Inspiration in action: Eight publishers who are leading the way in 2025

Published: 25 Feb 2025

When you’re jumping from deadline to deadline, it’s easy to lose sight of the remarkable achievements happening all around us.

But recognising the great work being done across the industry is vital – both to celebrate the trailblazers pushing the boundaries, and to inspire us all to new heights. To uncover the digital publishers delivering stand-out, innovative work, we reached out to our Associate partners to discover who’s raising the bar with their approach…

Axios

There are many publishers out there doing outstanding work, but one that stands out for me is Axios. Axios is changing news consumption with its "Smart Brevity" model, identifying a market gap for a brand to focus on concise and impactful storytelling. Axios delivers news in digestible formats giving angles to a story and simplifying news consumption. This user-friendly approach caters to the modern reader's demand for both rapid information and in-depth analysis, all this with a business model that doesn’t reinvent the wheel forcing users into aggressive paywalls, or intrusive advertising, showing that it can be done. It’s been encouraging seeing a publisher establish a strong brand in such a short timeframe, building a loyal readership focusing on quality, over quantity and catering for news consumption for the busy lives we lead, in a world of complicated topics and superfluous amounts of content.

Jason Iliou, Director, Publisher Partnerships, UK & Ireland, Taboola

BBC Studio – Top Gear

I love some of the recent work Top Gear have done with eBay down under. Whilst Top Gear have always been known for incredible large scale partnerships, their recent work with eBay leveraged their social channel to engage the Top Gear Australian audience. The effort of organising the campaign from London and pulling off a video like this is excellent. For such a well-known brand to incorporate quality talent into short-form video content for the Australian market demonstrates how publishers can create genuine content that benefits both advertisers and audiences. It also highlights a smart monetisation strategy that can be applied globally.

Tom Gunter, Co-Founder & Head of New Markets, Avid Collective

Daily Mail

As one of the world's leading news brands, the Mail has long been a pioneer and innovator in the publishing industry. In many ways, this position comes with a responsibility to guide and inspire the broader publishing community.

Lately, I’ve been particularly interested in their approach to integrating commerce into well curated and relevant content to enhance the reader’s experience rather than disrupt it. This is key to increasing dwell time and engagement and, ultimately, trust and loyalty. The considered addition of commerce into a traditional news destination, not only diversifies revenue streams, but also seems to drive good outcomes and efficiency for their commerce partners.

Staying true to their storytelling heritage, the Mail has successfully blended retail expertise with compelling narratives. The result is content that not only informs, but also inspires readers, creating an engaging experience.

Sara Vincent, Managing Director UK, Utiq

Future

Future is known for its commitment to innovation and performance, making it one of the standout publishers in our industry. They have partnered with Index Exchange to deliver optimal outcomes for marketers, consistently investigating, testing, and improving ad performance.

Future’s technical team excels in identifying efficiencies and testing new solutions, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in digital publishing. Their proactive approach goes beyond the standard in programmatic—they delve deep into auction mechanisms, ensuring setups are perfectly optimised. This willingness to innovate and optimise revenue demonstrates Future's dedication to not only meeting but exceeding industry standards for success and growth.

Andrew Heald, Manager, Publisher Development, Index Exchange

Immediate Media

Immediate Media is setting itself apart by fully embracing AI. They’ve prioritised education to ensure their entire staff can leverage the technology to boost efficiency, and now have 70% of their employees using AI daily. Their editorial team uses AI to easily repurpose articles and videos into new content formats, maximising reach and impact of the original source material. This forward-thinking approach is resonating with audiences and driving real results—digital subscriptions have now surpassed print. By integrating AI seamlessly into workflows, Immediate Media is proving that innovation and smart adoption can fuel success in an industry where many publishers face challenges.

Alex Dawson-Smith, Business Development Director, UK & EMEA, EX.CO

Mumsnet

I think there’s amazing work happening regarding how publishers are partnering with brands to deliver better outcomes. Take Mumsnet, who have partnered with LiveRamp to enhance how they connect brands with authenticated user data for more targeted advertising. A key focus of this collaboration is their work with a significant grocery brand, utilising LiveRamp’s ATS Direct solution, allowing Mumsnet to activate first-party, authenticated user data across various channels, enabling the brand to reach highly relevant target audiences more effectively. Mumsnet and the brand can optimise campaign performance through this partnership, tapping into addressable budgets and delivering personalised, privacy-centric advertising experiences.

Reza Amiri-Garroussi, Head of Connectivity & Ecosystem, UK, LiveRamp

News UK

As a tech provider, that helps multiple publishers demonstrate their value to advertisers, we are lucky to be exposed to a wide range of different and innovative data strategies. Being asked to select a single publisher is difficult – it’s like being asked who is your favourite child!

But, with that caveat, I would call out News UK for their Nucleus product. What I love about this approach is how it uses data in a holistic, forward-looking way, optimising towards better future outcomes, rather than just confirming previous results. And by combining our plentiful brand lift data with a huge amount of their own first-party data, plus other independent data such as attention metrics, they have built both a holistic level of campaign and audience understanding as well as a practical tool to help advertisers plan future campaigns.

Publishers using past learnings to fuel better future outcomes is truly a virtuous circle.

Sean Adams, Chief Marketing Officer, Brand Metrics

PlanetSport

PlanetSport appears to be on a roll, having achieved record-breaking monthly traffic in July last year and its highest-ever revenue in November. Its success reflects a deep understanding of its audience and a commitment to delivering informative, trusted content across various formats – editorial, visual, social, and app-based – all while prioritising the sports fan experience. This success also highlights the impact of initiatives such as site redesigns and SEO improvements, ensuring content is optimised and reaches the right audiences. It’s inspiring to see the company expand its footprint and thrive in markets where it was once a challenger, and now positioning itself as a global leader in sports journalism.

Jennifer Clements, Global Publishing Director, SmartFrame Technologies Ltd

Looking to celebrate the work of your own team? The AOP Digital Publishing Awards are open – enter before March 20^th for your chance to win industry-wide recognition for your innovative strategies or your stand-out team members. Find out more here.