This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
There are three concurrent crises at play: The coronavirus pandemic, the economic crisis and the wave of protests across the country protesting racial injustice, that amounts to a social crisis.
For the publishing industry, this confluence of disruption has had a massive impact of on advertising revenue.
About 74% of 127 publishing executives surveyed by Digiday this month said the crises have driven ad CPMs down, while 75% said they’ve had difficulty in ad sell through. Programmatic ad CPMs have been driven down between 10% and 20%, with some publishers choosing to reduce inventory instead of selling it at an extremely low rate.
Despite traffic growing, (see our earlier research) publishers, particularly news publishers, have found it hard to make ad revenue from that increased traffic. Some of this is is due to keyword blocking: Coronavirus-related keyword blocking is a problem for 43% of publishers as advertisers try to avoid buying ads adjacent to certain types of content.
It’s been a similar problem more recently as protests and unrest have continued: As we reported earlier this week, the current news cycle makes more advertisers nervous, with keywords like “death” or “violence.”
Among business lines, ad revenue was hardest hit in the first quarter, decreasing for a whopping 65% of all publishers. This included direct sold and programmatic ad revenue.
More in Media
How creators are using generative AI in podcasts, videos and newsletters — and what advertisers think about it
Here’s a look at how some creators are leveraging generative AI to create video, audio and written content — and whether or not that’s a turn-off for advertisers.
Buzzfeed, News Corp and New York Times push back on tariff fears in earnings calls
Publishing execs pushed back on tariff and macroeconomic climate fears in Q1 2025 earnings calls, expressing confidence that their businesses would grow this year.
Digiday+ Research: Publishers’ subscription revenue is up this year, and they’ll focus on growing it even further
Subscriptions is one area where publishers are seeing more revenue, and, in turn, ramping up their plans to strengthen that part of their business in the coming months.