Digiday+ Research: Publishers’ feelings about the media industry are shaky, but they’re still optimistic for 2025

Digiday’s survey found that it’s a mixed bag for publishers when it comes to optimism for 2025 — they’re optimistic for their individual companies but not optimistic about the industry as a whole (similar to our findings about publishers’ feelings on whether 2024 was a successful year).

On the positive side of things, 60% of publisher pros told Digiday that they agree that they’re optimistic about their companies’ prospects for 2025. But digging a bit deeper into the data reveals that optimism isn’t strong. Forty-eight percent of publishers said that they agree only somewhat that they’re optimistic about their companies this year. Just 12% agreed strongly.

This leads into Digiday’s survey findings that publishers’ optimism for their companies in 2025 doesn’t extend to the media industry as a whole. Forty-one percent of publisher pros told Digiday that they disagreed that they’re optimistic about the media industry’s prospects for 2025. Twenty-eight percent agreed that they’re optimistic for the industry this year.

This is another case in which publishers’ feelings on the subject aren’t strong, though. Twenty-nine percent of publishers disagreed only somewhat that they’re optimistic for the industry this year, compared with 12% who disagreed strongly.

Publishers’ optimism for their own companies this year is likely driven in part by their revenue expectations for 2025. Digiday’s survey found that two-thirds of publisher pros (66%) said they think their companies’ 2025 revenues will be up compared with 2024 revenues.

The largest group of publishers (30%) told Digiday they expect their companies’ revenues to be up between 1% and 10% this year, but significant percentages said they expect even steeper revenue increases. A full quarter (25%) said they think their revenues will be up between 11% and 25% in 2025, and 11% said they expect 2025 revenues to be up 26% or more.

Just 15% of publisher pros said they think their companies’ revenues will be down this year compared with last year.

And Digiday’s survey found that publishers anticipate that ad and subscription revenues, specifically, will bring growth for their businesses this year. A very significant 61% of publishers pros said they agree that their companies’ ad revenue will grow in 2025, compared with just 16% who disagreed.

But, staying on theme as they head into 2025, publishers don’t feel particularly strongly about their ad revenue growth this year. Forty-four percent of publishers said they agree only somewhat that they think their ad revenue will grow, while 17% said they agree strongly.

And publishers’ feelings on subscription revenue this year follows a similar pattern. Overall, half of publisher pros (50%) said they agree that their companies’ subscription revenues will grow in 2025, and just 12% disagreed.

Breaking that down further, just over a third of publishers (34%) said they agree somewhat that they expect subscription revenue growth this year, compared with 16% who agreed strongly.

This isn’t to say that publishers’ optimism heading into 2025 isn’t significant — it is, especially following a challenging year — but it’s certainly worth noting that optimism is more measured than unbridled.