How Media Businesses Diversify Revenue Channels with Complementary Product Development

For years, the media business model was simple: create content, get attention, and sell that attention to the advertisers. But today, storytelling alone rarely pays the bills.

As ad revenues fluctuate and audience attention becomes harder to monetize, media companies are rethinking how they make money. The most resilient ones are no longer just publishers. They are product companies.

From data platforms to productivity, learning, and entertainment apps, media product development proves that publishers can grow their bottom line without compromising their editorial core. In this post, we discuss exactly how this happens and what products media companies create to diversify their revenue.

Why Traditional Media Companies Turn to Value-Added Product Development

When we talk about product development in media, we aren’t talking about changing your editorial workflow completely. Instead, we mean complementary digital products that extend your media brand beyond publishing: any tools, platforms, and services that create additional value.

Industry data shows that the shift is already underway: nearly 42% of publishers are currently considering new products specifically to reach younger audiences. Whether it’s a push into audio (26%), video (30%), or lifestyle niches like gaming (29%) and education (26%), the ultimate goal is to stop being a destination people visit once a day and start being a brand they live with.

The New York Times is a prime example of this. By bundling news with games, sports, recipes, and product reviews, they’ve turned a simple subscription into an all-access lifestyle pass.

Generally, media companies take two distinct paths when diversifying revenues:

Consumer-Facing Products

These are the apps and tools designed for your readers, think games, lifestyle trackers, or podcast hubs. Why they work:

• Building daily habits. Most people don’t read the news every hour. However, they do play a daily crossword or listen to a podcast. Products increase daily active usage, turning occasional readers into regular users.
• Capturing the non-readers. Younger generations might skip a 2,000-word article, but they’ll engage with shareable learning content or a high-quality audio series. These products lower the mental load and make your brand accessible to those who find traditional news heavy.
• Strengthening subscription economics. By bundling tools with journalism, you give users more reasons to upgrade and fewer reasons to cancel. It’s harder to click “unsubscribe” when you’re on a 50-day gaming streak.
• Gathering first-party data. Every interaction within a product provides signals about when people have free time, what they value, and how loyal they are. This data is ideal for personalizing content and targeting ads.
• Competing for time, not clicks. You’re fighting for screen time against social media, streaming giants, mobile apps, and the list goes on. Products help you win that attention.

B2B Products

On the other side are data, intelligence, and SaaS solutions targeted at different businesses. Why they work:

• Offering access to high-value data. Many media companies have vast, high-quality datasets that businesses are willing to pay a premium for.
• Thriving on predictable, sticky revenue. B2B contracts are generally more stable than the volatile consumer market. Once a business integrates your reporting tool or data feed into their daily workflow, your service becomes indispensable.
• Expanding industry influence. Data products can position your media company as a critical player in sectors such as finance, energy, and healthcare. This is far beyond traditional publishing.

What Complementary Products Media Companies Create to Diversify Revenue Streams?

Diversifying revenue means thinking beyond the published article. Media leaders multiply their income by launching entire product ecosystems, either by building new tools from scratch or acquiring existing ones.

For example, in 2022, the New York Times famously acquired the viral hit Wordle to anchor its gaming suite and increase digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025. All that, instead of waiting to develop a similar phenomenon in-house.

Regardless of whether you build from the ground up or buy your way in, these are the most successful product categories for media monetization:

Games & Entertainment Products

Games are a habit-forming product. Unlike news, which audiences consume selectively, puzzles, quizzes, and other interactive experiences provide a soft touchpoint that brings users back every single day. This creates a routine that news alone cannot sustain.

The benchmarks:

• Guardian Puzzles. Integrated directly into the Guardian app, this growing suite includes crosswords, puzzles, a daily football quiz, and a film-guessing game. The Guardian app reports around 1 million daily active users, with puzzles playing a major role in repeat engagement.
• The New York Times’ Games. A massive hub with 10,000 puzzles, featuring Wordle, Spelling Bee, Pips, Sudoku, crosswords, tiles, and beyond. In Q2 2024, the Games app generated $11.2 million in global in-app purchase revenue. It has turned the NYT into a daily ritual for millions who may not even read the front page.

Exoft’s expertise:
We know the mechanics of digital engagement. As part of our app modernization project for a leading national lottery and instant games provider, Exoft delivered UI/UX design in just two months and a working iOS prototype within six. This brought together traditional paper tickets and a convenient, mobile-first experience.

Lifestyle Apps

Lifestyle apps move the brand from “something I read” to “something I use to get things done.” Often found in the travel, food, and fitness niches, these help users plan, organize, or improve their daily lives. This could be anything from personalized meal plans to travel itinerary creation.

The benchmarks:

• GuideGeek by Matador Network. An AI-driven travel genius that helps users plan itineraries, get travel recommendations, and find hidden gems, turning Matador from a travel magazine into a full-fledged travel service.
• Good Food Recipe App by BBC. Combines over 17,000 recipes, meal planning, cooking tips, and organization tools. It transforms editorial food content into a subscription-driven product.
• Women’s Health and Men’s Health Apps by Hearst UK. Launched as part of membership offerings, these apps offer exclusive training plans, wellness advice, weekly newsletters, and more. They move the magazine from the “reading about fitness” mindset to actually achieving fitness.

Exoft’s expertise:

We build for the explorer.

In our project for Trip LV, a Latvian startup, we created a custom iOS road trip planning app from scratch. This value-added product development enabled adventurers to optimize, customize, and share routes with friends.

For a Canadian company, we took over the existing codebase to build a climbing planning app and launch it on the App Store and Google Play Store. We developed everything climbers may need to stay efficient and safe on the route, from an informational portal to interactive topo maps.

Audio & Streaming Products

Audio products allow media companies to own more of the listening experience, rather than simply handing their audiences over to third-party platforms like Spotify. The options include podcasts, live radio, audiobooks, and other audio content. They’re especially handy when screens aren’t available: during commutes, workouts, or chores.

The benchmarks:

• ARD Audiothek. Germany’s ARD network created an audio platform that combines live radio streams, exclusive podcasts, audiobooks, and radio plays in one place.
• BBC Sounds. Currently available only in the UK, the BBC’s audio product offers exclusive, award-winning podcasts. They reached a record 4.8 million weekly users in 2024.

Education & Professional Learning Platforms

If you’re a reputable media brand, you already excel at explaining complex topics clearly. This ability, combined with your unique domain expertise, entitles you to value-added product development in learning and education. Products may include courses, professional certifications, and interactive learning.

The benchmarks:

• Discovery Education. A full-scale learning platform offering videos, interactive lessons, and curriculum-aligned resources grounded in Discovery’s media content, widely adopted in schools.
• BBC Bitesize. A long-running educational platform supporting students, their parents, and teachers with revision tools, videos, and interactive learning experiences.

We developed a web-based solution that provides easy access to economic education. It features an e-learning platform, news, publications, videos, and podcasts, basically everything required for comprehensive studying.

Commerce & Recommendation Products

If your readers trust your editorial voice, they will trust your product recommendations. You can integrate shopping directly into your website. This way, your audience will move from mere reading about a product to purchasing it directly.

The benchmarks:

• The Strategist by Vox Media. A product recommendation engine curated by trustworthy journalists.
• Editorialist. A luxury e-commerce platform combining interviews, trend reports, and video content with direct shopping, allowing users to buy the trends they just read about.

Exoft’s expertise:
Our team built a recommendation engine for selecting hearing loop setups and amplifiers. The system considers plenty of variables, including loop length, wall distance, room configuration, and beyond, to suggest the best setup possible.

Data, Insight & Intelligence Solutions

Data, insight, and intelligence products represent a shift from audience scale to business scale. You, as a media company, hold a ton of information that you can package into databases, analytics tools, or decision-support platforms, and ultimately sell those to other businesses.

The benchmarks:

• Bloomberg Terminal. A gold standard for B2B media products, combining real-time financial data, news, analytics, trading, and workflow tools. It’s deeply ingrained in professional decision-making and is therefore extremely difficult to replace.
• LexisNexis by RELX. RELX successfully shifted from a print publisher to a global data and analytics leader. Their product, LexisNexis, provides legal, regulatory, and business intelligence powered by advanced search and AI. In fact, the company has already launched over 15 AI products.

Exoft’s expertise:
Our client, a global media group reaching over a million readers in 17 countries, needed us to support their mission-critical integration engine and centralized databases. We optimized microservices, modernized engine components, provided database management and other services to ensure the entire ecosystem stays synced.

Productivity & Workflow Tools

The ultimate level of “stickiness” is becoming the software that other companies use to run their business. This may include communication tools, planning systems, and workflow management platforms. Essentially, you turn your internal media expertise (a specific editorial style, content planning framework, and the like) into SaaS.

The benchmarks:

• Axios HQ. Spun out from Axios’ Smart Brevity editorial approach, Axios HQ helps organizations improve internal communication using structured updates and newsletters.
• Associated Press Workflow Solutions. Tools designed for story planning, scriptwriting, publishing coordination, and broadcast workflows. Built by journalists, already trusted by over 700 newsrooms globally.

Exoft’s expertise: We helped our client, a media business with over 1 million readers, modernize their enterprise app platform. The delivered solution allows for planning, managing, and analyzing media campaigns with unmatched efficiency and scale.

How Do Media Companies Monetize These Complementary Products? Common Models

Let’s say you have a product. How do you price it? Well, most media companies bundle products with content, rather than selling them in isolation. Yet, there are plenty of other media business models you may want to consider. Here are the most effective ones:

• Bundled offers. This is the dominant model. Instead of asking a reader to pay for news and then pay again for a puzzle app, you offer it all under a single subscription. So, even if a subscriber stops reading the news, they’ll likely keep their subscription active just to continue solving the puzzles.
• Pay-per-use. Sometimes, a full subscription is a high barrier to entry. That’s where charging a small fee for the actual use works best. This may include a single report, download, feature unlock, or session.
• Freemium-to-paid pipeline (for B2B). Many media companies use a “hook” with their products. They offer a basic version of a tool for free, then charge for advanced functionality. This builds trust before actually asking for commitment.
• SaaS subscription (for B2B). This is the most predictable revenue model. For B2B products, such as analytics platforms, dashboards, and workflow tools, the media brand acts as a traditional software company. This means the product is typically sold on a per-seat or enterprise license basis.
• Separate brands. Occasionally, a product becomes so successful that it earns its own identity. A great example is Goodful by BuzzFeed. Standalone products allow you to reach audiences outside the core media brand and establish independent pricing and positioning.

The Technology Layer Behind Scalable Media Products

Value-added product development starts with an idea. But even the best concept will fail if there’s no proper technical foundation behind it. Here’s why it matters and why involving an IT vendor early might change everything:

• Media products depend on complex ecosystems. Most value-added products must integrate with CMS, subscriptions, CRM, payments, analytics, and ad platforms. This requires integration-ready architectures, well-structured databases, and sometimes dedicated integration engines.
• Product value comes from data. Games, apps, and platforms generate rich first-party data. Yet, it only delivers value when it’s properly collected, structured, and analyzed, backed up by a strong data architecture.
• Scaling introduces real technical risk. As products grow, traffic spikes, risks of outages, and transaction failures become real threats. A tech partner helps design for stability, performance, and high availability.

Besides that, partnering with an IT company like ours from the start pays off in many other ways. First, value-added development becomes faster with fewer reworks as your product scales. Second, vendors suggest a tech stack, architecture, and other tools for your specific media setup. Finally, they keep supporting and extending your product post-release as they already know your solution inside out.

Conclusion

Product development works in media only when it’s treated as what it truly is: a long-term commitment, not a “side project.” To succeed, you need to invest early, decide on a suitable monetization model, and build (or buy) products with a clear purpose inside a broader ecosystem.

Just as importantly, you should combine three critical components:

• Editorial experience that builds trust.
• Deep user research that shapes habits.
• Strong technical expertise that turns ideas into tangible products.

That last component is precisely where Exoft can help. With proven experience in custom product engineering, platform development, and mobile solutions for enterprise-scale media companies, we transition media brands from a content-first mindset to a product-led growth approach.

Need help with digital transformation in media? Reach out to us.