The Average Cost Per Second of Downtime for Digital News Sites

When a publisher supported by digital advertising, recurring subscriptions, or ecommerce experiences website downtime during a high-traffic event or breaking news story with global implications, like the U.S. presidential election, the death of a monarch, or Taylor Swift being named “Person of the Year,” it’s not just bad for readers and a publisher’s reputation. 

It’s bad for business—from lost digital subscriptions to plummeting ad and affiliate revenue.

But how bad?

Each second offline means one less second of revenue for digital publishers competing in a hyper-competitive media landscape. 

Let’s run some hypotheticals to reveal the risks of running on publishing infrastructure that can’t auto-scale to meet peak demand or ward off site-crashing cyberattacks.

Revealing the direct costs for digital publishers going dark, second by second

Publisher 1: digital advertising

A global publisher with a portfolio of iconic media outlets reports $545 million in Q4 2024 revenue. Of that, $202 million, or 37%, is fed by digital advertising. 

Imagine that portfolio going dark for a full day, or one hour, even one minute. It’s a staggering mathematical exercise in potential direct costs:

• $2.2 million per day
• $93,500 per hour
• $1,560 per minute
• $26 per second

Scenario: Site outages can vary widely, from a few seconds to hours. But 15 to 30 minutes is typical. So, half an hour offline for this publisher equates to $46,800 in lost advertising revenue.

More downtime fallout

IT downtime can impact not only paid programs but also high-performing editorial programs like live news blogs that perform well on organic search during presidential inaugurations and The Oscars. Going dark means losing the “contest for eyeballs” and seeing that content swapped out for competitors’ coverage. 

Publisher 2: digital subscriptions

Another publisher reports $335 million in digital subscription revenue for Q4 2024, a 16% increase YoY which represents $46 million in new subscriptions.

Running the numbers produces the following potential losses related to site downtime:

• $126,000 per day
• $5,250 per hour
• $88 per minute
• $1.46 per second

30-minute outage cost: $2,640.

More downtime fallout

A site blackout may force media brands to pivot to publishing breaking news on a secondary, alternate channel, like X, rather than on their own, higher-trafficked digital property. There, they also control the platform, engagement, and readership experience to a much higher degree.

Publisher 3: ecommerce

A U.S.-based media conglomerate, using on-site product reviews and sponsored content to direct users to Amazon storefronts curated by their publication network, earns $33 million in affiliate ecommerce revenue related to 48-hour Prime Day deals promotions. 

Here are the hypothetical costs of having that network go offline during this critical shopping period:

• $16.5 million per day
• $687,500 per hour
• $11,460 per minute
• $191 per second

More downtime fallout

Incorporating commerce with content—product reviews, sponsored content, and affiliate links—is increasingly important for publishers looking to diversify their revenue streams. Beyond revenue, being offline is a missed opportunity for brands to forge meaningful relationships with audiences by becoming part of the customer journey.

Potential indirect costs related to downtime

Of course, for publishers, these bleak numbers don’t account for indirect costs, which are harder to quantify than direct costs related to digital ads and subscriptions.

Reputation

Negative reviews and word-of-mouth related to site downtime can also impact business, eroding trust and future revenue. Subscribers may decide to cancel or not renew their digital subscriptions, and prospective subscribers may even look elsewhere to begin with. 

Productivity

Of course, an offline event can leave employees, even entire newsrooms, idle for the duration. Loss of employee productivity during high-traffic events leaves opportunities for competitors to grab a more significant share of readership and ad revenue.

Remediation

Offline fire drills monopolize engineering resources, ratcheting up costs and overtime related to infrastructure repairs, data recovery, and system upgrades. Such remediation costs may also include hiring outside consultants to get a site back online.

Because downtime is money, look to a reliable, scalable, and secure CMS

Second by second, going dark during high-traffic events can lead to significant revenue losses for digital news publishers. 

Beyond the direct financial impacts, site outages can also damage reputations, disrupt productivity, and increase remediation expenses, ultimately affecting long-term business. Publishers who run on a performant publishing platform tend to take 100% site uptime for granted, as they should.

WordPress VIP keeps the sites for some of the world’s heaviest trafficked media brands up and running during their busiest days and every day. Read below how we helped ADWEEK achieve 100% uptime during their 2025 Super Bowl coverage.