The Daily Beast Nearly Doubles Revenue, Has Higher Ambitions

The politics and pop culture publisher The Daily Beast increased its year-over-year revenue by 81% in the third quarter—the first profitable quarter in the 16-year history of the title. The results, reported last week in the public earnings of parent company IAC, are a welcome green shoot for Joanna Coles and Ben Sherwood, the media executives who took a 49% equity stake in the publisher in April. The first months of their tenure were defined by drama and dissent, animosity that was heightened by an exodus of talent, and a wave of July buyouts that saw 35% of the staff disappear. But since then, the publisher has seen its new strategy gain traction. Prior to the change in ownership, the publisher was on track to lose around $10 million in 2024. Now, the title is pacing to grow its overall revenue 40% this year and 30% in 2025, according to president and chief operating officer Keith Bonnici. The publisher, which generates an eight-figure revenue split roughly between advertising (45%) and subscriptions (55%), is also on track to record its second-ever quarter of profitability, and it plans to expand its newsroom next year. “The second quarter was tough, and we had to make some difficult decisions,” Bonnici said. “But once that was done, we hit the ground running.” Sophisticated subs and syndication The publisher attributed its nascent commercial turnaround to a number of efforts—in particular, a refocused editorial strategy and a greater emphasis on subscription and syndication revenues. On the subscription front, the publisher re-established an internal department dedicated to growing its subscription business, hiring two staff exclusively for the effort. Since then, it has notched 20 consecutive weeks of net subscriber growth following the revamp, according to Bonnici. Next year, The Daily Beast is targeting 20% subscriber growth and aims to bank more than 100,000 paying subscribers and over 1 million registered readers. The growth of its syndication business, which produces both advertising and subscription revenue, has come as part of a broader evolution of its editorial strategy. The publisher has long had partnerships with distribution platforms, including Yahoo, YouTube, and Apple News. But in recent months, it has employed a more data-driven approach to producing editorial for these partners. To do so, it has worked to create content specifically designed to perform well in those ecosystems rather than simply using the syndicates as further distribution points for its standard content. “The content is not necessarily different,” Bonnici said. “It’s just more organized.” Like its peers in the political sphere, The Daily Beast benefitted from a particularly engaged news cycle in recent months, which undoubtedly contributed to its impressive quarterly growth. But The Daily Beast saw a greater swell of audience than its competitive set—three times more growth, according to Bonnici—and aims to retain two-thirds of its election bump. Across its owned and syndicated platforms, the publisher now has a combined monthly reach of roughly 40 million. Expanding its product portfolio In 2025, The Daily Beast plans to expand its commercial slate further. The publisher debuted a host of new podcasts in 2024, even nabbing the former late-night host Samantha Bee to accompany Coles on one production, and plans to expand its audio roster next year. It also films all of its podcasts and distributes them on YouTube, a platform on which the publisher had no monetization strategy until this year. The Daily Beast also plans to introduce a new content franchise next year, although it declined to share specifics. The new vertical aims to replicate the success of Obsessed, the entertainment-oriented franchise the publisher launched in 2022 that netted a seven-figure revenue in its first year. It will also debut a slate of events for the first time in several years, according to Bonnici. So far, it has plans to unveil “several” tentpole events and a handful of smaller activations, two of which have already secured sponsors. These ancillary businesses will create more surface area for advertising and sponsorship, which the publisher hopes to translate into more direct ad sales. The title currently generates roughly 40% of its ad business from direct efforts and 60% from on-site programmatic, a balance it hopes to tilt further toward the former. “The key is making sure that our advertising packages are strong and that only The Beast could offer them,” Bonnici said. “We want to be able to partner with advertisers and ask them what they want.” Correction: The story has been updated to reflect that The Daily Beast reestablished a subscriptions department that had been vacant, rather than establishing a subscriptions department for the first time.

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The Daily Beast Nearly Doubles Revenue, Has Higher Ambitions for Next Year

The publisher endured a contentious change in ownership, but its early results are encouraging

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