Inside the Next Chapter of Media: A Conversation with Chartbeat CEO, John Saroff 

Few people have watched the media industry reinvent itself from as many angles as John Saroff. Before his role as CEO of Chartbeat, Inc., he led strategic partnership development for TV ads at Google and content acquisition at NBCUniversal. These experiences gave him a front-row seat to both the content and advertising sides of the media industry. He’s brought that unique perspective to Chartbeat for nearly 13 years, helping the world’s leading media companies navigate the biggest shifts the industry has seen in decades.

We sat down with him to talk about where the media industry is headed, how Chartbeat is laying the foundation for the future, and what 25-plus years inside the industry has taught him along the way.

You have a unique vantage point over the industry through your relationships at Chartbeat, Inc. What are the critical themes and pain points that you’re hearing from media clients today?

Thirty years ago, if you wanted to hear about the president, you’d read your local newspaper or watch your local TV station. Now, that information is available with a variety of cable networks or ad-supported streaming channels like Tubi, the Roku channel, and Pluto. So, a lot of media companies are thinking about how that affects the delivery of information. Others are also thinking about how information delivery via ad-supported YouTube changes the equation for them, too. 

But what our most successful clients are doing is figuring out what differentiates them and investing in that from both a content, creative, and monetization perspective. For example, the Financial Times might lean into content that business leaders and world leaders use to make decisions and pair that with a subscription strategy. Outlets with mass audiences like USA Today would pair their content with an advertising strategy. 

Another one of the things I’m hearing about is media companies getting more sophisticated around matching their content strategy with their monetization strategy. They’re thinking about all the different kinds of monetization that are available to them — whether that’s ad revenue, subscription revenue, or affiliate revenue — and making sure how they reach audiences and how they monetize is more tightly aligned than it’s ever been before.

That makes a lot of sense – you need to identify where your value proposition actually is and then align your content and monetization strategy. Once a publisher determines their value proposition, how should they think about driving demand and building direct relationships with their audience?

Media companies have to think like marketers and ask, ‘What’s my ideal customer profile? What are my top of the funnel strategies for attracting new readers?’ Not every inbound reader is going to be a subscriber or a loyalist, so how do you convert them from new, to returning, to loyal? That’s something we’ve been really focused on for the last 15 years at Chartbeat. 

We know the single biggest predictor of whether or not somebody’s going to come back to a site after their first visit is the amount of time they spend actively engaged with the content. If you segment those users, give them unique experiences, and guide them through the reader journey, that’s an opportunity to build that direct relationship and turn them into a loyalist. 

And that’s something that we help with. We help you understand which pieces of content attract new readers and loyalists, which content drives conversions and ad revenue, and what formats are performing the best. That same focus on loyalty and direct relationships is also at the center of our approach to helping media companies navigate what’s next. 

I’d love to expand on that — tell us how Chartbeat, Inc. is helping media companies prepare for the future. 

Back in the days when there was a durable distribution advantage, it was okay for content teams and revenue teams to be siloed. If you owned a newspaper, a cable network, or even a strong position in search and social, distribution was relatively predictable.

Now, media companies are trying to appeal to advertisers more and compete in a world against everybody who’s looking for advertiser revenue. For that reason, the content team and the ads team being on the same page is more important than ever before. At Chartbeat, Inc., we have an ambition to forge that connection through data so teams can work together from the same numbers and make decisions in the same way.

Speaking of revenue, tighter alignment between content and monetization is also shaping how media companies prepare for the impact of AI. What revenue opportunities are you seeing come out of these major industry shifts?

One of the things we’re thinking about at Chartbeat, Inc. is what media companies should be doing to prepare for AI’s impact. There are three practical actions you can take right now: first, audit AI crawler activity. Know which bots are accessing your content, what they are accessing, and whether you are receiving any meaningful traffic or value in return. 

Second, clean up your metadata. This sounds operational, but it matters. Clear headlines, canonical URLs, publish dates, update dates, authors, sections, tags, and structured data all help you understand, package, protect, and monetize your content. 

Third, evaluate commercial options like direct licensing, marketplaces, cooperatives, standards-based licensing, or more restrictive access models. 

Some content may be worth making available to AI. Some may be worth licensing. Some may be worth protecting. Some may be worth packaging differently. The publishers that thrive will make deliberate decisions based on the value of their content, the exposure they’re seeking, and the leverage they have. 

What about when it comes to monetizing content and their owned and operated experience? Is there anything you’re seeing internally or advising customers to pay attention to there?

I think there’s a lot of fear around AI, but one of the things that we found is that even though the bots create a lot of traffic, they aren’t taking it away. We’re seeing this shift where Google and Facebook referrals have dropped and bots have increased. But if you take out all the bots, the amount of user traffic is basically the same as it has been for the last couple of years.  And I would bet going into midterms, the 2028 presidential election, and the summer Olympics, that traffic is going to go up in the next couple years.

But what do you do with that traffic? One of the strategies that I find really interesting is the New York Times allowing unlimited gift articles for subscribers. A disproportionate amount of traffic is shifting into private groups like iMessage, Android, WhatsApp, and private Facebook groups, and if a paywalled article is dropped in a group chat, the New York Times can’t access potential new subscribers. Whereas, if they make gift articles free, and those articles are dropped in a group chat, they are actually creating a marketing angle. 

And I actually think that’s a pretty smart way of thinking about it because when you see your friend has sent you something and you click it only to get a paywall, it’s frustrating. But if they keep sending you articles you can access, you might think, ‘Oh, all of my friends are consuming content from this outlet. Should I also get a subscription?’

Throughout your career, you’ve held leadership roles at media and advertising companies like Google and NBCU, and that experience has clearly shaped how you lead today. What are some of the lessons you’ve learned that you’d pass on to the next generation of media leaders?

The dimension of competition has really changed. One of the things I remember about my time at NBC was that it was an incredibly competitive place. It wasn’t cutthroat internally, but it was competitive in the sense that we wanted to be the number one network. And the thing that animated everyone was winning that. If you came into NBC on the Monday after Sunday Night Football, the entire company felt good about ratings. The ad team felt good about it, the creatives and producers felt good about it. 

Today, you’re no longer just competing with other networks. You’re competing with every single way that humans can spend their time. So, understanding the full dimension of your competition and establishing the unique strength that you have as a media leader is key. 

The next chapter of media belongs to companies that connect content, distribution, and revenue. Find out how Chartbeat, Inc. helps you get there.