This year, as the digital ad spend outpaces the time consumers are spending on the medium, media companies are leaning into revenue drivers like commerce media while also investing in content that builds community.
"The only constant in media is change,” said Geoff Schiller, Vox chief revenue officer, on a new episode of “Behind the Numbers: Reimagining Retail.” “The best way for you to weather that turbulence is to just know why you exist and have a plan to clearly communicate that to the market.”
Here are a few ways media companies are approaching these goals.
Balancing revenue streams
As advertisers become more focused on measurement, media companies face heightened pressure to prove their value. That makes the commerce media side of the business especially relevant.
“A big thing to watch this year is how commerce media and web publishing interact with one another,” our analyst Max Willens said on the episode. “Publishers have been able to say with a straight face that they do deliver immense value to their audiences, but it's been really hard to kind of tell that story in a consistently convincing way to advertisers.”
The New York Times reported a 9.3% YoY increase in Q3 of 2024 in other revenues, which the company said was a result of higher affiliate referrals and licensing revenues from its product recommendation site, Wirecutter.
While strengthening alternative revenue streams is crucial, Schiller said they shouldn’t distract from upper-funnel marketing and brand building that comes from quality content.
Measuring community
Schiller stressed that this year will be defined by brand building and a “race to quality” among publishers. He emphasized that community building was a central part of Vox’s strategy this year, which the media company tracks through metrics like earned media and comment sections, to gain new audiences and strengthen existing ones.
“Commerce Media is great for maximizing the customer experience of an existing customer, learning more about them, and giving them the best possible experience, serving them the right ads at the right time, but it's really hard to speak to that consumer and get that person to tell a friend,” Schiller said about community building. “If you can start at the top of the funnel, you can absolutely do that at scale."
Community building has grown more important for many companies recently. Instagram’s prioritization of community was evident in its Broadcast Channels update late last year, which includes a messaging feature that allows brands and creators to directly engage with their followers.
Betting on podcasts
For Vox and many other media companies, podcasts have emerged as a space to test both brand storytelling and more sales-driven messaging.
“(Podcast) publishers that have a clear role in the purchasing journey are going to wind up doing really well this year,” said Willens. “If you get a show out once or twice a week and people listen to you all the way through, you can say with a straight face, 'People spend dozens of hours a year with me.' That’s a powerful message to bring to any advertiser’s doorstep.”
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