Digiday+ Research: Publishers’ subscription revenue is up this year, and they’ll focus on growing it even further

This is according to Digiday+ Research surveys conducted among publisher professionals annually in the first quarter.

Digiday’s surveys found that publishers are getting more revenue from subscriptions this year — and the increase is significant. Seventy percent of publisher pros said in Q1 2025 that they get at least some revenue from subscriptions, up from 56% who said the same in Q1 2024. In other words, fewer than a third of publishers (30%) said subscriptions are not a source of revenue for them in 2025.

It’s worth noting, though, that, historically, publishers’ subscription revenue has seen a bit of a back-and-forth, according to Digiday’s surveys. While the jump in the percentage of publishers who make money from subscriptions – from 56% last year to 70% this year – is certainly something to keep an eye on, in Q1 2023, 62% of publishers said they made money from subscriptions and, in Q1 2022, 58% said the same.

The jump in the percentage of publishers who count subscriptions as a revenue source extends to those who specifically make a lot of money from subscriptions — and the jump here is significant as well. Just shy of one-quarter of publisher pros (24%) said this year that they get a large or very large portion of their revenue from subscriptions, up from just 7% last year.

In fact, before this year, the percentage of publishers who said they made a lot of money from subscriptions was actually trending downward. In Q1 2023, 21% of publisher pros told Digiday that they got a large or very large portion of their revenue from subscriptions, and 24% said the same in Q1 2022.

Digiday’s surveys found that subscriptions will continue to be a big investment area for publishers in the coming months. According to the surveys, publishers’ focus on building their subscription businesses reflects the growth in their subscription revenue.

For instance, the percentage of publishers who said this year that they plan to put at least some focus on building their subscription businesses in the next six months is up significantly over last year. In Q1 2025, 85% of publisher pros told Digiday that they would focus at least a little on building their subscription businesses, up from 59% in Q1 2024.

The pattern here is similar to Digiday’s survey data on publishers’ subscription revenue in that there is a back-and-forth historically: Before 59% of publishers said in 2024 that they would put a focus on their subscription businesses, 73% said the same in 2023 (a percentage that had remained steady from 2022).

The percentage of publishers who plan on putting a large focus on subscriptions in the coming months saw a big jump over last year, as well. As of Q1 2025, nearly half of publisher pros (43%) said they’ll be putting a large or very large focus on building their subscription businesses in the next six months, up from less than a third (30%) in Q1 2024. This jump follows what had been a downward trend: 39% of publishers said in Q1 2023 they would put a large or very large focus on subscriptions, down from 44% in Q1 2022 — marking another similarity to the patterns in publishers’ subscription revenue.

See a full breakdown of Digiday’s survey data on publishers’ subscription revenue and their focus on building that revenue stream below: