Newsletters keep outperforming. Events beat ads. And only 9% of media teams actually use their audience data.

Omeda's State of Audience 2026, a survey of media and publishing pros:
— 67% call newsletters a top growth driver
— 68% say newsletters are their best retention tactic
— 55% missed ad revenue goals; 63% met event revenue goals
— 9% say they use audience data extremely effectively

The 9% is the story. Everyone else runs data theater — dashboards that produce no decisions.

https://www.omeda.com/resources/reports/state-of-audience-2026/