Two Years of Journey by Mediavine

Two years ago, we launched Journey by Mediavine with a simple mission: bringing Mediavine’s award-winning ad management to publishers earlier in their path to success.

Today, Journey is celebrating its second birthday, and we’re marking the occasion with the biggest updates in the program’s history.

One Application. One Front Door.

Applying to Journey used to be a separate process than applying to traditional Mediavine ad management. Not anymore.

We now have one unified application for all of Mediavine, which you’ll find at mediavine.com/apply or by clicking the Apply button at the top of every page on our site.

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to figure out which program to apply for. Our application automatically evaluates your site and routes you to Journey or Mediavine, depending on which you qualify for.

One application. One front door. No guesswork.

New (Lower!) Journey Requirements

If it’s been a while since you looked at Journey’s requirements, look again.

The program now requires just 1,000 premium sessions per month.

Premium sessions mean traffic from premium ad markets like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Note: you are not penalized for traffic from other countries. We love a global audience. Your site simply needs enough monetizable impressions to run ads successfully, and 1,000 premium sessions is the bar.

That’s it.

Grow is Now Optional (But We Still Love It)

This is a big one.

The application now uses Google Analytics to evaluate your traffic, which means you no longer need to run the Grow script for 30 days before applying. You can apply today, right now, with the traffic data you already have.

In fact, Grow is now entirely optional for Journey publishers.

That said, we still recommend Grow. Features like Spotlight Subscribe, Print Pass and Automailer are designed to bring readers back and grow your audience, which is exactly what Journey-level sites need most.

Retention, building and owning your audience are how Journey sites eventually graduate into Mediavine. Grow helps you get there faster.

Faster Approvals. A Direct Line if Something Breaks.

Since launching our new unified application, we’re approving applications faster than ever, with the most site launches per day in Journey’s history.

But we also recognize that with any new system, some of you have hit hiccups along the way. We hear you, and we’re on it.

That’s why we built a bug report tool directly into the application process.

If you run into something that doesn’t look right, submit it right then and there. Your reports go straight to our team, and we’re fixing issues as fast as they come in.

We’re here to get this done for you. Full stop.

Welcome to the Shared Dashboard

Journey publishers are now part of the same dashboard as Mediavine publishers.

That means better reporting, a more polished experience and, most importantly, a home that grows with you. When your site is ready to move from Journey to Mediavine, you’re already in the right place.

Why We’re Investing So Heavily in Journey by Mediavine

Let’s talk about the elephant in every publisher’s analytics: AI.

In an era where AI-generated is content flooding the web, we believe it’s more important than ever to surface real, human content and to invest in the independent publishers creating it as early in their growth path as we can.

That’s not a talking point. That’s the strategy.

Journey is how we find and support the next generation of publishers before anyone else does, and it’s why we’re pouring resources into the program.

And there’s a lot more coming.

On the roadmap: better ad performance, more ad opportunities, and more controls and reporting in your dashboard.

The Vision Remains True

Two years in, the vision hasn’t changed one bit.

Journey by Mediavine is just the start of your journey. It’s a program built to help you monetize earlier, grow smarter and ultimately graduate into Mediavine.

It’s now easier and earlier than ever to get started. Apply today and find out how far you can go.

Here’s to two years of Journey by Mediavine, and to every publisher just getting started on theirs. 🎉