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As publisher revenue diversifies, audience relationships matter more than ever

New research from Digiday and the Reuters Institute suggests that while subscriptions remain important, publishers are increasingly building broader revenue portfolios around events, branded content, B2B products and membership.

16th April 2026

The UnHerd Club is one example of how events and community are becoming part of the publisher revenue mix.

In a year when search is wobbling and consumer subscriptions are no longer the only growth story, publishers are reworking their businesses around a broader mix of products, including events, membership, B2B offers and a renewed focus on advertising.

A recent Digiday survey and the latest Reuters Institute trends report both point in the same direction. Subscriptions still matter and remain a stable part of many publishers’ businesses, but they are no longer the only serious engine of growth. Instead, the reports suggest publishers are putting more emphasis on a broader mix of revenue streams, while also recognising that success depends increasingly on strong, direct relationships with audiences rather than platform reach alone.

That makes this a useful moment to look at the bigger shift underway. As publisher revenue becomes more diversified, direct audience relationships are becoming more valuable and apps have an important role to play in strengthening them.

The new revenue mix reshaping publishing

For years, publisher strategy was often framed as a choice between competing models such as subscriptions or advertising, reader revenue or ecommerce and consumer focus or B2B. That framing now looks increasingly outdated.

Publishers are moving towards a more balanced revenue mix, where subscriptions remain important but sit alongside events, branded content, sponsorship and enterprise sales. The point is no longer to find one perfect model. It is to build a portfolio that is more resilient when traffic is volatile and growth in any single line becomes harder to sustain.

Within that broader mix, subscriptions are evolving from a blunt paywall play into a more sophisticated set of premium access products. Digiday’s latest subscription index shows that brands such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are lifting prices and leaning into bundles and higher tiers even as overall subscriber numbers flatten. It could be a case of bigger brands being able to raise prices, whilst smaller ones might struggle. In their recently released rankings of the biggest paywalled news sites, The Press Gazette has the NYT in first place and the WSJ in third, cementing their scale and reach. This may suggest that those with significant brand power are best placed to keep raising prices and experiment with new tiers and bundles.

Events and B2B are becoming more central

Events are now a much more important part of the publisher revenue conversation than they were a few years ago. They offer a way to monetise editorial authority directly, turn loyal audiences into attendees and sponsors and build products that feel more differentiated than standard display advertising. Digiday has found that they have overtaken affiliate commerce as a focus and now sit just behind programmatic and branded content on the weighted list of revenue streams that matter most to publishers.

A rising share of publishers report getting at least some revenue from in person or virtual events and the number saying events deliver a large portion of income is climbing too. Many newsrooms are now building events businesses around their coverage franchises, whether that is technology and finance events at Dow Jones through series such as WSJ Tech Live and WSJ Invest Live or UnHerd extending its brand into a members’ club that hosts talks, debates and other live events.

Whilst events are the most visible diversification play, the rise of B2B and enterprise subscriptions are equally important. Digiday’s reporting shows that business‑focused brands like Dow Jones are also leaning into higher‑priced “business product” subscriptions and growing their professional information businesses, then tying those B2B products more closely into events and sponsorships to expand revenue. At the recent Digiday Publishing Summit there was talk of building integrated revenue plans where enterprise licences, content licensing and pro tools are a focus with these products often delivered through dedicated digital products.

Advertising is becoming more relationship-led

Advertising and branded content still matter, but the economics are shifting. As pageview growth becomes less reliable, publishers are under more pressure to increase revenue per user rather than simply chase more traffic.

That changes what publishers can offer advertisers, with context, trust, attention and outcomes mattering more . For publishers, that creates a stronger case for environments where audiences are known, engaged and easier to reach consistently, rather than anonymous and fleeting.

This is where the conversation starts to connect more clearly with product strategy. The publishers in the strongest position are not just those with scale, but those that can show advertisers they have direct relationships with high-value audiences and can reach them repeatedly across different products and touchpoints.

That aligns with the conversations we’ve been having with customers at Pugpig. App environments, where engagement is higher and login rates are stronger, should give publishers a better opportunity to lift CPMs beyond the open web. When they can show that in-app audiences are more valuable, publishers are in a stronger position to justify premium pricing and build longer-term advertising partnerships.

Why apps matter in this model

Across subscriptions, events, B2B and advertising, the unifying factor is a direct, high-intent, first-party relationship with the audience. That relationship is what makes it possible to increase lifetime value, cross-sell intelligently and reduce reliance on unstable external platforms.

Apps matter because they tend to concentrate a publisher’s most engaged users. These are often the people who open content frequently, accept notifications, log in more often and are generally easier to reach than casual web visitors. That makes apps a strong environment for building habits and for deepening the relationship over time.

In that context, apps should not be seen simply as containers for content. They can also be a place to promote events, surface premium tiers and create more valuable advertising inventory. The same user can move from reader to subscriber, from subscriber to event attendee, or from loyal consumer to buyer of a higher-value product.

However, that does not mean apps do all the work on their own. They are most effective when they sit within a broader owned-channel ecosystem that includes websites, newsletters, email, audio and live experiences. Different touchpoints do different jobs. The open web still matters for discovery. Search and AI summaries may continue to send some audiences towards publisher brands. Newsletters remain one of the strongest drivers of habit and conversion. Social platforms can still help reach lighter users. But apps are particularly valuable because they give publishers a persistent place on the home screen and a direct route back to their most engaged audience.

Product and KPI implications

If this is the direction of travel, then product strategy and KPIs need to evolve with it. Publishers should be less focused on treating subscriptions, events, ads and B2B as separate lines competing for attention and more focused on how a single audience relationship can support multiple products over time.

That changes the metrics that matter. Pageviews and raw subscriber totals still have value, but they do not tell the whole story. Measures such as monthly active users, logged-in usage, push-driven sessions, revenue per app user and cross-product conversion start to become more useful indicators of whether a publisher is building real long-term value.

A reader relationship is no longer just about getting someone over one conversion line. It is about understanding how that person moves through a broader portfolio, from casual use to habit, from habit to payment and from one product to several.

For publishers looking ahead to the rest of 2026, the core question is no longer whether they are a subscription business or an advertising business. It is how well they can build, deepen and monetise direct audience relationships across a wider mix of revenue streams.

The publishers in the strongest position are likely to be those that treat audience relationships as the core asset, use first-party engagement to support multiple revenue lines and design products around long-term value rather than one-off conversions. In that model, apps are not the whole strategy, but they can be one of the most important places where that strategy comes together.

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