Atlas Obscura, on Pace to $24M, Finds Profitability Through Brand Partnerships

Travel publisher Atlas Obscura posted its first profitable quarter in company history this spring and is on pace to generate $24 million in revenue by the end of the year, according to chief executive Warren Webster.

The title owes its commercial success in part to a brand partnership business that blossomed, improbably, during the pandemic, which is now on pace to make up 63% of its 2023 revenue.

Webster, who joined Atlas Obscura in March 2020, helped expand the company into the brand partnerships space, a decision that has increased revenue by 300% since the pandemic.

In particular, the publisher has focused on working with destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and tourism boards, whose ad spend constitutes 90% of its brand partnership business.

“We now know that we have nailed the business model and that it works for our community and our partners,” Webster said. “Now we are focused on scaling it up.”

While the rapid evolution of the digital media ecosystem has turned industry darlings like Vice Media and BuzzFeed Inc. into cautionary tales, niche publishers with diversified revenue streams, high-intent audiences and fiscal discipline have proven resilient.

The newly profitable Atlas Obscura joins a growing cadre of publishers, including the review site Gear Patrol and the lifestyle title Betches Media, in finding commercial success amid an otherwise depressed economy by tending to—and monetizing—a readership it has cultivated methodically over more than a decade, according to media analyst and newsletter author Simon Owens. 

The three companies reflect the replicable, although decidedly unglamorous blueprint for sustainability in digital media, according to Owens.

“They have attracted valuable, loyal audiences and kept their overhead in alignment with their business models,” he said. “That gave them time to find product-market fit without needing to take shortcuts.”

Growing its advertising business

Atlas Obscura generates revenue through three primary businesses: advertising, a curated experiences offering and a grab bag of brand extensions.

In 2019, its $5 million in revenue came almost equally from a smattering of smaller brand partnerships and its experiences business, the latter of which the company saw as its primary offering.

However, following its pandemic pivot, the company has grown its revenue by almost 50% every year by prioritizing brand partnerships, according to Webster.

In 2020, it generated roughly $6 million in total revenue, followed by $11 million in 2021 and $17 million in 2022. This year, it is on pace to bring in $24 million in total earnings, roughly $15 million of which will come from brand partnerships.

While Atlas Obscura has not substantially expanded its 55-person staff since 2020, it has increased the headcount of its sales team from five to 17 and made greater use of freelancers to produce its editorial and branded content.

The sales staff sells packages—often to DMOs and tourism boards—that can include custom video, native content and itineraries, social promotion and newsletter placements. The publisher recently resigned a seven-figure deal with a DMO in Texas to promote some of its lesser-known cities, and its video series, Small Town, Big Story, has secured a second season of sponsorship from the tourism firm Brand USA.

Meanwhile, display media on the Atlas Obscura website, which has a total reach of about 10 million monthly visitors, contributes only a small portion of its advertising revenue—between $400,000 and $500,000 in 2023, according to Webster.

Alongside its advertising operation, the publisher generates about $4 million from its bespoke experiences business and around $5 million from podcasting, book publishing and entertainment projects—including an upcoming venture in partnership with the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground. 

The company generated roughly $1 million in net income in Q2 and is on pace to post profits in Q3 and Q4.

“We had, by design, been burning seven figures a quarter in an effort to grow,” Webster said. “We set out in mid-2022 to become profitable and hoped to do so by the end of 2023, but we have happily hit that milestone ahead of schedule.”