"Digital advertising businesses got off to a slow start this year, with U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies, an uncertain economic climate and pressures on programmatic ad revenue from declining traffic all having a negative impact on ad spend. But by the end of this year, there was a notable tone shift among publishing execs, who said the fourth quarter was pacing well. Many felt optimistic that they would continue to see digital ad revenue growth year over year in 2026."
"Digital advertising revenues were mostly flat year over year in Q1 2025, according to earnings reports for public digital media companies like BuzzFeed, Dotdash Meredith, Gannett and News Corp's Dow Jones business, which includes The Wall Street Journal. But in the latest round of earnings reports from six publicly traded publishers, four reported increases in digital advertising revenue in Q3 2025 year over year, including News Corp's Dow Jones businesses, The New York Times, USA Today Co. and Ziff Davis."
Digital advertising businesses started 2025 slowly as tariff policies, economic uncertainty and declining programmatic traffic dampened ad spend. Q1 digital ad revenues were mostly flat for many public digital media companies, including BuzzFeed, Dotdash Meredith, Gannett and News Corp's Dow Jones. By Q3, four of six publicly traded publishers reported year-over-year increases in digital advertising revenue, led by Dow Jones, The New York Times, USA Today Co. and Ziff Davis, while People Inc. and BuzzFeed experienced programmatic declines. Publisher confidence improved into Q4 with expectations for year-over-year digital ad growth in 2026. Google committed to adding more source links, iHeartMedia struck a video podcast deal with Netflix, and AI licensing deals gained prominence.
Read at Digiday
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