By Daniela Lomas, Marketing Specialist at Mather
March 31st, 2025
Last month, we celebrated a major milestone by hosting our tenth annual Symposium in the bustling city of Dallas. With over 100 industry leaders and peers in attendance, the event became a dynamic hub for discussing emerging opportunities, innovative strategies, and the current state of the industry.
If you missed out or simply want to revisit the highlights, we’ve compiled a quick recap of the key topics and takeaways from the event. This snapshot gives you a window into the important conversations that are shaping the future of our industry. Interested in diving deeper into any of the sessions? Reach out – we’d be happy to continue the conversation!
What’s Ahead for Subscriptions: Staying Agile in a Changing Market
The publishing industry is evolving rapidly, pushing publishers to rethink their business models as print continues to decline. To stay profitable, a strategic balance is essential—one that blends ARPU growth, optimized pricing models, and smart cost control, particularly in newsroom expenses. Speaking at the session, Matt Lindsay and Pete Doucette emphasized that navigating these shifts successfully requires a data-driven approach to pricing and revenue management.
Insights from Mather’s latest benchmarks highlight the challenges and opportunities in this transformation:
- Digital-only revenue now makes up 30% of total subscription revenue, though it saw a slight decline in 2024.
- Digital-only revenue has surged by over 50% in three years, with digital subscriptions now driving 77% of new acquisitions.
- Despite digital gains, print losses remain significant, making digital subscription volume and revenue growth critical to offsetting declines.
- Some publishers are moving away from aggressive discounting, while others are fine-tuning pricing strategies in response to slower growth.
For a closer look at current industry trends, be sure to download our Q4 2024 benchmarking report.
The Revenue Barrier: How Siloed Strategies Limit Growth
A crucial yet often overlooked factor in sustaining a news media revenue model is alignment across people, process, and technology. Pete Doucette, Sr. Managing Director at Mather, emphasized this in his Total Audience Monetization session, highlighting that success demands a unified approach—one that aligns clear strategic goals, a well-structured organization, and the right tools and technology to drive execution. Today's most successful publishers have already embraced this transition, moving beyond fragmented efforts to a holistic revenue strategy that maximizes both B2C and B2B streams.
The foundation of this approach is a clear understanding of audience value—segmenting users along a demand curve to better monetize each group effectively. It also requires breaking down internal silos, unifying key revenue functions under a Chief Revenue Officer to balance both consumer and advertising strategies. Finally, technology should enable growth, not stand in the way. Publishers must invest in integrated solutions that streamline operations and enhance the reader experience.
Image 1: Demand Curve
A real-world example of this strategy in action came from the Bangor Daily News (BDN). Todd Benoit, COO and President, joined Mather’s SVP of Technology, Arvid Tchivzhel, on stage to share how BDN aligned its strategy, technology, and organizational structure to accelerate revenue growth. Through their collaboration with Mather, BDN streamlined decision-making, optimized workflows, refocused teams around a clear North Star revenue goal, and leveraged technology like Sophi’s Dynamic Paywall Engine to grow subscriptions while maintaining audience engagement.
The Future of Sustainable Growth: Adapting to Users' Evolving Needs
Image 2: Emilie Harkin from The Guardian presenting her insights to the audience
A crucial driver of sustainable growth is retention, and that starts with strong audience engagement. In a rapid-fire session, three industry leaders shared the strategies they’re using to make a lasting impact. Their tactics revealed a common theme: understanding audiences deeply and meeting them where they are.
Kicking off the discussion, Tyler Pisani, Director of Audience and Consumer Marketing at The Spokesman-Review emphasized the power of data-driven personalization during subscriber onboarding and key moments across the customer journey. He highlighted how tailored onboarding experiences and strategic personalization help keep readers engaged and reduce churn.
Next, Matthijs van de Peppel, Group B2C Strategy Director at Mediahuis shared how the organization is leveraging diverse content formats and harnessing platforms like social media and podcasts to attract younger readers. At the same time, Mediahuis is focused on establishing strong brand connections and delivering an 'essential' subscription experience that fosters long-term loyalty across audiences.
Rounding out the session, Emilie Harkin, SVP of Growth at The Guardian, shed light on the emotional motivations behind reader contributions. She showcased how aligning a publication’s mission with readers’ values strengthens loyalty, transforming casual supporters into long-term advocates.
Building an Audience-Centric Brand: How the Dallas Morning News is Leveraging Commenting to Grow Engagement and Conversions
As referral traffic declines and platform instability grows, audience-centric brands are proving that direct engagement is key to building stronger relationships. The Dallas Morning News is embracing this shift by bringing back commenting—a strategy that harnesses user-generated content (UGC) to enhance search visibility, increasing trust, and ultimately drive conversions and subscriptions. Chris Patheiger, Chief Product and Innovation Officer and Sue Kerr, VP of Consumer Revenue, revealed their vision to have 25% of registered users actively engaging in comments within six months, implementing a structured rollout to achieve this goal.
Their approach includes a seamless commenting platform with AI and human moderation, clear community guidelines, and a phased launch, starting with a small test audience before expanding sitewide. To further encourage engagement, they’ve introduced:
- Frictionless registration for a smoother user experience.
- Re-engagement features like reply-to notifications and trending topic alerts.
- Enabling commenting below an in-line paywall to drive deeper interactions.
- Reporter participation through AMAs and Q&As to spark meaningful discussions.
Image 3: The Dallas Morning News' website commenting strategy in action
By prioritizing community-driven interactions, the Dallas Morning News is not just reviving commenting but transforming it into a powerful tool for engagement and long-term audience loyalty.
Closing Thoughts: Where is News Media Headed Next?
As we wrapped up another insightful Symposium, our audience was left energized by a powerful call to action from keynote speaker Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO of INMA. He challenged publishers to seize control of their financial future by reimagining advertising models, optimizing tech stacks, and pushing beyond perceived subscription ceilings. His message was clear: journalism isn’t just news—it’s the foundation of long-term brand sustainability.
So, what’s next for news media? Here are a few of Earl’s predictions:
- Publishers will regain independence from Big Tech for advertising and audience.
- News organizations will build agile, tech-ready workforces.
- Publishers will adapt quickly to the evolving preferences of young adult demographics.
- Newsrooms will become central to business strategies, driving growth and engagement.
Earl suggests that the road ahead is all about doubling down—on building stronger relationships with audiences, reinforcing the core pillars of brand and journalism, and harnessing the transformative power of AI. Success will belong to those who embrace change, innovate fearlessly, and lead their newsrooms with confidence.
This year was packed with valuable insights—and there’s more to come! A big thank you to our speakers for sharing their vision and to our audience for sparking great discussions. Stay tuned for next year’s event details via our website and newsletters!
