By: Matt Lindsay, CEO, Mather
In our final blog post of the year, as we have since about 2016, Mather has summarized themes from our work in 2025 and will share our thoughts on what lies ahead. The topics discussed here reflect our experience and insights across our blog posts, annual Symposium and CEO Roundtable, internal research projects, industry benchmarks, and client case studies.
The overarching theme from 2025 is that the news media industry is in a race to build a new business model that balances consumer, advertising, and content revenue through an integrated strategy supported by an AI operating system that automates and optimizes ongoing processes.
Here are a few core topics within that theme, which we have discussed in detail this year:
From fragmented tactics to total audience monetization
Throughout 2025, we discussed the shift from fragmented, channel-specific tactics to “total audience monetization,” where subscription and advertising decisions are coordinated around a shared view of audience value. Successful publishers view consumer and B2B revenue as complements rather than substitutes, often organized under a unified revenue leader and supported by integrated technology.
This holistic approach begins with segmenting users along a demand curve and deploying different products, offers, prices, and experiences to each group. Rather than choosing “ads or subs,” we believe that sustainable growth comes from orchestrating both, using data to decide when a user should see a paywall, a registration prompt, or open access to preserve high-value ad inventory. AI browser distribution platforms such as ChatGPT, Comet, and Perplexity, are creating new monetization opportunities in which publishers charge users’ agents for access to content used in AI-generated outputs.
AI as the new operating layer
Mather’s experience working with clients in 2025 indicates that AI is no longer optional for best-practice revenue operations. Recent blog posts on “smarter paywalls” and “next-gen paywalls” highlight how AI-driven decision engines can weigh numerous signals, including engagement, ad yield, and propensity to subscribe, in real time to choose the right experience for each user. We use ensembles of algorithms and dynamically weigh each one’s output to optimize the performance for each client.
Our recent case studies emphasize that AI is not just about experimentation; it is an operating layer that powers dynamic paywalls, registration flows, and marketing automation at scale. Sophi decision engines are a practical example, where AI allocates paywall friction based on both subscription potential and advertising value of individual users and pieces of content, uncovering revenue that static rules and manual tuning leave on the table.
Case studies that bring strategy to life
Case studies in 2025 have shown how data and AI translate into results. Studies featuring The Tampa Bay Times, Alma Media, Bangor Daily News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer illustrate how dynamic paywalls, intelligent pricing, and refined organizational design can deliver substantial gains in subscriptions and engagement.
One recurring theme in these case studies is “closing the last mile” with implementation of recommended tactics. We have shown that insights are not enough unless teams are equipped, organized, and supported to act on them. Mather’s managed services and embedded leadership support evolved to meet publishers’ needs for specialized skills at costs that companies can afford. These engagements show how ongoing guidance, experimentation, and optimization can transform one-off projects into durable, sustainable growth.
New products and services in focus
In response to publisher requests, we have evolved our offerings to address challenges identified in our benchmarks and case studies. On the technology side, Sophi-powered dynamic user- and content-paywall intelligence engines are a proven AI use case for audience monetization. We will soon have additional Sophi tools coming to market that tackle different challenges.
Complementing our technology products, we have expanded our intelligent pricing and next-best-action subscription lifecycle management services to help publishers maximize the long-term value of their customer relationships. Thought leadership on dynamic pricing emphasizes ARPU growth, selective discounting, and timing increases in line with subscriber value and market conditions. Meanwhile, managed services and fractional leadership offerings embed specialized talent into client teams, ensuring that strategy, experimentation, and change management are sustained over time.
What to expect in 2026?
- Digital rights frameworks: The introduction of digital licensing frameworks, such as Real Simple Licensing by the RSL Collective, will enable publishers to monetize content from digital uses, including AI products. RSL and other licensing frameworks provide defined rights, prices, and low transaction costs, enabling markets to function smoothly. The digital music industry is a precedent for this type of licensing.
- Markets for content licensing: Markets for digital content are being launched by several companies who are working to develop markets with liquidity, with material numbers of buyers and sellers of content. We believe that these markets will enable publisher-to-AI company and publisher-to-publisher transactions. Publishers can augment their products with licensed content. They will be curators of content for their products.
- Aggregated premium audience targeting data: News publishers are experimenting with audience extension for digital advertising, using standard audience segments, content categories for targeting, and shared sales resources. We have been researching this trend for most of 2025 and believe that this will become a viable revenue stream for publishers in 2026.
- Product innovation: New product development enables the creation of bundles targeted to audience segments. This tactic has been in use by large global brands for several years and we believe it will become more common among regional and local brands. The advances in content licensing and marketplaces are one enabling trend. Another will be the acceleration of product development using AI tools. A third will be automated personalization of content feeds, much as social media platforms do today. One potential product will be curated, personalized news feeds from local media brands that source content from content marketplaces, in addition to locally generated content.
Conclusion
2025 has been an eventful year for news media. We are thankful for the opportunity to work with our clients in this vital industry, and we look forward to helping you develop sustainable business models for local news media companies.
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