A difficult month for ad-supported publishers

It’s been a rough few weeks for publishers that support their businesses primarily with revenue from advertising and sponsorships. Meanwhile, subscription-first publishers say their revenues are holding up relatively well… so far. Marketers’ budgets have been scaled back significantly in the second half of the year as nervousness about the economic outlook escalates, and publishers say they’re showing no real signs of rebounding heading into the first half of 2023.  As a result, a number of ad-reliant publishers and media companies have been forced to downsize their operations or even shutter completely over the past few weeks. Morning Brew laid off 14% of its staff, lifestyle publisher Outside Inc cut 12% of its workforce, and Gannett says it plans to downsize by 6