Audience Building, B2B, Techstack

How Gardner Business Media deprioritized Google to create killer new revenue models

Alisa Cromer January 23, 2025

Gardner Business Media had spent a decade, involving editors, consultants, full-time team members, and specialty software in an effort to appease Google Google search algorithms.

Then, two years ago, after acting as a Beta Tester for Google’s AI summaries, they had had enough.

“Google flipped the table on us,” said Kate Hand, Executive Vice President of Customer Success, who oversees web development and customer success departments for the historic B2B magazine group.

Hand refocused her teams on capturing audience opt-ins and data, using technology to fundamentally alter not only its audience strategy, but ultimately the revenue model, too. A new division, Grow, empowered by audience data acts as an engine to drives advertiser ROI.

Their approach is paving the way for the rest of the industry. Here’s how they did it.

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Categories: Audience Building, B2B, Techstack

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Lead Magnet Advertising

Let's get creative! We researched more than a hundred different lead magnet campaigns to find the best ideas that command top dollars from niche advertisers, and how they did it.

First, to define the terms: A lead magnet is simply gated information a publisher creates that is valuable enough to persuade the audience to leave their contact information.

Advertisers will invest 2 to 5x the cost of a major campaign and in some cases $30,000 to $50,000 - for publishers to create the content, host the lead capture page or system, and deliver the leads generated. They, too, are worried about Google Zero.

The Lead Magnet itself could be a white paper, e-book, video, podcast, or webinar — as long as there is a “hook” that attracts the audience to exchange their contact info for access.

Steal these ideas: Below is a list of the most powerful peer-shared ideas for lead magnet campaigns from case studies and research.

Alisa Cromer August 6, 2025

How he did it: Interview with James Cridland, founder of Podnews.net

James Cridland has built a $600,000+ one person media company that he runs part-time. Here’s how he does it.

Alisa Cromer January 6, 2024

With 12 revenue models, which combinations work?

There are almost as many business models as there are media sectors, well beyond the first three most common: Advertising, Subscriptions, and Events. Many have…

Alisa Cromer January 5, 2023

The Gist: October’s insider dose of Niche Media Buzz

Trending Statistica projects declines in print magazine circulation of 10.9% by 2024. Newsletters have become a top revenue producer for niche media, especially for newsletter sales guru…

Alisa Cromer August 30, 2024

White paper: Recent research on the value of print advertising

How should niche media, dominated by magazine brands, talk to advertisers about the value of print?

It’s a tricky issue. On the one hand, print sales continue to decline in the face of reduced advertiser demand. Media brokers place almost no value on profitable print advertising sales. This white paper shows all the research you need, with sources and links to use.

Alisa Cromer January 1, 2024

How Niche media use text channels

There are many reasons to create text channels: Texts have a
But increasingly, media are experimenting with other uses: charging for exclusive connections with columnists and editors, communicating with event attendees, and supporting e-commerce.

“It does not have to be local news. It could be someone who covers beer in Portland, or a national vertical," said David Cohn, who leads the team at Subtext, a platform that supports media text channels. He sees the trend reaching into other markets, such as life coaches, chefs, and fitness coaches. Here are ten use cases for publishers from events to paid subscriptions. (Please become a member to continue this report).

Alisa Cromer August 2, 2023

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