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This research is based on unique data collected from our own audience of publishers, agencies, brands and tech insiders. It is available to Digiday+ members. Next in the series →
Publishers had mixed feelings about how 2024 shook up their companies and the media industry as a whole, and it looks like those feelings will continue into 2025. In other words, publishers are optimistic about the year in some important ways, but they’re also things they don’t feel good about.
This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2024 among more than 50 publisher experts.
Digiday’s survey found that when it comes to optimism for 2025, it’s mixed for publishers — they’re bullish on their individual companies, but not bullish on the industry as a whole (similar to our findings on publisher sentiment whether 2024 was successful).
On the plus side, 60% of publishing professionals told Digiday that they agree they are optimistic about their companies’ prospects for 2025. But digging a little deeper into the data reveals that optimism is not strong. 48 percent of publishers said they only partially agree that they are optimistic about their companies this year. Only 12% strongly agreed.
This leads to Digiday’s survey finding that publishers’ optimism about their companies in 2025 does not extend to the media industry as a whole. 41 percent of publishing professionals told Digiday that they disagreed that they are optimistic about the media industry’s prospects for 2025. 28 percent agreed that they are optimistic for this year.
This is another case where publishers’ feelings on the subject are not strong. 29 percent of publishers only somewhat disagreed that they are optimistic this year, compared to 12% who strongly disagreed.
Publishers’ optimism about their own companies this year is likely driven in part by their revenue expectations for 2025. A Digiday survey found that two-thirds of publishing professionals (66%) said they think their companies’ 2025 revenue will be higher than in 2024. .
The largest group of publishers (30%) told Digiday they expect their companies’ revenue to grow between 1% and 10% this year, but a significant percentage said they expect even steeper revenue growth. A full quarter (25%) said they think their sales will grow 11% to 25% in 2025, and 11% said they expect sales to grow 26% or more in 2025.
Just 15% of publishing professionals said they think their company’s revenue will decline this year compared to last year.
And a survey by Digiday found that publishers expect advertising and subscription revenue to drive business growth this year. A very significant 61% of publishing professionals said they agree that their companies’ advertising revenue will grow in 2025, compared to just 16% who disagreed.
But if we stay on topic as we head into 2025, publishers aren’t feeling too strong about ad revenue growth this year. 44 percent of publishers said they only partially agree that they think their ad revenue will grow, while 17% said they strongly agree.
And publishers’ feelings about subscription revenue this year follow a similar pattern. Overall, half of publishing professionals (50%) said they agree that their companies’ subscription revenue will grow in 2025, and only 12% disagreed.
To break it down further, just over a third of publishers (34%) said they somewhat agreed that they expect subscription revenue to grow this year, compared to 16% who strongly agreed.
That’s not to say that publishers’ optimism heading into 2025 isn’t significant—it is, especially after a challenging year—but it’s certainly worth noting that the optimism is more measured than unbridled.