The Publishing Revenue Audit
A 14-day diagnostic for lifestyle publishing CEOs. Five pillars: subscription economics, list health, partner programs, distribution, and advertiser monetization. We doubled subscription revenue at Bourbon Review in 6 months and grew bulk +250% through 16 strategic partnerships. If we cannot identify at least $50,000 in annualized partner revenue and bulk-program opportunity, you do not pay.
List growth has stalled. Open rates are creeping down. ARPU is flat. Month-2 churn is doing the damage and nobody owns the curve.
200 affiliates and resellers. Most send nothing. The 10 partners doing real volume have no formal program. Bulk and corporate inquiries hit a generic email and lose 3 days before someone answers.
Sponsorship rates haven't moved in years. CPMs are below category. The audience density is real but the rate card hasn't caught up.
What We Audit
Each pillar produces a written findings section with sized opportunities. Take all five, or scope to a single pillar if you already know which silo is leaking.
Subscriber growth, churn, and ARPU by cohort. Month-2 churn diagnosis (the killer). Onboarding sequence audit. Pricing and tier ladder. Output: a sized retention play and an ARPU-lift recommendation.
List quality scorecard. Deliverability and segment depth. Engagement-recency segmentation. Dormant value recovery sized in dollars. Lapsed-reader reactivation. SMS opportunity sizing.
Affiliate roster audit (the 200 with no volume vs the 10 doing real work). Partner program design. Bulk and corporate inquiry routing. Distribution partner economics. Output: a partner program ready to deploy.
Distribution channel audit (direct, retail, wholesale, international). Channel economics ranking. Geographic expansion opportunities. International market sizing where relevant. Output: a distribution rebalancing plan.
Sponsorship rate card audit against category benchmarks. Advertiser inventory gap analysis. CPM uplift opportunities by audience density. Native and integrated content monetization. Output: a sized rate-card revision and inventory expansion plan.
A sized opportunity list adding to at least $50K in annualized partner and bulk-program revenue. A 90-day action plan. A 60-minute walkthrough call. Every dollar figure sourced and sequenced.
Fixed fee
$7,500
14-day engagement. All five pillars. Single-pillar scope available.
Diagnostic fee credits toward the first month if you upgrade to a retainer within 14 days.
Book the AuditInside the Diagnostic, my team and I will identify at least $50,000 in annualized partner revenue and bulk-program opportunity across your existing distribution, advertiser relationships, and audience. If we cannot identify that much, you do not pay. We doubled subscription revenue at Bourbon Review in 6 months and grew bulk +250% through 16 strategic partnerships. That is what backs this number.
Mechanics: full refund of the $7,500 fee on guarantee miss. The Diagnostic Data Charter (signed at kickoff) defines the data inputs we need: ESP read access (subscriber list, send history, ARPU by segment), current advertiser and partnership inventory, distribution channel list, and last 12 months of bulk-program revenue. Without the charter intact, the guarantee is voided. The guarantee is on identification, not execution. If we identify the opportunities and you choose not to act, you still pay.
Process
Day 1
Kickoff call. Sign the Diagnostic Data Charter. Read-access to ESP, advertiser inventory, partnership roster, distribution channels, and 12 months of bulk-program revenue. Without the charter intact within 5 business days, the guarantee voids and the engagement converts to best-efforts.
Days 2 to 4
My team and I tear down subscription cohorts, lifecycle programs, partner roster, and advertiser inventory. Layer subscription ARPU against acquisition source. Reconcile bulk-program revenue against where the inquiries came from.
Days 5 to 7
Each opportunity gets a dollar number, a level of effort, and a 90-day path to capture. Nothing makes the list unless I can defend the dollar number on a phone call.
Days 8 to 11
Three to five revenue actions, sized, sequenced, with a named owner next to each one. Partner program design. Advertiser rate-card revision. Lifecycle deployment plan. Measurement scorecard tied to revenue per subscriber and partner revenue.
Days 12 to 14
Written audit delivered. 60-minute walkthrough call (working session, not a deck-and-disappear handoff). Q&A and revisions. You decide: take the plan in-house, hire us for an Implementation Sprint, or upgrade to a retainer. The plan is yours either way.
We do not push for any one of them. The audit is yours either way. If you upgrade to any retainer tier within 14 days of the walkthrough, the Diagnostic fee credits toward the first month.
Option A
Your team executes. We hand off the audit, the action plan, and the data references. Many publishers choose this path. The audit is yours.
Option B
A 30-day fixed-scope sprint to ship the top 3 audit findings (typically: partner program launch, lifecycle build, advertiser rate-card revision). Best when you want validated lift before committing longer.
Option C
When the audit surfaces structural work (subscription program rebuild, advertiser sales overhaul, distribution restructure) that takes more than 30 days. Senior ownership of the marketing and revenue function.
Not a fit: pre-launch publications, brands without an existing audience or distribution surface, B2B SaaS founders, or organizations unwilling to share the data inputs in the Diagnostic Data Charter.
Book a 30-minute call. We confirm fit, walk through the Diagnostic Data Charter, and scope to all five pillars or a single one.