Revenue Management: #9 Revenue Recognition in Media & Publishing

Revenue Management: #9 Revenue Recognition in Media & Publishing

   

Media & Publishing industry has evolved in recent times. It offers subscriptions, bundles digital and print access, runs sponsored content, and sometimes even sells ad spaces. If you run a media or publishing business, you will always get into a situation where you get paid in advance, but how do you determine what part of the money is earned today versus what needs to be deferred for the future? Can you recognize all of them upfront? Or should it spread across issues or impressions?

How do publishers and media platforms handle revenue?      

Revenue Recognition Scenarios in Media & Publishing

Subscriptions, advertising contracts, bundled content, and sponsored campaigns often complicate revenue recognition in media and publishing. Though accounting guidelines like ASC 606 and IFRS 15 apply, how you use them varies based on how you deliver content.


Subscription Revenue

When a customer pays for a weekly, monthly, or annual subscription, the revenue must be spread across the subscription period, as content is delivered over time rather than upfront.


Example: A $120 annual magazine subscription should be recognized at $10 monthly over 12 months.

Bundled Offerings

You may offer print+digital access, or magazine+e-book bundles. Each component should be recognized separately based on delivery schedules and relative values.


Example: A $240 subscription includes $180 of weekly print magazines and $60 for e-book access. Revenue is recognized $15/month for print and $60 once access is granted.

Advertising Revenue

Advertising may be sold per issue, impressions, or based on clicks. You can recognize revenue only after delivery of an impression or publication, not when the ad is sold or paid for.


Example: A $5000 ad campaign for 1,00,000 impressions recognizes revenue only as impressions are delivered (say $500 for every 10,000)

Sponsored Content or Paid Articles

Sponsored stories or influencer placements should be recognized on publication date or campaign completion, depending on the agreement.


Example: A $2000-paid article is published on July 5th, and revenue is recognized on the same day.

Cancellations & Refunds

If a subscriber cancels mid-cycle and gets a partial refund, revenue must be adjusted with only the earned portion as recognized.


Example: $120 yearly subscription cancelled after 3 months. Only $30 will be considered recognized.

These scenarios highlight how delivery, not payment, drives revenue recognition. With multiple formats and monetisation models in place, manual revenue recognition handling is a huge task prone to errors and misstatements.

Info
Scenario: 

Your publishing company sells an annual subscription package at $240. This subscription covers weekly print magazine work of $15 and on-demand access to the digital library, which is valued at $60. The customer pays upfront on the 1st of January.  

Zoho Billing for Media Revenue Recognition


Publishers and content creators will be able to work with Zoho Billing to define revenue recognition rules based on content delivery and access architecture.

For the scenario above, you may go with the following revenue recognition rule configuration,

Component

Recognition Frequency

Recognition Method

Recognition Time

Print Magazines

Monthly

Evenly Distributed Prorated

Period Start

Digital Library

Once

One-Time (Daily)

Period Start

 

Even though the $240 is received upfront, revenue must be split evenly for the subscription-based service.


Reports in Zoho Billing
Let's say you are checking the reports during March.

i) Recognized Revenue Report

Component

Recognized Revenue

Description

Digital Library

$60

Fully recognized on the subscription start date

Print Magazine

$45

$15x3 issues delivered

Total Recognized

$105

recognized at the end of three months

 

ii) Deferred Revenue Report

After three months of offering, nine print issues are still pending delivery.


Component

Deferred Amount

Digital Library

$0

Print Magazine

$135 (9 months of deliverables)

Total Deferred

$135

 

iii) Revenue Waterfall Report


Month

Digital Library

Print Magazine

Total

Month 1

$60

$15

$75

Month 2

----

$15

$15

Month 3

----

$15

$15

Month 4 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 5 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 6 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 7 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 8 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 9 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 10 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 11 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Month 12 (upcoming)

----

$15

$15

Total (after 3 months)

$60

$45

$105

 

Only at the end of one year will the full payment you received be considered recognized revenue.

Idea

Best Practices for the Media Industry while recognizing revenue

  • Break Down Subscriptions: Separate print, digital, access, ads, and events into individual deliverables.

  • Match Revenue to Delivery: Recognize only when issues go out, impressions are served, or access granted.

  • Account for Returns & Refund: Handle cancellations by adjusting the deferred revenue schedules automatically.

  • Monitor Reports Monthly: Revenue Waterfall and Deferred reports ensure timely recognition tracking. 
Notes
Up Next: Common Mistakes while Recognizing Revenue
    • Sticky Posts

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

      Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's
    • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you
    • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most
    • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Social Media Simplified with Zoho Social: Preview your Instagram grid before posting

        For a platform like Instagram that relies on visual appeal, it's important that you plan your image and video content in a way that holds your audience's attention. Planning your grid ahead of time gives you the benefit of understanding how your posts
      • Spreadsheet View click & focus issue in Arabic (RTL) localization

        Hello Zoho Support Team, I am facing an issue in Zoho Creator Spreadsheet View when using Arabic localization (RTL). Scenario: My app supports English (LTR) and Arabic (RTL). I created a Spreadsheet View for a form. In English, everything works correctly.
      • VAT rates - exempt and out of scope

        Good Evening, UK based company here. I am a bit confused in respect of setting up VAT rates for exempt goods and services; at present I am simply leaving the VAT rate blank in the transactions in order to prevent any VAT appearing in the VAT return. When
      • How to loop through Multiple Upload and Display Actual File Name

        I have been reading the help on the File Upload Control and reviewed the Deluge help on files and I can not figure out how to loop through the uploaded files and do anything but get the automatically created file names. The code below will run but each
      • abou arattai

        I want to use the Arattai app for business purposes, so please convert my account to a business account.I have my own invoice app, and I want to link it with the Arattai app for direct messaging.
      • Overlapping Reports in Dashboards

        It's rare, but occasionally it would be a good feature if I were able to overlap reports, either fully or partially in the Dashboards. Also, then having the ability to move objects to the front or rear, or make them transparent/translucent would be good
      • Looking back at Zoho Calendar in 2025

        Hello Zoho Calendar Community, As we step into a brand-new year, we’d like to take a moment to thank you for being an active and valued part of the Zoho Calendar community. Your trust, feedback, and continued engagement motivate us to keep evolving and
      • There was an error while connecting to GSTN

        I am trying to file GSTR1. Everything flows smoothly until I reach the final step of filing the return. After I enter the PAN and OTP for filing it raises the error "There was an error while connecting to GSTN"
      • Zoho Books Extension: What Happens If Custom Fields Already Exist?

        When developing Zoho Books extensions, what happens if the target Zoho Books organization already has a custom field with the same API name as one defined in the extension? I’m asking because we originally created an on-Books version of this functionality,
      • Internal Server Error (500) When Attempting to View Banking Transactions

        I am experiencing an Internal Server Error (500) when attempting to view transactions across all of my banking accounts. Despite multiple attempts to resolve this, I have received little more than runaround from support, and the issue remains unresolved.
      • How do I add a blank line to the Organisation Address Format?

        I'd like to have my VAT number, for example, shown prominently by having a clear gap between it and the address block above, but any blank lines in the address format get ignored in PDF outputs.
      • Automatic Invoice Number generation for createRecord

        Hello, while testing some custom Buttons in my Zoho Books application, I noticed that I get an error that previously did not occur. After some further digging I found that the automatic transaction numbering of invoices no longer work in my organization.
      • Adding number of days to an estimate.

        I need both QTY of item and "number of days hire" in my estimates at the line item level. Any clues as to how this is done would be greatly appreciated. It needs to calculate. Thanks J
      • Books Api: listing expenses created after certain dates

        Is there any parameter I can add to the List Expenses endpoint that will let me look up expenses by when they were created?
      • Why can't we change the Account type from an Expense to an Asset?

        Like the question. Why in QuickBooks for example if I mistakenly created an account as an expenses and I already captured information in those accounts, I can just change the account type from expense to asset
      • Is it possible to do validation for the Actions added to Reports?

        We have an all-around On Validate function that checks all the possibilities before the Created/Edited form submissions. We want to have a button in the report view, so we can change records without entering. We are able to add this button, and it does
      • Ability to Edit Ticket Subject when Splitting a Ticket

        Often someone will make an additional or new request within an existing ticket that requires we split the ticket. The annoying part is that the new ticket maintains the subject of the original ticket after the split so when the new ticket email notification
      • [Free Webinar] Environments in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

        Hello Everyone, We’re delighted to kick off the 2026 edition of the Zoho Creator Tech Connect Series and are excited to continue this learning journey with you. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar featuring deep-dive technical sessions
      • Zoho Voice API SMS

        I made a post request in Zapier to try to send an SMS. Authentication appears to be configured correctly. I followed the documentation and I'm getting a 400 Error "Internal Server Error". Not helpful at all. Anyways, I could not find any information on
      • How do I change (error) display messages

        Hi! I would like to edit display messages like "invalid entries" and "enter a value for Nome" and so on into Italian language messages. How can I do that? Already tried on Validate on form submit. Where I am failing? Thanks in advance.
      • Record Overseas Transactions Along with CC charges

        Hi All, We receive payments via stripe in multiple currencies and stripe takes around 2.5% fees. The amount is settled in INR into our local bank. What should be the currency of the income account used for Stripe payments? Here is a sample flow that we
      • Easier onboarding for new users with stage descriptions

        Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a recent enhancement we've made to Bigin. You can now add descriptions to the stages in your pipeline. Previously, when creating a pipeline, you could only add stages. With this update,
      • Pieds de page personnalisé - Document Zoho Writer

        Bonjour à tous, Je rencontre un souci avec l’ajout d’un pied de page personnalisé dans un document Zoho Writer. Je souhaite insérer les informations de mon entreprise (notamment un logo + adresse) dans le pied de page. Le problème, c’est que lorsque j’ajoute
      • Permissions on Views

        Having the option of any agent creating custom views is firing back and got a situation where there are a hundred different views across the team and tickets are not being dealt in the most efficient of ways. Tickets seems to be missed by some agents,
      • Credit card transactions are backwards after importing statements

        I am new to Zoho Books so I'm importing my firm's bank and credit card statements in. My credit card statements have a single column with negative numbers so that is the option I chose. But when I went to categorize the credit card transactions, I can
      • import data from Apollo.ai into zoho crm via zoho flow

        I might be asking this question in the wrong forum. We use Apollo.ai to find potential new leads for our business, there are around 10000 leads that we have initially found. We have an Apollo.ai account but just to do searches, we dont use it as a crm.
      • Knowledgebase SEO

        We have a custom-domain mapped help center that is not restricted via login. I have some questions: a) will a robots.txt file still allow us to control indexing? b) do we have the ability to edit the sitemap? c) do category URLs get indexed by search
      • VIsual maindmaps in Zoho notebook Ai

        Can I create and export VIsual maindmaps in Zoho notebook Ai
      • 1stDibs Integration to Zoho Inventory

        Hello is it possible to integrate my Zoho inventory and 1stDibs?
      • Community Question: Renewal vs Invoicing

        This is a question for the community. Does anyone else consider there to be a difference between a subscription renewal event and sending out a recurring invoice for a subscription? For example, let's say customer XYZ purchases a 1-year subscription to
      • cloud console support for music websites

        Hi Friends, I am not from a very technical background.. So need support from the Zoho family. I want to build a e-commerce website which is in Musical Niche. It will help people learn music & play instruments of all types. There are a few players in the market like Chordify , Guitaa, Guitar Dashboard, ChordU & few others. But I all these websites allow only a few instruments  to play. So I want to build a better  website than the one I mentioned. So wnated to know what UI & AI should I use so that
      • Scheduled Reports - Do not send empty report

        Hello, We are intensively using reports in the CRM, especially for sales managers. When data is empty, they still receive an email. Can you add an option to avoid sending the report when data is empty?
      • Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than Zoho One Web SaaS?

        Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than using Zoho One in browser? Inherently, it seems desktop would be unless you don't do things like share your pw or leave pc on. I am concerned about data being on the cloud or someone else's server and database.
      • Reminder Settings - Time Tracker

        On the time tracker in Reminder Settings I created a reminder according to the Zoho manual. But a manager asked me to change the message that goes in the email. Is it possible to change the message? I didn't find that in the Zoho manual. Another question: I configured to receive the reminder everyone who logged in less than 40 hours. Does Zoho consider less than 40 hours of the current week or the whole month? Another situation, I put it so that I and another specific user would receive the notification,
      • Create Item group from a composite Item

        I have applied my mind for hours but cannot figure this out. Can you have a composite item in an item group?. E.g. We bundle different color and size SKU's together as composite items. Also Using composite items as Bill of Materials. We want to create
      • Main difference of Zoho Recruit Corporte version and Staffing HR vesion

        Hi Zoho, I need help to fully understand what is the main key point differences of Recruit Corporate version versus the Staffing HR version? We are currently using Corporate HR version and we are looking on having an insightful automated reporting, does
      • Out of Stock items showing in Commerce

        I have over 6000 items and most are not in stock, but all items are showing up in Commerce whether they are inventory or not. What option or feature can you use to hide items in Commerce at zero or negative quantities? I currently am using Commerce for
      • Is it possible to transfer data from one related list to another within the same module ?

        In the Leads module, there is an existing default Product related list that already contains data. Recently, I added a custom multi-lookup field, which created a new related list in the same Leads module. Now, I need to move the existing data from the
      • How to implement new online payment gateway?

        Hello, Can you tell me how to proceed to implement my local payment gateway? DIBS has an open avaiable API that should be easy to implement into ZOHO BOOKS. http://tech.dibspayment.com/dibs_payment_window
      • Formula working in MS Excel , is not working in Zoho Sheets, Filter fuction which is working in MS sheets per the attached workbook / Daily update.

        Filter function , which is working in MS Excel is not working in Zoho sheets. Please help on function of filter of particular class sheets and extract students name who has more than 3.5 hours of study hours on particular day depending on date in D7 cell.
      • Next Page