Every media conference features panels on revenue diversification. Every publisher talks about reducing advertising dependency. But what’s actually working?

I spent the past month collecting data from two dozen publishers—mostly Australian, some international—about their revenue mix and which non-advertising streams are genuinely delivering. The results are sobering but useful.

Here’s the truth: most diversification efforts disappoint. But a few strategies are consistently working for publishers who execute well.

The Revenue Reality Check

Let me start with the baseline. For most digital publishers, advertising still accounts for 60-80% of revenue. The remaining 20-40% comes from a mix of subscriptions, events, commerce, licensing, and other activities.

The publishers who’ve most successfully diversified are those who started earliest and invested most heavily. There’s no shortcut—building meaningful alternative revenue takes years and significant resources.

That said, clear patterns emerge in what works.

What’s Working: Subscriptions

Subscriptions remain the most reliable diversification strategy for publishers with quality content and loyal audiences.

The success stories are well-known: The New York Times, The Athletic (before the Times acquired them), The Information. But smaller publishers are finding success too. Crikey in Australia has built a sustainable model on subscriptions. The Daily Aus has converted free audiences to paid.

Key patterns among successful subscription publishers:

They offer genuine scarcity. The content must be unavailable elsewhere. If readers can get similar information free, they won’t pay.

They target committed niches. Broad general-interest subscriptions struggle. Specialised publications serving specific professional or passionate communities succeed.

They invest in subscriber experience. Successful subscription publishers treat subscribers differently—better access, fewer ads, exclusive content, community features. The subscription must feel valuable beyond just accessing articles.

They price appropriately. $10-15/month seems to be the sweet spot for most digital news subscriptions. Lower prices leave money on the table; higher prices limit audience.

What doesn’t work: paywalling commodity content that’s available elsewhere for free. Readers will just go elsewhere.

What’s Working: Events

Publisher events have bounced back strongly since the pandemic, and some organizations have made them central to their business model.

The Atlantic’s events division now contributes meaningfully to their overall revenue. Business publishers like The Australian Financial Review generate significant income from their conference and awards programs. Niche publishers use events to monetize small but valuable audiences.

Key patterns among successful events publishers:

B2B events outperform B2C. Conferences and summits where businesses pay to attend or sponsor reliably outperform consumer-focused events. The economics are just better.

Events extend editorial authority. Successful publisher events aren’t random—they’re built on editorial expertise. A technology publication running a tech conference makes sense. The same publication running a food festival doesn’t.

Recurring events compound. Building a new event from scratch every year is expensive. Events that become annual fixtures build audiences and sponsor relationships over time.

What doesn’t work: events that don’t connect to your content or audience. Also, over-relying on a single flagship event—if it fails, you’re in trouble.

What’s Working: Newsletters (With Ads)

Here’s something that surprised me: several publishers told me their newsletter advertising revenue is growing faster than any other line item.

This makes sense when you think about it. Newsletter ads are premium placements—guaranteed viewability, trusted context, direct relationship with readers. Advertisers are willing to pay CPMs substantially higher than display advertising.

Publishers like Morning Brew built their entire business on newsletter advertising. Traditional publishers are catching up—The New York Times morning briefing, various Washington Post newsletters, and smaller publishers all report strong newsletter ad performance.

The key: you need a newsletter people actually read. Open rates matter. Engaged audiences command premium rates.

What’s Working (Sometimes): Commerce

Commerce revenue—affiliate links, product sales, e-commerce partnerships—works for some publishers but not others.

Wirecutter (NYT) is the obvious success story, generating over $100 million annually from affiliate revenue. Other review-focused publishers report solid commerce revenue.

But most publishers struggle. Commerce requires different skills, different content, and different audience relationships than news. The publishers who succeed typically have dedicated commerce operations separate from their editorial teams.

What doesn’t work: slapping affiliate links on existing content and hoping for the best.

What’s Not Working: Most Licensing Deals

I heard repeatedly that licensing content to third parties hasn’t delivered meaningful revenue for most publishers.

The exceptions are major publishers licensing their archives to AI companies—deals that generate headlines but aren’t replicable for smaller organizations.

For typical publishers, licensing to aggregators, syndication partners, or republishers generates modest income that rarely justifies the administrative overhead.

What’s Not Working: NFTs and Web3

Remember when publishers were excited about NFTs? That moment has passed.

None of the publishers I spoke with reported meaningful ongoing revenue from blockchain-related initiatives. Several spent significant resources exploring the space and have nothing to show for it.

The lesson: chasing trends rarely pays off. The time and money spent on NFTs could have been invested in proven revenue streams.

The Honest Assessment

Here’s what the data actually shows:

For most publishers, subscriptions are the best diversification bet—but only if you have content worth paying for and can execute on the subscriber experience.

Events can work, especially for business-focused publishers, but require meaningful upfront investment.

Commerce works for review-focused content; it rarely works for news publishers.

Everything else is marginal at best.

The uncomfortable truth: if your content isn’t valuable enough that someone would pay for it directly, you’re probably going to remain advertising-dependent. Diversification isn’t a strategy—it’s an outcome of creating content valuable enough to monetize multiple ways.

Publishers looking for a quick diversification fix won’t find one. The path forward is building genuine value—and that takes time, talent, and patience most organizations lack.