Arrested Development: Why Publishers Struggle With Audience Development, And How AI Can Help

Audience development is the lifeblood of publishing, whether that’s curating a subscriber base or generating leads.

It’s one of the reasons why unified management software like Magazine Manager is so important for all departments, and also why it’s so mind-boggling to read stats like that from Wunderkind’s latest research, which found that only about 1 in 10 surveyed publishers can identify between 25% to 50% of their visitors. In all, 84% fall below that one-quarter threshold, “limiting both monetization and personalization potential.”

“Low identity coverage is a critical weakness in an era where addressability drives revenue,” the 2025 Publisher State of the Union report says. “Publishers should prioritize first-party identity strategies, combining login prompts, email capture, and device-level signals, to move beyond session-based anonymity. Knowing your users is no longer a luxury; itʼs the foundation for subscriptions, personalization, and high-yield ad targeting.”

The monetization strategies most relied on are subscriptions (70%), branded content (72%), and programmatic advertising (62%), though the study found that the programmatic percentage drops to 40% for executives, “highlighting a gap between leadership priorities and tactical execution.”

As for AI adoption, 30% are optimizing with the technology, but almost a quarter (22%) aren’t using AI at all. The report suggests aligning AI with metrics such as:

• improving personalization
• streamlining production
• enhancing user experience

“Future-ready publishers are those that unify their audience data, activate it intelligently, and deliver relevant, respectful experiences across every channel, whether through ads, email, or content,” the report says. “In a shifting landscape, relevance and recognition are the new reach.”