Publishers 2025: Identity, Email & AI Drive Growth

Written by Danny O'Reilly | Sep 18, 2025 11:00:00 AM

The Publisher State of the Union 2025 reveals a pivotal year for digital media. While 80% of publishers plan to increase ad load, most worry about the impact on user experience. The real growth drivers? Identity, email, and AI. With only 14% strong in first-party data and just 18% personalizing email, the opportunity is wide open. Learn how leading publishers are trading ad clutter for smarter, identity-driven engagement.

What happens when third-party cookies fade, AI eats search, and audience growth targets keep climbing? That's why we asked leaders across all roles in Publishing to find out. The Publisher State of the Union 2025, demonstrates that practitioners are cranking up ad load and experimenting with AI, but real competitive advantage will come from owning the audience relationship (identity, email, and intent) and protecting UX.

84% say email is important — but only 18% personalize

The Topline: Growth vs. Experience

Publishers are pushing two levers at once: more ads and more direct revenue. 80% plan to increase ad density, even though 72% worry it will hurt UX. Subscriptions and branded content still dominate the mix (around 70%+ adoption), but leaders see the next growth wave in DTC eCommerce and identity-driven personalization. Meanwhile, AI usage is rising-30% use it for optimization/personalization and 32% for new formats, yet programs remain fragmented and hard to operationalize. The risk? Short-term volume tactics can erode long-term loyalty. The report's through-line is clear: relevance beats raw reach, especially as search referrals wobble and answer engines keep eyeballs on-platform.

Download the Publisher State of the Union 2025

The Identity Gap is the Revenue Gap

Despite looming cookie deprecation, only 14% report strong first-party data + identity strategies, and 84% struggle to unify customer data across systems. Practically, that means most visitors remain anonymous. Half identify just 10-25% of users, and 56% say they can't reliably target readers with the right CTA. Without durable identification, it's harder to personalize, harder to convert, and harder to command premium ad yields.

Just 6% have a strategy to mitigate ad-blocker impact.

This is also why the ad-density arms race feels shaky: more units don't fix the addressability problem. Identity + moment-based delivery do.

Email is the Sleeping Giant (Still)

Email remains a juggernaut for monetization and retention-92% call it important-but execution lags. Only 18% personalize newsletter content/offers, and just 6% deem newsletters "critical" to retention despite strong ROI potential. The gap isn't interest; it's activation: connecting identity, behavior, and content so every send nudges a reader toward subscription, purchase, or sponsored value.

AI: Beyond Experiments to Outcomes

Teams are piloting AI for headlines, summaries, and content optimization, but operational lift is real and workflows remain siloed. The winners aren't those with the most AI tools; they're the ones who wire AI into identity, testing, and content delivery to improve UX and revenue without extra manual work. In short: automate the boring, augment the creative, protect the brand voice.

What Leaders Do Differently

Make identity your foundation. Pair consented email capture with deterministic ID and cross-device stitching. Target moments, not just pages, and trade pop-ups for behavioral, post-content prompts that feel native.
Shift from ad quantity to ad quality. Diversify into native, contextual, and post-content formats; use behavioral signals to time fewer, better ads that clear CPM goals without tanking session depth.
Turn newsletters into journeys. Move from "send to all" to dynamic modules and interest-based segmentation. Tie sends to lifecycle milestones (first visit, dormant subscriber, cart viewed) to lift LTV.
Close the data loop. Orchestrate ESP, CDP, analytics, and ad stack so real-time segments update everywhere. Kill swivel-chair ops; let identity and triggers do the heavy lifting.
Operationalize AI. Use it to scale testing (subject lines, layouts, timing), fuel recommendations, and triage production tasks-then measure against conversion and retention, not vanity metrics.

Why This Matters Now

The report shows a sector at an inflection point: most publishers are increasing ad load, but most also fear the UX cost. Most value email, but few personalize. Many test AI, but few integrate. The path forward is to trade volume for value, own the relationship, orchestrate your stack, and deliver relevance on every touch. That's how you grow revenue and trust in a world where traffic is fickle and attention is rented.

Download the Publisher State of the Union 2025

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