The Hurdles Ahead: Publishers Rank Digital Media Challenges For 2025 (New Report)

It’s healthy to balance excitement for a new year with a realistic grasp on the challenges ahead.

And for publishers looking ahead at 2025, the top challenge are consistently inconsistent, with varied answers touching upon audience development, ad delivery, and more.

In its 2025 Industry Pulse Report, Integral Ad Science and YouGov found that four challenges each received 29% of the nods when publishers and platforms were asked to choose the major digital media challenges they anticipated in the next 12 months.

Top Anticipated Media Challenges for Publishers and Platforms (Photo Source: IAS)

The top-ranking challenges were providing scaled audience extension, delivering ads alongside risky content, monetizing both with and without social platforms, and contextual targeting. For advertisers, agencies, and ad tech, the top anticipated challenges were ads delivering alongside risky content (31%) and ad fraud (30%).

“When analyzing by company type, advertisers in particular expressed concern with delivering ads alongside risky content (39%) and deepfakes (31%),” the report says. “Assessment of campaign results will remain a top challenge, especially for advertisers (33%), which highlights the importance of clear and actionable results data.”