Publishers are turning to community engagement and diversified revenue strategies to combat the threats of the changing digital media industry and ensure their long-term sustainability.
This new era of journalism is sticky for publishers. They are currently faced with revenue loss, layoffs, and much more since tech giants are prioritizing clicks over quality content. They invest heavily in creating reliable information, yet the rise of AI-fueled search results threatens to divert traffic away from their sites, potentially cutting off vital revenue streams.
To stay afloat, publishers continue to focus on diversifying their revenue streams. From launching e-commerce platforms to fostering vibrant online communities, they are rethinking their strategies to build stronger, more direct relationships with their audiences. This shift not only helps mitigate the risks posed by AI-driven search engines but also enhances brand safety and boosts audience lifetime value. By embracing these changes and prioritizing community engagement, publishers can create sustainable business models that support quality journalism.
We spoke with Max Weiss, OpenWeb’s Chief Strategy Officer, about his work at OpenWeb, how the new era of digital media is affecting publishers, and ways they can thrive in this new norm.
Andrew Byrd: Can you walk me through the work you do at OpenWeb? 
Max Weiss: OpenWeb is on a mission to build a healthier open internet. We do this the best way we know how: by building innovative technologies that turn content creators (publishers, brands) into the hosts of thriving, healthy communities. Our best-in-class moderation tech leverages AI to keep those communities healthy and engaging, bringing data and revenue to publishers. Today, we work with more than 5,000 top-tier publishers, hosting more than 150 million active users each month.
As the Chief Operations Officer, I collaborate with our CEO & founder, Nadav Shoval on our mission to help the media industry thrive on the open internet (simple, right?). On a day-to-day basis, I spend a lot of time meeting with leaders in the media industry and working with my teams (product, partner success and trust & safety most often) to help them solve their problems, from audience retention to addressability.
AB: How has the media industry evolved recently, and what are the main challenges publishers are facing today?
MW: Even for an industry marked by constant change, the past year has been eventful. We’ve seen a lot:
- Huge advances in AI changing everything from traffic sources to staffing needs.
- Dramatically falling search and social media referral traffic.
- Google’s flip flop on deprecating third-party cookies more times than I care to recount.
- Slow-moving but advancing government regulations.
- New social channels for reaching and engaging audiences (which tends to further distract publishers and drain their resources).
- And more…
All together, this means many publishers face risks to their bottom line. There’s a widespread acknowledgement that they need to diversify revenue streams. That’s where we come in – we believe, as do an increasing number of publishers, that building a strong, loyal community is the best way to push back against the tide.
AB: Can you elaborate on the importance of diversifying revenue streams for publishers and how it can impact their sustainability?
MW: From ecommerce and events to entirely new and productized verticals (like for instance, WSJ’s Buy Side and recipes vertical), publishers are doing so much to diversify their revenue. These initiatives are most successful when they’re built on top of a thriving, loyal community — one that congregates around the publishers’ content, most commonly in the comments sections. That community of users and super users multiply the impact of everything else a publisher does to diversify revenue. After all, if a publisher launches a store, who do you think is buying the t-shirt or hat with the publishers’ logo on it?
To get there, publishers need to change their mindsets. They need to begin to think about their content at the beginning of a conversation and themselves as the host of that conversation, rather than simply posting content to social media or their website. We’ve seen it work countless times. A strong community increases time on site, pages per session and return traffic — and increases revenue.
AB: How is AI influencing search results, and what are the potential benefits and drawbacks for publishers?
MW: AI-powered search is just the latest example of how tech companies are taking publishers’ content, monetizing it, and then keeping that new revenue for themselves.
AI-powered search is an existential threat to publishers as it cuts them off from any form of revenue they would generate from web traffic.
At worst, this is a zero-sum game: AI results keep traffic on search engines themselves, and away from publishers. But publishers are pivoting and building direct traffic streams to rely less on SEO and more on strategies that use 1:1 relationships with users to bring traffic directly to their own sites. By turning inward, publishers will be able to focus on what they do best – fostering and hosting communities around content –something an AI search summary can never do.
AB: Can you explain the role of community engagement platforms like OpenWeb in helping publishers build a community of registered users?
MW: OpenWeb provides publishers a tailored and unique community engagement experience. The community is similar to a social media platform, all hosted directly on their properties. OpenWeb fosters engaged conversations around topics that matter, in turn, building loyalty with their readers.
A staggering 88% of online users won’t return to a site if they have a bad peer-to-peer experience. In short: negative interactions can cause readers to completely write off a site, even if they aren’t part of the conversation.
Healthy community drives more registrations by converting passive readers into engaged and registered users. Online, engaged communities can help publishers make more revenue from their readers, by making their site a destination and engaging with users.
AB: How can publishers balance the need for premium inventory with ensuring brand safety and focusing on audience lifetime value?
MW: Thanks for this question. This is one of the things we at OpenWeb have spent years working on. Publishers can increase LTV and maintain high levels of engagement by hosting a community — starting with comments. That has been known for decades, at this point. But starting in the mid-2010’s, brand safety and suitability were called into question.
As a result, publishers got out of the habit of interacting with their users on their own properties, and outsourced those community-building efforts to the social platforms. But, with advances in AI and Machine Learning, it is now not only possible but profitable for publishers to host healthy, engaged communities at scale. Quality conversations are one of the best ways to transform casual visitors into loyal users who drive more engagement, spend more time on-site, and are more likely to return over time — that’s LTV.