To say the digital publishing industry is in flux is an understatement. Over the past year, publishers have faced a wave of challenges. We’ve seen revenue impacts from emerging technologies, watched Google’s on-again, off-again approach to cookie deprecation, observed shifts in consumer behavior that required quick adaptation, and much more.
To gain a deeper and more systematic understanding of how media companies and publishers are navigating these changes, we conducted focus group-style survey interviews with 31 industry leaders.
In this blog, we cover the fifth and final factor: Advertisers’ Trust in the Open Internet
As walled gardens continue to dominate digital advertising, our participants told us that publishers must find ways to compete beyond scale alone. The path forward, they said, will require renewed focus on the publisher’s traditional strengths: quality content and ads over quantity, building direct relationships with advertisers, and leveraging the unique strengths that are unique to publishers.
| Invest in greater measurement and attribution | 61% |
| Establish industry-wide standards for advertising offerings | 77% |
| Focus on the quality of their content | 68% |
| Reduce the amount of ads on page | 26% |
| Engage with advertisers directly | 71% |
| Other | 6% |
Opportunity: Industry Collaboration is Required
Our participants felt that, generally, publishers need new ways to work together in order to effectively challenge the dominance of platforms.
“If the publishers continue to focus on one another as competitors, creating their own bespoke formats, they unintentionally further alienate themselves from their client’s needs and play right into the hands of their true competitors, the walled gardens. They stay atomized at their own peril.” — Pete Beeney, SVP US Country Manager, Factor Eleven
“The industry overcorrected the brand safety concern – it’s time to offset that damage and collectively (partners, publishers, SSPs, verification companies) reverse the damage in the industry and help buyers understand the missed opportunity with the open web.” — Anonymous (Katie Pillich)
“Short-term gains from sharing content with social platforms and AI models will ultimately shift user behavior away from publishers. Publishers need to collectively resist this, while focusing on their core strength of connecting engaged users with advertisers.” — Ashok Ganapam, Founder and CEO, DataBeat.io
“We need to rebuild our value proposition from the ground up, and that will certainly mean making websites that are more than page view farms made of words and pictures. We now need to return to our roots of creativity, journalism and great user experience.” — Ricky Sutton, Founder, Future Media
Opportunity: Quality Over Quantity
Broadly, our panel felt that publishers need to look beyond the model of maximizing the number of ads on-page. Rather, by focusing on quality content, they can attract higher premium ads — a strategy, they felt, that benefits advertisers, audiences, and publishers alike.
“It’s an old trope, but it’s true: Fewer but better works, whether it means publishing fewer articles but making them more authoritative/comprehensive/interesting, or offering fewer ads that are more relevant and of higher quality.” — Jeremy Kaplan, Content Director, Future PLC
“Curate and represent their 1P audience to advertisers, and maintain investment in quality and brand in an ocean of mediocre content. Massively reduce the number of ad tech partners they work with – most don’t add value.” — Richard Kramer, Founder & Managing Director, Arete Research
“We need a return to the pre-Google days when we were able, as publishers, to show the value of our content and set our own pricing for it. Loading pages with ads to try to achieve enough yield to stay solvent is playing Google’s game.” — Ricky Sutton, Founder, Future Media
Opportunity: Direct Advertiser Relationships
While walled gardens emphasize self-serve platforms, many of our participants felt that publishers can differentiate by offering direct, consultative relationships with advertisers. This approach, combined with premium content and proven campaign results, is especially valuable for emerging advertisers who need more support.
“A lot of our previous clients (advertisers) are not self-served via walled gardens, but what remains are a lot of small/emerging clients that need more hand-holding. Strong, consultative sellers keep new clients coming in the door.” — (Anonymous) Roger Keating
“With quality content, it’s important to engage with advertisers directly and offer them premium ad products that provide them with proven results for their campaigns.” — Matt Barsomian, Director of Digital Partnerships, Ad Ops, and Revenue Strategy, NESN
Opportunity: Leverage Unique Context
While walled gardens offer scale and convenience, publishers have a unique advantage: the ability to place ads in relevant, brand-safe environments that add meaning to the advertising message. Some on our panel called out that this contextual strength, combined with premium content, offers advertisers value that platforms cannot replicate.
“What the walled gardens (with some exceptions, such as YouTube) miss is the context in which the advertiser message appears. Publishers have that in unique ways, different by category and brand. Focusing on that is what’s going to make a difference.” — Andrew Kraft, On a Listening Tour, Former President & Chief Operating Officer at The Arena Group.
You can download the full 5 Factors for 2025 report on our website.
