• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Publishers have reached a pivotal moment. They face the phase-out of third-party cookies, the emergence of generative AI and the need to find new revenue models, according to a new study from Wunderkind: Publisher State of the Union 2025. 

In some ways, they have only themselves to blame for failure to monetize their content. For starters, only 12% can identify from 26% to 50% of their site visitors. And roughly half can identity 10% to 20%. Overall, 84% can identify fewer than a quarter of unique visitors. 

“Low identity coverage is a critical weakness in an era where addressability drives revenue,” the study observes. 

The answer? “Publishers should prioritize first-party identity strategies, combining login prompts, email capture, and device-level signals, to move beyond session-based anonymity,” it continues. “Knowing your users is no longer a luxury; its the foundation for subscriptions, personalization, and high-yield ad targeting." 

Monetization strategies are based on subscriptions (70%) and branded content (72%), with editors particularly favoring the latter (73%). Programmatic advertising is cited by 62%, but falls to 40% among executives, “highlighting a gap between leadership priorities and tactical execution,” the study notes.  

However, 36% of the respondents see programmatic advertising as their biggest revenue growth opportunity for the next 12-24 months, the largest number overall. 

On another front, 50% are at least moderately concerned about generative AI's impact on publisher traffic, and are exploring mitigation strategies. This fear is especially pronounced among people in audience development (77%) and editorial (55%). 

How are they fighting it? 

One tactic is increasing direct audience engagement (52%). This signals “a strategic pivot toward owned channels,” the study says. Second is focusing on “unique, exclusive, or proprietary content ranks,” with 44% saying so.

Meanwhile, 28% are  actively personalizing content. “Newsletter strategies often prioritize ad revenue and subscriptions, but deeper audience engagement lags,” the study points out. 

Another problem is budgetary and resource constraints—34% say “resource scarcity has become a significant challenge.” And email is an underutilized channel.

But looking forward, publishers are “rallying around technologies that fuel direct audience monetization and smarter content delivery. Subscription management platforms top the list, cited by 68% of respondents,” it continues. 

Wunderkind surveyed 50 U.S. and UK-based publishers from July 4-14.