We’ve Quintupled Our Revenue Streams In Three Years: The Guardian Australia

We’ve Quintupled Our Revenue Streams In Three Years: The Guardian Australia
Emma Mackenzie
By Emma Mackenzie



Dwindling display ad revenue is one major roadblock The Guardian Australia sees for its future. And when revenue streams fail, others have to pick up the slack.

It’s why The Guardian Australia has upped its revenue streams from two to ten in the past three years.

“The traffic’s moving to mobile, but the advertisers aren’t paying as much for mobile advertising,” Margy Vary, marketing director for The Guardian Australia told B&T.

Ad-blocking too hasn’t helped matters. Analytics company PageFair recently said ad-blocking in 2015 cost publishers a whopping $US22 billion.

It’s a blow to media companies, but they seem to recognise the issue. Junkee Media recently claimed banner ads were dying and that native content was the way forward.

Nevertheless, when some revenue streams deplete, publishers need others to pick up the slack.

“It’s about increasing the other revenue streams to balance it out, because display is no longer the dominant,” said Vary, “so you’re not too dependent on one.”

Interestingly, plush toys of First Dog on the Moon characters are one of the ten revenue streams, albeit a small one, she quipped.

Events have increased too, as many publishers are jumping on the event bandwagon. Hubspot pinned it as a great way for media companies to make some extra moolah.

Vary said the publisher is teaming up with numerous events around the country to both get the name out there and show support, such as the recent WOMAD Festival in Adelaide, of which B&T travelled with The Guardian as a guest. Too, the publisher is upping its branded content divisions such as G-Labs and G-Live to provide more revenue.

A new revenue stream coming into play within The Guardian is paid membership. While adamant it doesn’t mean the publisher is going behind a paywall – which it’s been outspoken about is not the way forward – there will be exclusive content only available to those who pay.

In no particular order, the other revenue streams include:

  • Display advertising
  • Programmatic display advertising
  • GLabs
  • GLive
  • Masterclasses
  • Consumer revenue
  • Subscription Revenue
  • Content Discovery
  • Membership
  • Video revenue



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