Membrana Media at Digiday Miami: Solving the Revenue Puzzle

Miami was hot outside. Inside Digiday Publishing Summit, there was a slight chill, and it wasn't the air conditioning, but the realization of how fast publishers have to move to keep up.

Traffic from search keeps sliding, AI platforms want publishers' content without paying for it, and every revenue line is being asked to do more with less.

Membrana Media spent September 14-16 at the Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne listening to how publishers are dealing with it, and sharing a view of our own. 

The team was represented by Siebren Roorda, MD for North America & Western Europe, and Alexis Bryers, Senior Consultant.

Eight minutes at a time

Digiday's summit runs on one-on-ones: short, scheduled meetings where publishing execs and partners sit across from each other and skip the small talk. Eight minutes isn't long enough to close a deal. That's not the point.

«The guaranteed meetings are great, not because you can sell then and there, but because you create a meaningful touch point,» Siebren said. «And that's exactly what we came for.»

Over a day and a half, Siebren and Alexis sat down with 27 publishers and media groups includes Hearst, Forbes, Reuters, NY Post, The Daily Beast, DMG, Advance Local, Fox Local, Times of India, NDTV, Raptive, Playwire and others.

Different sizes, different markets, different business models. Pretty much the same worries.

Three problems, or one?

Most publishers still run subscriptions, ad monetization and registrations as separate projects, often with separate teams, separate KPIs and separate vendors. Each one gets optimized on its own. Together, they often work against each other.

That was the idea we brought to Miami, and it got nods across the table every time.

«We believe it should be approached as one holistic revenue optimization problem,» Siebren said. «When you look at the whole reader journey instead of separate pieces, you see where the real money is.»

It isn't a revolutionary idea.

But at a summit where half the agenda was about finding new revenue and the other half was about protecting what's left, it came at the right time.

After sunset comes sunrise

The Key Biscayne sunsets were a good reminder: old models may be fading, but the new playbook for publishing is already being written. And it’s starting in conversations like these.

We’re following up on every one of them. See you at the next Digiday.