Boston Globe Media nearly doubled bostonglobe.com revenue year over year—without compromising the reader experience its subscribers expect. What began as a focused engagement on bostonmagazine.com grew into a full-funnel partnership across BGM’s flagship properties, with Freestar taking on programmatic yield so BGM could stay focused on journalism, subscriptions, and its direct-sold business.
The Brief
For over 150 years, Boston Globe Media (BGM) has built a legacy of trust to become one of America’s most decorated news organizations, now boasting the largest digital subscriber base of any metro news company in the country. BGM’s durable success is a direct result of its focus on its core mission: best-in-class news-gathering operations, compelling storytelling, and serving its dedicated community of readers and subscribers.
For a premium publisher like BGM, the challenge wasn’t simply increasing revenue; it was how to grow it thoughtfully. They needed a partner who could balance a world-class, subscription-first user experience with a sophisticated, high-performing programmatic advertising strategy.
The goal: enhance monetization without distracting from the mission, compromising site performance, or disrupting a substantial direct-sold business — with a partner who understood the prestige of the brand and the absolute importance of reader experience.
The Solution
Freestar acted as a true extension of the BGM team. The partnership began with a focused engagement on bostonmagazine.com. That early success — built on trust and tangible results — became the proof point for a much broader opportunity, expanding to flagship properties boston.com and bostonglobe.com to create a full-funnel partnership.
- Yield optimization: A sophisticated, data-driven approach delivered significant gains in programmatic revenue and RPM — proving a premium user experience and powerful monetization can coexist and thrive.
- Collaborative strategy: Rather than a simple, hands-off ad management solution, Freestar worked hand-in-hand with the BGM team to design a thoughtful deployment of highly monetized ad units that respected BGM’s brand and reader experience.
- Operational excellence: By taking on the complexity of programmatic yield management, Freestar freed the BGM team to focus on its core strengths: world-class journalism and growing its subscription and audience base.
“We wanted a partner that could work side-by-side with our team and bring extensive monetization expertise to the unique pressures digital publishers face today. With Freestar, we found a proven partner with deep news experience — knowing our indirect/programmatic ad revenue is in capable hands lets us keep our attention on our direct advertising and sponsorship business, subscriptions, our audience, and the community-focused journalism our readers depend on.”
Angus Macaulay · Chief Commercial Officer · Boston Globe Media
The Results
Performance outpaced forecast from day one — without ad clutter. In the first few months of the full partnership, the thoughtful deployment of strategic ad units drove a 99% YoY revenue jump for bostonglobe.com and 24% YoY for boston.com. In its first full month, bostonglobe.com reached 200% of forecasted revenue, and daily programmatic revenue climbed 50% across June.
Why It Matters
BGM proves premium UX and powerful monetization go hand in hand. A subscription-first publisher can grow programmatic revenue meaningfully while protecting site performance, its direct-sold business, and the experience its readers depend on.
“Balancing subscription growth with advertising performance is one of the biggest challenges in publishing, and it’s exactly where we do our best work. Freestar is committed to providing a premium revenue stream while making sure Globe readers get the high-quality experience they’ve grown to expect.”
John Ilacqua · EVP of Growth & Publisher Development · Freestar
Join the World’s Most Trusted Publishers
See why industry leaders like Fortune Media and The Associated Press trust Freestar to power their growth
