As of Q1 2025, direct-sold ads continue to dominate publishers' revenue, reaffirmed by 100% of respondents in a recent Digiday survey. While programmatic ads maintain their place in the rankings, there's a notable rise in branded content, now the second-largest revenue source, and affiliate commerce, which has jumped to fifth position. Conversely, subscriptions have dropped out of the top five. These trends indicate a diversification in revenue streams as publishers adapt to evolving market demands.
Digiday's survey found that, once again, direct-sold ads are publishers' No. 1 revenue source this year. In fact, every single respondent to Digiday's Q1 2025 survey said they get at least a very small portion of their revenue from direct-sold ads.
To start, branded content moved up one spot in the rankings to No. 2 this year. Ninety-four percent of publisher pros said in Q1 2025 that they get at least a very small portion of their revenue from branded content, up from 88% in Q1 2024.
Affiliate commerce made a big jump in the rankings this year, from the seventh spot in Q1 2024 to fifth in Q1 2025. Nearly three-quarters of publisher pros (73%) said this year that they get at least a very small portion of revenue from affiliate commerce.
Subscriptions, on the other hand, fell out of the top five revenue sources this year.
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