As a publishing executive, you’re no stranger to the shifting sands of digital media. The days of relying on cheap traffic from social media are gone. Today’s audiences are fragmented across multiple platforms, while third-party cookies, once the backbone of targeted advertising, are quickly being phased out. These changes bring challenges, but they also present an unprecedented opportunity to transform how your organization engages with its readers. By cultivating a loyal, engaged community directly on your own platform, you will deepen relationships, unlock new revenue streams, and future-proof your business against ongoing market disruptions.
This post explores key insights from a recent session hosted by Viafoura at the ONA24 conference titled, “Doubling Down on Community.”
The New Imperative: Owning Your Audience
The publishing industry has long faced an existential challenge—audience ownership. For years, tech companies like Facebook, Twitter (now X) and Instagram provided platforms where readers could consume and discuss content. However, these social platforms have shifted priorities away from news. As Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, put it on Threads, “Politics and hard news are important, I don’t want to imply otherwise. But my take is, from a platform’s perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue they might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.”
The truth: If you’re not the one owning the conversation around your content, someone else is—and they’re monetizing it. Anthony De Rosa from On_Discourse framed this aptly: “Media companies have allowed tech companies to steal their content and monetize it by providing a platform for readers to discuss it. How absurd is that?”
The solution? Building your community.
By cultivating an engaged and loyal audience on your own platform, you control not only the conversation but the data, the engagement, and—most critically—the revenue potential.
When asked, here’s how the participants at ONA defined Community:
Some descriptions came as no surprise: connection, togetherness, engagement, while the most prominent term—trust—drove quite a bit of discussion. More on this later…
Community As a Strategic Priority for Publishers
For publishing executives, the strategic value of building a community extends beyond engagement—it directly impacts the business bottom line. Here’s what we know about the value of community members from Viafoura’s global research:
- Generate 5x more revenue than non-community members.
- Visit 45x more frequently than the general audience.
- Spend 5.3x more time on-site, driving higher ad impressions and boosting subscription opportunities
These metrics point to a broader trend: engaged communities are the linchpin of future audience growth.
The Business Case for Community-Driven Revenue
The data is compelling: active community members are more likely to subscribe, less likely to churn, and more engaged overall. But beyond the direct engagement metrics, what makes community an essential driver of revenue growth?
- First-Party Data Collection: As third-party cookies fade, publishers must adopt first-party data strategies. Communities offer high-value data for targeted content, personalized experiences, and better ads.
- Increased Subscription Revenue: Community members are 31% more likely to subscribe and 2.5x less likely to churn. Exclusive community content and engagement tiers can drive subscriptions and reduce churn.
- Optimized Ad Revenue: Communities boost dwell time and page views. First-party data enables precise targeting and higher CPMs, while ads within communities offer new revenue streams.
- Higher Retention Rates: Communities foster belonging, encouraging users to return through interactive features like comments, events, and user-generated content.
The 3 Foundational Pillars of Building a Successful Community Strategy
To reap the benefits of community, it’s critical to recognize that community is a significant driver of business value — it’s not simply community for community’s sake. Viafoura has outlined three critical pillars of community building success: intention, cultivation, and operationalization.
1. Intention: Tie Community Engagement to Revenue on Day 01
Community is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a core business strategy, with a front seat at the table. Set clear objectives and align your teams around building a loyal, engaged audience around your North Star metrics: converting engaged community members.
- Define your success criteria – get as specific as possible
- Build the business case – Community = Direct Ad Activation + Engagement Lift for Time on Site Attributable to Community + Conversion (Registration + Subscription lift)
- Map Your Ownership Framework – Who owns what, what is their level of disruption, and how long are the stakeholders engaged?
These practices are designed to mobilize around a key goal, and hold teams accountable to driving results. A successful community strategy is not just the responsibility of your product or engagement teams—it must be embraced across the organization, with clear ownership and resource allocation.
2. Cultivation: Creating Safe, Engaging Spaces
Managing communities at scales is very hard. Language is ever evolving, trends move quickly and above all it’s nearly impossible to monitor with exclusive human, or exclusively systems. The biggest factor in the crux community is on the line, bringing us back to the concept of TRUST. Trust built by your community to engage in safe spaces, trust from your editorial staff that they can engage in a civil way, and trust from the brand that community meets brand guidelines.
There are two sides of the coin to consider:
- Silencing the Bad: Set up systems and processes in place to disable negative comments. Think: spam prevention, banned words disabling, auto moderation for sentiment and context, and including a human in review.
- Promoting the Good: Using advanced sentiment scoring, highlight positive engagement at scale to boost your highest quality community engagements to the top of conversations. Viafoura’s recent Top Comments feature does just this.
3. Operationalization: Scaling Community Engagement
Scaling a community requires effective, structured strategies ranging from Low to High lift using playbooks and cadences to operationalize community efforts. The core 3 examples covered in market currently highlight:
- Live Broadcast Engagement: Driving TV audiences to your digital properties to ask questions answered by hosts directly on air. This is a big win building rituals and offering a unique value proposition for subscribers
- Editorial Recirculation: Using community sections to inspire follow up content for editors, and launching new highlights in newsletters.
- Live Events Operationalization: Pre-moderated AMAs connecting podcasters, spotlight journalists or featured specialists to audiences directly. Pair with advertising teams for sponsored activations here.
Moreover, operationalization is about aligning your community strategy with broader business goals. For instance, by tying community engagement to subscription models or using community data to enhance ad revenue, you can ensure that community-building directly contributes to the bottom line from day one.
The Future of Publishing: Communities as Competitive Differentiators
As the publishing industry continues to evolve, those who invest in building loyal, active communities will emerge as the leaders in audience engagement and monetization. For executives, the question is no longer whether to build a community, but how to do so effectively and at scale.
By treating community as a strategic priority, focusing on intentional cultivation, and operationalizing engagement at every level, you can position your organization to thrive in the future of publishing. Communities are no longer just a way to engage readers—they are a critical engine for growth, loyalty, and revenue in the digital age.
If you’re ready to build a thriving community, partner with Viafoura. Our platform equips you with the tools and insights to engage, activate, and monetize your audience with ease. Now is the time to act—don’t miss out on this generational opportunity.
