The business of news has been stuck in a slow-motion car crash.
In 2000, US newspapers made more money than ever before, but have since then lost about two-thirds of that revenue.
Google’s AI overviews, Meta’s pivots and a pantheon of ad tech middlemen have tightened the vise. Yet the same disruption that hollowed out the industry also hands publishers a tool kit to rebuild.
Here are 10 big, bankable ideas for turning the page:
1. Strike Licensing Deals With the AI Giants
AI model makers need lots of clean, reliable text—and publishers have plenty of it. Blocking bots rarely works, but licensing does. The AP pockets a multiyear check from OpenAI, while Axel Springer and the Financial Times have inked eight-figure pacts that guarantee cash and attribution. The playbook is simple: Deliver archival feeds via API or a secure clean room, cap what can be quoted and audit usage. The result? Recurring revenue for idle content and a strategic seat at the AI table.
2. Compress the Supply Path
Each extra SSP adds fees and latency that bleed CPMs. By pruning low-value exchanges and giving trusted DSPs a direct slot—think The Trade Desk’s OpenPath—publishers keep upward of $0.80 on the advertiser dollar instead of the $0.50-$0.60 that survives an OE hop. Faster auctions also lift viewability and win rates, compounding yield.
3. Bring Decisioning In-House
Index Exchange’s containerized decisioning and plug-ins from firms like Chalice AI let the sell-side score bids, set floors and append first-party data before the request hits the DSP.
With the “brain” upstream, publishers recapture the optimizer margin that used to sit on the buy side, and advertisers still enjoy automated workflows.
4. Rebuild a Real Direct-Sales Muscle
Programmatic promised scale but delivered pitiful CPMs. Direct-sold campaigns still fetch two to four times higher prices. This means rehiring hunters, mastering the RFP grind and bundling high-impact formats with newsletters, podcasts and CTV packages. Publishers that show up in client planning decks control their destiny instead of waiting in an auction queue.
5. Lean on First-Party Data Clean Rooms
Logged-in IDs and contextual signals are gold in a cookieless world. Clean-room partnerships let brands match their CRM files to publisher audiences without exposing raw data, unlocking premium private deals on web and connected TV, the fastest-growing ad bucket in media.
Done right, a single login can monetize across display, video and streaming.
6. Turn Casual Readers Into Micro-Customers
Stablecoin micro-payments make cents-level pricing viable. A long read for a dime, a breaking brief for a nickel—no 30-cent card fee to kill the margin. A “pay” button drops friction to one tap, converts the nonsubscriber crowd and creates a durable wallet ID for future upsells.
Tiny but frequent transactions add a defensible layer atop volatile ad revenue.
7. Build a Commerce Flywheel
Wirecutter, CNN Underscored and BuzzFeed show how expert recommendations translate into seven- and eight-figure affiliate lines. Add curated storefronts or drop-ship collaborations—Hearst rebuilt dozens of magazine sites on a modern commerce stack—and publishers capture the lion’s share of every sale. Commerce also deepens reader trust.
8. Monetize Connected TV Inventory Like a Network
CTV spend passed $28 billion this year and keeps climbing. Streaming apps, FAST channels and live-event partnerships let publishers port brand-safe video into the living room. Layer your first-party data through a clean room, sell via programmatic-guaranteed deal IDs and you can match—or beat—cable CPMs while owning the audience graph end to end.
9. Master Curation 2.0
Programmatic curation shifts targeting and quality checks upstream, letting publishers compete on verified audiences instead of raw scale. Curation 1.0 failed because curators just repackaged open exchange inventory, tacked on extra fees, slowed down auctions, exposed data and didn’t improve CPMs.
In Curation 2.0, sellers add their own data and context before the auction. Index Exchange’s decisioning containers—which block MFA pages and set smarter floors—show how this upstream control can boost revenue.
10. Build a Multi-Agent Newsroom
Social feeds never stop, and a multi-agent newsroom can act like extra teammates: One bot tracks spikes on X and Reddit, another checks facts, another drafts copy, an editor polishes it and a publisher posts it live. Agents vote on every step, nuking fakes before publication.
With tools like Perplexity already fetching real-time links, the plumbing exists. Publish at social speed, cut errors, trim payroll. Lead the story instead of chasing it.
No Single Bullet, Only a Barrage
These ideas work best in concert: Clean rooms boost direct deals, micropayments tag users for ecommerce retargeting, AI licensing pays for AI innovation. Publishers that deploy two or three will buy breathing room; those that roll out eight or 10 will redefine a modern newsroom.
The common thread is agency—owning audience, data and deals instead of outsourcing them. Journalism can still be a growth business, but only for organizations willing to experiment as fearlessly as the platforms that once ate their lunch.