• Major publishers are exploring and implementing new ways to generate revenue.
• One of these methods is affiliate marketing.
• Global expansion and content aggregators help publishers increase revenues and reach new audiences.

This is the second article in a series about how publishers are working on new sources of revenue. The first part by Digiday focused on the subscription model and event business.

After an unstable 2023, where publishers' revenues eventually fell below expectations, and the industry continued massive layoffs, in the new year 2024, publishers are betting on both traditional and new sources of revenue. Digiday spoke with executives from Condé Nast, Forbes, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Independent about their strategy for finding new revenue sources. Below are their thoughts on key industry trends, including affiliate marketing, revenue diversification, and global expansion.

Affiliate Marketing

A year ago, publishers showed more interest in affiliate marketing as a revenue source. However, according to a recent Digiday+ Research study, the share of affiliate marketing in publishers' revenues decreased the most from 2023 to 2024. In the first quarter of 2023, nearly two-thirds of publishers (62%) said that affiliate marketing made up at least a very small part of their revenue. But in the first quarter of 2024, less than half (45%) thought so. Publishers Digiday spoke to in preparing this research had varying opinions on the importance of affiliate marketing: from significant efforts invested in this direction to complete abandonment.

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic: «It's a tiny part of our revenue. We just published a big list of the best novels of the century... and earned a pittance. I wish the figure were larger, but money is money... We're in the media business. We don't turn down any money.»

Andy Morley, Commercial Director of The Independent: «It's something we've been developing for many years, and we have our own e-commerce platform called IndyBest. We've built a nice, tidy business effectively promoting lists that lead to clicks. We also have direct affiliate relationships with all major providers, such as Amazon... Additionally, we sell tenancies.»

Sherry Phillips, Commercial Director of Forbes: «Forbes Vetted, our e-commerce platform, makes rankings of the best goods and services, as do many other publishers. Much of what we do every day is [about] how we can diversify the assortment? We also think about how to make the brand valuable and convey this value to consumers... We really work on the marketing funnel to not overload [consumers] and show the right product at the right time to the right consumer.»

Craig Kostelic, Global CBO of Revenue at Condé Nast: «For us, it was an evolution. If you go to Vogue Shopping, you'll see that the user experience will be similar to Net-A-Porter, where you can go through the full journey from inspiration to purchase in an environment managed by Vogue. The ability to take a user from inspiration to purchase within the Condé Nast environment is an amazing evolution for us.»

Andy Morley, Commercial Director of The Independent: «Last year, there was a cost-of-living spike in the UK, so everyone in affiliate marketing had a hard time. You can do great SEO to ensure a wonderful Black Friday, but if Black Friday sales drop by 30%, no matter how good your SEO is. Therefore, we diversified and established deeper relationships with e-commerce.»

Nataki Williams, Senior Vice President of Finance at The Guardian US: «We are currently not engaged in affiliate marketing.»

Diversification of Revenue Sources

With the development of artificial intelligence (#AI), subscription stagnation, and a challenging advertising market in 2023, this year publishers will pay more attention to diversifying their revenues. In doing so, many traditional media have already added e-commerce channels to their revenue streams, while others are turning to aggregation and partnering with external products aimed at niche audiences.

Andy Morley (The Independent): «We're a quality news brand with an audience that has a high level of income and loves beautiful things, so it seemed crazy that we didn't have a wine partner. We created wonderful partner relationships to have our own independent wine club. It's been a real find for us. As we develop relationships with e-commerce, diversifying towards larger, strategically important brand partners will be significant for us.»

Craig Kostelic (Condé Nast): «We work with partners on the advertising side to create an offering similar to retail media, experimenting with affiliate marketing that creates inspiration... a clear UX, easy search, simple navigation. The social component has become an important part of our product. Clients create collaborative content that lives on these pages with partner material or on a product page. All our brands have always been known as drivers of culture and consumption. Thanks to our evolutionary commerce strategy and collaboration, like Allure Storefront with Amazon Beauty, we create new revenue sources. We are developing our ability to enhance the connection between desire and purchase.»

Taha Ahmed, Chief Growth Officer of Forbes: «It's not a competition between brands. Our story is very much tied to diversification, which is a priority, and we are closely working to optimally allocate resources among all businesses to provide them with opportunities for growth. Understanding user needs and their loyalty fuels almost all parts of the business and helps us unlock the business value of Forbes.»

Andy Morley (The Independent): «As we developed as a digital business, we saw no enemies in the ecosystem [content aggregators]... Some publishers looked at Facebook Instant Articles and thought it was dangerous, that they didn't want to see their content there, that it was a loss of control. We went all-in and made a lot of money... We've found wonderful partners around the world from Microsoft and Apple, which have contributed to both audience attraction and revenue increase, to small independent companies like SmartNews and NewsBreak. It's just another way to effectively use the ecosystem to ensure your content reaches the maximum number of people.»

Thanks to Social Networks and E-commerce

The headquarters of two of the publications Digiday spoke to for this report, The Independent and The Guardian, are located in London, and Condé Nast is a global mass media company based in New York. Leaders of all three organizations noted the importance of crossing international borders to expand revenue streams. The Guardian and The Independent are looking to expand their presence in the USA, while Condé Nast sees an opportunity to promote local editorial events to a mass audience.

Craig Kostelic (Condé Nast): «Together with brands like GQ and Vogue, we are one of the few ad-supported media companies that can appear in any global market and instantly create a connection with the local audience. We have tremendous opportunities through events like Vogue World, which can be held, for example, in Paris and attract a huge audience. Just one such event creates a multitude of opportunities.»

Nataki Williams (The Guardian US): «Last year, we significantly increased our staff in the USA. The next two years will be focused on getting new people, new verticals, and new teams up and running... but we are at a very exciting stage of growth for our business in the USA, where we are starting to feel the fruits of all our efforts over the last few years. ... It's really important now to maintain this momentum, even in a challenging market, and try to expand and enhance both brand awareness and overall market awareness in the USA.»

Andy Morley (The Independent): «We're at the early stages of transitioning from a .co.uk brand in the USA to a .com brand. Until we fully evolve and transfer 100% of our American business to .com, it will be difficult to assess all the opportunities that e-commerce in the USA presents for us, but... we've already started negotiating with British partners operating in the USA and American partners. We're already starting to earn more money from e-commerce in the USA than ever before. So this transition to .com will be a catalyst for this business.»

For Publishers

Diversifying revenue sources, focusing on affiliate marketing, aggregators, and new markets can significantly increase profits. It's important to remain flexible, be able to adapt, and not be afraid of the new.

Forecast

Nothing new, publishers will continue to explore and implement new technologies to stay afloat.

More on this topic:

• Publishers Earn from Content Farms
• The Impact of User Experience on Monetization
• Forbes Completely Removes Coupon Section
• Publishers Expand Social Networks in an Attempt to Attract More Traffic
• The Forbes Ad Spoofing Scandal: Distrust of Publishers
• New DeepSee Product to Assess Publisher Quality