The answer to shrinking ad budgets and a public used to free news is a cocktail of smart paywall strategies, diversified income streams and cross-team collaboration, says SEO director Harry Clarkson-Bennett
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News publishers are facing a squeeze on core revenue streams. In the UK, ad revenue is shrinking around 8 per cent for national news brands. Only around 8 per cent of people say they are willing to pay for news.
At the News and Editorial SEO Summit 2025 this week (22 October 2025), Harry Clarkson-Bennett, SEO director at The Telegraph, tackled the obvious question: how should news businesses make money now?
His answer: understand the real risks and rewards of paywalling, diversify your revenue streams, and start planning to go beyond the old SEO playbook.
The Telegraph became the third British news organisation to pass the one million digital subscriber mark in 2023. This is no accident. It has continued to test when to put up the paywalls, finding that around 60 per cent of users hit a paywall (varying by region and user data).
This is a fine balancing act as paywalls can make or break organic traffic and a blanket approach can backfire. The publisher has found that dynamic paywalls are more efficient because they ask people to pay depending on a number of factors:
Behavioural triggers: The paywall is triggered after a user has accessed a certain number of articles or based on their likelihood to subscribe, which is calculated using internal data models.
Referral source: The paywall can be adjusted based on where the user comes from. For example, users arriving from Google Discover might be allowed to read one or two articles before hitting the paywall, with stricter limits for repeat visits.
Content type: Not all content is paywalled. Evergreen or widely available articles are often left open to attract new users, while unique, high-value journalism is more likely to be paywalled.
Registration wall: Requiring users to sign up for a free account tends to increase initial conversion rates and allows for a gradual customer journey toward paid subscription, rather than forcing a direct paywall immediately.
Revenue diversification is no longer optional, stresses Clarkson-Bennett. Google earns 90 per cent of its ad revenue from its own entities (YouTube, Mail, Maps), keeping the vast majority of ad revenue within its own ecosystem.
Events, memberships, podcasts, branded services, and digital assets/communities: these can all supplement and strengthen core subscription income.
Empower journalists as influencers: Wired and The Independent are encouraging journalists to build their own social followings, driving both traffic and subscriptions. "People buy from brands, but they also buy from people," he says.
Build AI-resilient products and communities: *The Telegraph* and other publishers have launched subscriber-only newsletters, in-depth explainers, and interactive infographics that can’t be easily replicated or summarised by AI. These assets not only encourage repeat visits and deeper engagement, but also create new opportunities for sponsorship, membership, and direct monetisation—helping to future-proof revenue against changes in search and social algorithms.
Smarter tracking and advertising: When someone subscribes or makes a purchase, don’t just focus on the very last link they clicked before signing up. Instead, try to understand their whole journey, like the first article they read or the ads they saw along the way. This helps you see which parts of your website or which ads are actually helping to win new subscribers, so you can spend your marketing budget more wisely and improve what’s working.
SEO editors and marketers can’t just focus on getting more website visitors. They need to work closely with other teams to help the whole business succeed. Clarkson-Bennett’s advice is practical:
Work together across teams: SEO teams must meet regularly with colleagues from analytics (who track data), paid advertising (who drive revenue opportunities), editorial (who create content), and product (who build features) to share insights and solve problems together.
Track what really matters: Instead of only counting how many people visit your site, pay attention to what those visitors do next. Are they signing up for free accounts, subscribing, coming back often, or spending money? These actions show real business growth.
Think like a business partner: Look for areas where the company could save time or money, or where processes could be improved. Bring ideas to the table, help other teams make better decisions, and always keep the bigger business goals in mind, not just your own SEO targets.
"We've proven to be a pretty resilient industry," says Clarkson-Bennett.
"We need to figure out how to close our own gates and to monetise effectively, because although there might not be a huge amount of viable alternatives I'm sure some will come up."
This article was drafted with the help of an AI assistant before it was edited by a human
