Publishing Sector Scorecard: Strategic Intelligence, Q3 2025 Update

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Q3 2025 saw a surge of digital media activity across the publishing sector, as companies sought to expand their monetization options.

Scope

This sector scorecard provides a top-down, comprehensive outlook for the key players in the publishing sector over the next two years, based on the key themes set to transform their industry landscape.

Key Highlights

Major publications have doubled down on digital subscription strategies: the New York Times has launched new family bundles, the Guardian revealed that 72% of its revenue comes from digital content, and the Daily Mail consolidated its online brands under one banner to drive sign-ups. Platforms have also been instrumental in shaping the digital media landscape this quarter. Meta rolled out new short-form video and ad formats, YouTube significantly altered its Shorts monetization, and Amazon and Apple expanded their streaming slates.

Partnerships between publishing companies and the growing artificial intelligence (AI) sector have continued to materialize. In Q3 2025, Gannett struck a licensing deal with Perplexity. Publishers can open a whole new revenue line by licensing published content to generative-AI companies.

However, among the excitement of expanding revenue streams, many companies’ digital media strategies have been shaped by regulation. Meta came under EU scrutiny over how news and political content is moderated on Facebook and Instagram, while Google faced heightened antitrust pressure tied to its adtech dominance. On the flipside, News Corp and other publishers renewed calls for stronger enforcement of platform bargaining rules in the US. This highlights how regulatory action increasingly defines digital distribution and monetization terms, directly influencing how publishers reach audiences and negotiate with platforms.

Reasons to Buy

Companies that invest in the right themes become success stories. Those that miss the important themes in their industry end up as failures.

GlobalData's thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition and secure that all-important competitive advantage.

GlobalData has developed a unique thematic methodology for ranking all major companies in all major sectors based on their relative strength in the big themes that are impacting their industries.

First, we identify the top 10 themes transforming a sector across four categories (tech, macro, industry, and ESG). We also rank themes in order of priority by examining activity levels across 200 million alternative data signals, including patents, jobs, deals, filings, social media, and news.

Second, we research each theme in detail, examining the value chain, key players, and trends. Additionally, we examine the impact of each theme across the 20 industries we cover. Our 200 million signals help identify the leading adopters of a theme in each sector.

Finally, using our sector scorecards, we rank the companies most likely to succeed in a sector over the next five years.

Advance
Alphabet
Amazon
Apple
Axel Springer
Bertelsmann
Bloomberg
Bonnier
Bureau Veritas
Cambridge University Press
Cengage
Chegg
China Literature
Clarivate
Daily Mail and General Trust
Delinian
Equifax
Experian
FactSet
FICO
Gakken
Gannett
Grupo Planeta
Guardian Media Group
Hearst
Hitotsubashi Group
HMH
Holtzbrinck Publishing
IAC
Informa
Kadokawa
Kodansha
Lagardere
McGraw Hill
Meta
Microsoft
Moody's
Morningstar
New York Times
News Corp
Nielsen
Oxford University Press
Pearson
Phoenix Publishing & Media
Quebecor
Relx
S&P Global
Sage Publishing
Sanoma
Schibsted
Scholastic
TAL Education
Thomson Reuters
TransUnion
Verisk Analytics
Wiley
Wolters Kluwer

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Top Themes for 2025

Sector Scorecard: Publishing

Thematic Research Methodology

Publishing Sector Scorecard: Strategic Intelligence, Q3 2025 Update thematic reports
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