‘Show the money’: Publishers prioritize monetization over subscriber growth

Publishers have been slowly evolving their subscription approaches in recent years, optimizing toward subscriber revenue and engagement as “North Stars” instead of chasing subscriber volume for the sake of subscriber volume. But as the global economic outlook becomes increasingly precarious, that reorientation is accelerating rapidly.  Publishers across the board are now deprioritizing subscriber growth initiatives and “volume at all costs” mentalities, and are instead focusing their attention firmly on the highly engaged, highly monetizable audience groups that are most likely to sustain their businesses through a difficult period.  Vanity metrics are being replaced by an emphasis on revenue generation and yield maximization as publishers attempt to inject greater