Digital publishing’s pioneers: A non-exhaustive list
Published: 18 Feb 2026
You often hear that digital publishers are facing an ‘unprecedented’ wave of disruption. This takes many forms: sometimes it is artificial intelligence, others it is shifts in audience behaviours, or the long-discussed-and-prevaricated-upon demise of third-party cookies.
All of these are true. But it is also true is that digital publishers are rising to the occasion, time and time again.
As we prepare for the AOP Digital Publishing Awards (open for entry until March 12!), we’ve gathered the receipts that prove that digital publishers in the UK are at the top of their game – and to inspire your next innovative strategy within your own organisation.
Let’s start with digital publishing’s bread and butter: engaging, trusted, and authoritative content. However, In the face of AI-driven disinformation, the erosion of truth, and the sheer volume of content available, digital publishers need to rethink how they connect with audiences.
For The Independent, that means leaning into the evolving creator economy with the launch of Studio at the start of 2025. “The brand has always demonstrated how putting trusted voices at the forefront creates deep engagement with audiences,” shared Sophie Hanbury, The Independent’s Director of Strategic Content Partnerships, explaining that Studio’s output extends across multiple platforms and verticals. Journalists, creators, and talent are put front and centre, providing audiences with faces and names they can grow to trust. “This strategic expansion underscores The Independent’s dedication to innovation and entrepreneurialism, and its pro-active commitment to tackling distrust in media and disinformation through high-quality, trusted journalism.”
Wired are also re-thinking how they can demonstrate their authority – in their case, by using their paywall – or a lack thereof – as a proof-point. “Early in 2025, [Wired] decided to drop the paywall on all articles based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act,” Domenico Palmieri, an independent expert in publishing, media, and ad tech, explained. “It’s all about the value exchange: it provides a public service but also gives the readers the chance to get a taste of exceptional journalism for free.” The choice to intentionally remove the paywall from key content areas is part of a wider strategy that is paying dividends, with the publication experiencing double-digit subscriber growth last year.
Speaking of subscribers, BBC.com have successfully launched a pay-model subscription for their North American readers. But they’re also using audience insights to expand their content production into areas where trusted content is a priority: health and wellbeing. “The new section showcases the BBC’s distinctive approach to health and wellness reporting, from medical breakthroughs to practical guidance,” stated Rob Freeman, Senior Audience Development Editor at the BBC. This dedicated health vertical responds to both the need for trusted journalism in the area, and also to nurture existing audience behaviour. “Health coverage has been a major driver of engagement on the site, with the average monthly audience for health features in North America up 40% year-over-year,” Rob continued.
Finally, Which? are in the process of re-thinking how they surface their video to previously unknown audiences in an era of GEO. By creating bespoke watch pages across their best performing content areas, the Which? team are driving traffic and affiliate revenue. “The decision has resulted in both reach and an improved onward journey proposition,” shared Rob Lilley-Jones, Co-Head of Video and Audio at Which?, “while also having positive impact on the overall satisfaction score for each piece of content.” Alongside this work, Which? are also looking into how they use YouTube as a priority platform, including commissioning more short-film and documentary content to better serve their audiences.
The cookie may not be dead, but the legacy of those years searching for an alternative remains strong. Beyond that urgency to be self-reliant, publishers are also leaning into the richness of their audience data to drive commercial, editorial, and product development strategies.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen clients leverage first-party data and supply-side decisioning to deliver highly tailored, privacy compliant campaigns at scale,” stated Index Exchange’s Andy Heald. “What stands out is how clients combine audience insights with contextual intelligence to reach the right users, without over-reliance on third-party identifiers.”
So how are publishers achieving this? For Liz Percy-Robb, Digital Commercial Product Leader, her most successful initiative was the creation of the data brand, Synergy, for Iconic (formerly National World). “The initiative was driven by a clear market challenge,” she outlined. “Advertisers wanted better targeting and measurable outcomes and to allow more valuable commercial proposition we needed to reduce reliance on third-party data.”
The data management platform the team created unified first-party data sources across more than 70 news websites which were then turned into actionable audience cohorts that would deliver stronger engagement, improved outcomes, and provide new revenue opportunities through a premium targeting proposition. “This connected editorial insight, audience behaviour, and commercial opportunity in a way that was practical and scalable,” Liz continued.
Immediate have adopted a similar approach. “A core initiative was the evolution of our first-party data proposition, including the launch of Prism, our end-to-end solution from planning to measurement,” explained Mario Lamaa, Immediate’s Managing Director for Data & Revenue Operations. This has allowed Immediate to create richer, bespoke audience segments which provide compelling commercial opportunities. But it also goes hand-in-hand with a drive towards logged in, identifiable users and the creation of higher value content formats such as video, audio, and social native experiences. “This integrated approach has driven meaningful results with higher interaction, stronger brand connection, and more repeatable, human-led storytelling at a time where users are craving a human voice,” Mario concluded.
GB News have adopted a bold approach to their commercial proposition, electing to overhaul their programmatic advertising set-up and replace it within their own in-house technology. As well as increasing transparency and granular reporting capabilities, this approach gave the team direct control over yield optimisation. “Crucially,” Maeen Anthonipillai, Executive Director – Programmatic at GB News, explained, “this enabled us to identify brands and agencies actively buying digital news inventory while excluding GB news form their inclusion lists, resulting in previously unseen lost revenue.”
This new approach has already delivered results and attracted new advertising partners, directly increasing web RPM from £1.68 to £7.35 by the end of 2025.
Haymarket Business Media are also evolving their commercial growth strategy. Alongside the introduction of new high-impact ad formats and AI-driven attention metrics, the team have also changed how they sell. “Industry research suggests B2B buyers are increasingly well into their decision-making before they speak to a sales team,” shared Jennie Meynell, Head of Sales for Haymarket Business Media. “We’ve adjusted accordingly by investing in a dedicated marketer focused on lead generation and improving shop windows and collateral for advertising and sponsorship sales teams.”
As with GB News, this approach has already delivered significant revenue, and the team at Haymarket Business Media continue to build momentum and support buyers who want to research independently before making contact.
Robin Shute, Group Operations Director at Arc Europe, also highlighted the rollout of their digital ad targeting platform as an innovative initiative that he was particularly proud of. By blending the power of their data warehouse and GAM, the team can create bespoke campaigns for clients. “This, combined with offsite retargeting and the growth of our demand platform Investment IQ allows us to deliver multiple intent signals,” Robin explained. “It’s incredibly valuable to our clients, who demand this level of measurability.”
As publishing stops chasing scale and starts prioritising quality, the need to address the unaddressable is greater than ever and publishers who can prove advertising impact to advertisers are primed to succeed.
All of the areas we’ve discussed so far are evidence of publishers who are going above and beyond within traditional areas of publishing expertise. But there are also any number of publishers who are re-thinking how and where a publish can be operating.
Take Haymarket Automotive, who have expanded their Automotive Studio business to become a standalone creative agency – and were appointed the retained European social media creative agency for a major car manufacturer. As Chris Daniels, Chief Commercial Officer, shared, “it transformed an internal unit into an external, high-value service provider, successfully driving significant new revenues and proving the model for future expansion.”
Or take The Telegraph. Recognising that preference and action intention doubles when rich media creatives are used compared to static versions, the team at Telegraph Media Group launched Ad.Studio to reduce the barrier of entry to advertisers. Partners can work with The Telegraph’s in-house team of specialists to transform existing marketing material into more compelling campaigns that will perform better against the determined objectives. “In 2025, 54% of Telegraph Digital Direct campaigns used Ad.Studio, providing more compelling ads for readers, boosting click through rates by 269%, 20% increase in attention quality, and brand uplifts 2xthe industry benchmark at 32% av.” Kirstin Randall, Telegraph Media Group’s Digital Technology Partner Manager, shared.
The New York Times underwent a similar process with T Brand Studio, expanding their creative capabilities across the entire New York Times ecosystem. “Our clients are no longer just “advertising” in traditional one-location or one-format ways,” explained Raquel Bubar, Managing Director of T Brand Studio International. “They are inhabiting every corner of our audience’s daily rituals and appealing to their passion points.” The team now work to provide new value to brands with creative story telling formats that provide greater value to readers than digital ads alone and allowing brands to spark deep, meaningful conversations with their prospective audience.
Publishers are also enhancing their provision to their audience beyond the content. And increasingly, this means looking at how you can create opportunities your readers to connect with one another and with the brand itself.
“Putting the customer at the centre goes far beyond producing exceptional content,” stated Natasha Banjo, Portfolio Director of Women’s Lifestyle at Hearst UK. “It means building every product, partnership, and commercial model around a deep, data-led understanding of what motivates our audiences and the value exchange they expect in such an overcrowded landscape.
Recognising that 1 in 5 of their customers craft and were looking to connect with others through creativity, Hearst UK launched a new membership proposition called Made Club, an initiative that rapidly scaled and exceeded acquisition targets. And then there is their Red Shops partnership, which bring the warmth of the Red brand into events for their audience to get together with like-minded people and discover new brands.
GB News have also launched a community proposition. “Friends of GB News is a free registration tier built around participation, not paywalls,” outlined GB News’ Mareen Anthonipillai. “Built on the insight that GB News viewers are values-led and motivated by representation and voice, Friends enables members to comment on stories, vote in live polls, submit debate questions, and have their views heard live on TV.”
As with Hearst’s Made Club and Red Shop, this has been highly successful for the brand, with more than 100,000 users signing up in just eight weeks.
For dmg Media, an integrated approach to editorial, distribution, and commercial has led to the development of The Crime Desk, a subscription proposition focused on serving their most engaged true crime listeners and converting them into paying subscribers with a host of benefits. “Subscription content was developed alongside the ad-funded content with clear messaging to listeners, and a release strategy designed to reward loyalty,” shared Mike Wooller, Deputy Head of Podcasts. “By prioritising quality crime journalism and packing the content we already had at our disposal, we built a new vertical brand around a key audience interest.
Finally, there are the publishers who are recognising that yesterday’s competitor can be today’s strongest ally – as Haymarket Automotive did when they partnered with Autotrader. This partnership leant into the strengths of each brand, blending What Car?’s expert buying advice with Autotrader’s established marketplace.
“This collaboration successfully drives new audiences to Autotrader while providing our own clients with novel and powerful ways to work with us, effectively turning a competitive dynamic into a mutually beneficial revenue stream,” continued Haymarket Automotive’s Chris Daniels.
It is clear, then, that despite the mounting challenges, digital publishes are not resting on their laurels and continue to push the boundaries across all areas of their businesses – from commercial partnerships to community building initiatives to new content formats. And despite the number of examples in this article already, it barely even begins to scratch the surface of the incredible work being undertaken within digital publishing brands.
The AOP Digital Publishing Awards aim to celebrate innovation and digital publishing excellence in all its forms. If you have a story of how an individual, team, or initiative blazed a new trail or delivered outstanding results, submit it before March 12th for your chance to impress a jury of your industry peers.
Thank you to all our AOP Digital Publishing Awards jurors who shared their own innovations and best practice with us: Mareen Anthonipillai, Natasha Banjo, Raquel Bubar, Chris Daniels, Rob Freeman, Sophie Hanbury, Andy Heald, Mario Lamaa, Rob Lilley-Jones, Jennie Meynell, Domenico Palmieri, Liz Percy-Robb, Kirstin Randall, Robin Shute, and Mike Wooller.
