SaaS companies have built their reputations on more than just clever products or quirky workplace perks. Their true strength lies in the discipline of their revenue model. While local media companies often find themselves in a cycle of one-off sales and constant churn, SaaS companies have engineered a system designed for durability: predictable growth, measurable metrics and customer relationships that expand over time. It isn’t blind luck or a passing trend; it’s a deliberate operating framework. And it’s one that local media must begin to understand and adopt if they hope to stabilize revenue and scale for the long term. Here’s what SaaS companies get right:
Revenue is built to be recurring
SaaS companies thrive on Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR). Their offerings are designed to be ongoing, not one-time. Every aspect of their product, packaging, pricing and customer engagement is built to encourage renewal, reduce churn and grow value over time. They don’t measure success by the size of the first deal; they measure it by how long a customer stays, expands and advocates, and what that adds to the company’s financials.
They know the metrics that matter
SaaS companies don’t operate on guesswork or gut feel. They track:
And they don’t just review these metrics — they manage them. Why? Because these metrics help SaaS leaders understand not just what revenue is or was, but what it will be.
Go to market (GTM) is a cross-functional system
In SaaS, go-to-market is not a department; it’s an operating system. Sales, marketing, product, customer success and operations are all aligned around a unified GTM motion. Teams share goals, work from the same CRM and pipeline data, and coordinate around lifecycle stages. There’s a clear owner of the GTM strategy, and the entire organization is measured on outcomes, not just output.
Customer success is a revenue function
SaaS companies don't just close deals; they keep them, and even better, they grow them. Customer Success (CS) isn't an afterthought or a support ticket queue; it’s a strategic function designed to reduce churn, drive adoption and grow accounts (for advertisers). CS managers proactively engage customers, run monthly or quarterly business reviews (MBRs/QBRs), and help customers succeed with the product. Expansion and retention are intentional.
Packaging and pricing encourage renewal
SaaS offerings are intentionally structured to fit monthly or annual billing cycles, with value delivered over time. Tiers, add-ons and usage-based pricing models make the product sticky and upgradeable. Customers know what they’re buying, how it helps their business, and why it’s worth continuing.
SaaS companies have figured out how to scale by focusing on predictable revenue, shared metrics and long-term customer value. Local media companies don’t need to become SaaS companies, but they do need to operate more like them.
So, what are the exact metrics media companies should start tracking, and how do they apply directly to a modern media business?
A new model for media revenue
The traditional media revenue model is built on a shaky foundation: transactional ad buys, short-term campaign commitments and constant churn. Advertisers come in, spend a little and often never come back. There’s typically no renewal path, no lifecycle management and no structured approach to value delivery. Even worse, why do they churn? Ultimately, it must be that they don’t see the ROI that would have made the media company and its products and services indispensable to them.
And, if your media company works with SMBs, as most do, this finding from the vcita 2025 SMB Marketing Report for Agencies supports the assertion that advertisers often churn if they don’t see ROI: “Value for money is the top consideration for SMBs when choosing a marketing service provider. … What’s more, among the clients who churned from their agency, 60% said that they did so because they weren’t seeing enough value for their money, double the number who gave the same response in 2023.”
It’s time for a new model, one inspired by the predictable, scalable and recurring revenue engines of SaaS. In the next article, I’ll detail how media companies can transform their operating framework to build advertiser relationships that grow over time, versus “one and done.”
Todd Handy is a growth architect and transformation strategist who's helped reshape the digital media, AdTech and SaaS landscapes. He's led revenue, marketing, customer success, operations and transformation for companies including Deseret Digital Media, Beasley Media Group, MarketStar and Tout. As founder of Disruptive Impact, he partners with companies to reinvent their business models using proven frameworks and dual transformation principles. A frequent keynote speaker and LMA board member, Todd offers fractional leadership and advisory services to drive measurable, recurring revenue growth. Reach him at todd@disruptiveimpact.co.
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