers to identify high-value segments and adjust strategies in real time to optimise for total revenue. This shift reflects a growing emphasis on capturing digital revenue potential and achieving a balanced mix for long-term sustainability.
To meet these demands, publishers must restructure teams to foster collaboration between advertising and subscription revenue streams, modernise their tech stacks for seamless data access, and implement tools that allow for dynamic, audience-specific decisions across the entire lifecycle.
Unifying teams around a shared revenue strategy
Balancing revenue strategies will require a transformation of legacy organisational structures. Consolidating revenue teams under roles like a chief revenue officer (CRO) is becoming increasingly common, fostering collaboration between subscription and advertising teams and paving the way for unified strategies to optimise overall revenue.
Mather’s Recommended Organizational Structure
Publishers need to focus on modernizing workflows through flexible staffing models; taking advantage of fractional leadership to rapidly advance key initiatives, creating an analytics/AI team to enable timely decision-making and providing key insights for the newsroom that should be investing in the modernization of content. These steps will immediately address skill gaps, strengthen team direction, and improve outcomes rapidly without the commitment of full-time hires.
Transforming the tech stack from barrier to asset
For many news publishers, the tech stack has historically been more of a hurdle than a catalyst for growth. Legacy systems, fragmented tools, and incomplete integrations have led to missed revenue opportunities , operational inefficiencies, and growing "tech debt." Simplifying and integrating technology infrastructure is set to become a top priority heading into 2025.
Publishers are expected to transition from isolated point solutions to integrated platforms that harness AI to deliver seamless, practical workflows addressing both consumer and advertising revenue goals. However, this evolution will take time, with foundational investments—such as improving site speeds, streamlining subscription processes, and unifying reporting—likely to come first.
Technology decisions will increasingly be shaped by frameworks such as Build, , Buy or Best of Breed vs. All-in-One, as publishers work to balance innovation with resource constraints. Regular audits and incremental upgrades will be critical to transforming the tech stack into a genuine growth driver.
Refining analytics to amplify business impact
In the age of AI, tools like ChatGPT and advanced analytics platforms offer solutions to even the most complex data challenges. Yet the reality is often more nuanced. Dashboards are often flooded with reports and KPIs from systems that are either being phased out or newly implemented.
In response to this overwhelming sea of metrics, we find many publishers are stepping back to streamline their KPIs, prioritizing reliable, actionable metrics that directly align with business objectives like revenue growth and retention. Achieving these goals rests on foundational elements such as a stable tech stack, seamless data access, and robust data governance.
With greater focus on data maturity, teams will be empowered to move beyond the basics, unlocking advanced use cases such as first-party data activation and AI-driven workflows that deliver insights with exceptional speed and precision. True success, however, lies in bridging the “last mile” between insights and action, highlighting the critical need for strong team alignment around a shared North Star goal.
Source: Mather data maturity pyramid
Dynamic, audience-first approaches to yield management
Recent benchmarks from over 200+ publishers suggest that the crossover point between Print and Digital revenue has been extended to 2028, maintaining print as a key source of revenue for many publishers. Extending print profitability will be essential for investing in and sustaining digital transformation. Efforts will likely focus on targeted retention strategies, such as identifying high-risk subscribers and offering tailored incentives to maintain stability.
Source: Mather Q3 2024 U.S. Industry Benchmarking Report
To reach younger audiences, publishers are expected to invest in audio-first platforms like podcasts, bundling them with subscriptions to offer added value and connect with this demographic.
On the acquisition side, dynamic paywalls are poised for continued growth, as highlighted by the latest INMA Townhall Survey, which found that the proportion of news brands adopting a hybrid/dynamic strategy has increased fourfold in just four years.
Dynamic pricing, based on subscription characteristics and engagement, is expected to remain a cornerstone strategy. By aligning pricing with audience willingness to pay, publishers can leverage subscriber data to optimize their renewal strategies, driving revenue growth while reducing churn.
Marketing Teams to Supercharge Operations with AI
Marketers will continue to play a central role in crafting strategies, developing campaigns, and ensuring a seamless customer experience. However, a significant transformation is expected, driven by AI and automation, prompting a reevaluation of how marketing tasks are performed and who (or what) is best suited to execute them.
For example, the era of marketers manually managing complex customer journeys will give way to a more streamlined, data-driven approach. AI will increasingly automate key decisions, such as paywall/regwall settings, email optimization, and pricing adjustments. While business teams will continue to set revenue goals and KPIs, day-to-day decision-making will likely be handled by AI systems, helping publishers remain lean and efficient.
Furthermore, the line between newsrooms and marketing teams is expected to blur, as automation takes over tasks like newsletter strategy, social media management, and headline generation. This shift will allow newsrooms to focus on producing high-quality journalism, while marketing and AI drive audience engagement, growth, and monetization.
Collaboration and AI Power Next-Gen Newsrooms
Evolving analytics tools and increased collaboration between audience, newsroom, and analytics teams are set to redefine the content lifecycle in 2025, empowering publishers to align more seamlessly with audience needs. At the creation stage, the responsible integration of generative AI with newsroom tools will accelerate productivity, automating routine tasks and enabling journalists to focus on high-value, impactful stories that deepen engagement and drive sustainable business growth.
In distribution, short-form native content on social platforms is anticipated to gain continued traction as a key strategy for audience expansion and brand visibility. Publishers will need to refine platform-specific storytelling approaches to create authentic connections, unlocking new opportunities to engage emerging audience segments.
After a period of volatility in search and social traffic, publishers are expected to focus on building stronger direct relationships with their audiences. Newsrooms will play a pivotal role in this shift, driving retention through high-quality, engaging journalism that fosters meaningful connections. Investments in newsletters, mobile apps, and personalized content experiences will further empower newsrooms to deliver stories that resonate deeply, strengthening audience loyalty and trust.
Conclusion
The news media industry is set for significant transformation in 2025, presenting publishers with unparalleled opportunities to innovate and thrive. Success will hinge on more than adopting new tools or strategies—it requires a unified approach that integrates organizational structures, technology, and audience-focused initiatives under a clear, shared vision. Publishers that balance forward-thinking innovation with actionable execution will not only navigate the changing landscape but define the future of publishing.
