For Publishers, Revenue Diversification is Critical — But Incomplete

Publishers today are balancing tried-and-true revenue streams with the need to invest in future growth, as revealed by Wunderkind’s 2025 Publisher State of the Union report. While subscriptions and sponsorships still dominate the monetization mix, the industry is beginning to face saturation in these areas. As a result, leaders are looking toward programmatic advertising and direct-to-consumer strategies, while eCommerce remains an underutilized but promising frontier.

• The dominant monetization methods for publishers right now are primarily subscriptions (70%) and branded content/sponsorships (72%), while programmatic advertising is slightly behind but still going strong at 62%. 
• When asked about the biggest revenue growth opportunity in the next 12–24 months, programmatic advertising leads overall at 36%, DTC revenue is a close second at 34% and branded content trails behind at just 20%, despite its strong current usage.
• Nearly half (48%) of publishers say they’re exploring new revenue streams, such as eCommerce or events.
• While 80% of publishers are increasing ad density to grow revenue, that comes at a risk of sacrificing user experience — 72% say ad density harms UX, and only 6% have strategies to mitigate ad blocker impact.

For more insights, download Wunderkind’s full report here.