Welcome to ACCESS Newswire's fourth quarter and year-ended 2025 earnings conference call. We deliver consistent year-over-year revenue, meaningful expansion and profitability, and continued operational discipline, all while investing in the platform innovations that position us for an exciting 2026. Revenue for the quarter came in at $5.8 million, up approximately $100,000 sequentially and essentially flat year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA increased slightly to $881,000 from $871,000, representing 15% of revenue.
Gross margin continued to be strong at 77%, up from 75% in the same quarter of last year. Total active customers grew to 12,802, up from 12,445 in Q3, and up 4% year-over-year. Average recurring revenue per subscription customer also increased year-over-year from $10,844 to $12,534. Looking at the prior quarter, we still saw an 8% increase in ARR sequentially.
As Brian mentioned, this has been a transformational year for us and Q4 was another quarter of generating solid operating margins and cash flow. Core press release revenue is up approximately 2% from the same quarter of the prior year and 1% for the full year of 2025 compared to 2024. However, volume was slightly lower on a full year basis compared to the prior year. The increase in press release volume was more than offset by decreases in pro plan revenue, webcasting, and IR website revenue.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Subscribing customers | End of 2026 | Targeting 1,500 subscribers by year-end 2026 |
| ARR lift from social monitoring | Beginning Q2 2026 | Approximately 25% ARR increase expected to begin in Q2 as the plus/pro social-monitoring upgrade adds about $200 per month per customer |
| Operating expenses | FY2026 | Expected to hold at or below 2025 levels, aided by a lease exit saving about $320,000 per year (roughly $80,000 per quarter) plus further G&A and workflow-automation efficiencies |
| Subscription count and ARR per subscriber | FY2026 | Both expected to accelerate, driven by new product suites launched at the end of 2025 and into 2026 and by trade-up and trade-in strategies |
| Long-term growth | 2026 and beyond | Management continues to believe product innovation and brand development will move the company toward double-digit growth and further ARR expansion |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (Q4 2025) | Essentially flat, down $27K to $5.8M | Higher core press release volume (up ~2% in the quarter) was largely offset by declines in pro plan revenue, webcasting, and IR website revenue; revenue was up about $100,000 sequentially. |
| Total revenue (FY2025) | -2% to $22.6M | Core press release revenue rose about 1% for the year, but volume was slightly lower and was offset by decreases in pro plan, webcasting, and IR website revenue. |
| Subscription revenue mix (Q4 2025) | 53% of revenue, up from 45% | Continued shift toward a subscription-first business as pay-as-you-go transitions to recurring ARR. |
| Gross margin | 77% in Q4 (from 75%); 77% FY (from 76%) | Lower headcount and increased operational efficiency within teams and systems, partially offset by increased distribution costs as the distribution footprint expanded. |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Q4 2025) | +$10K to $881K (15% of revenue) | A slight increase from $871,000 a year earlier on solid operating margins and cash flow. |
| Adjusted EBITDA (FY2025) | +$1.4M to $3.2M (14% of revenue) | Up from $1.8 million (8% of revenue) in 2024 on cost discipline and OpEx reduction. |
| GAAP loss from continuing operations (FY2025) | $1.6M loss ($0.40/share) vs $13.3M loss ($3.47) | The prior-year loss reflected a $14.15 million impairment of the Newswire trade name recorded in Q4 2024 tied to the 2025 rebrand. |
| Subscribing customers | 974 vs 965 (from 972 in Q3) | A slow second half of 2025 and elevated churn, mostly from credit card and payment failures, held subscriber growth below target. |
| ARR per subscriber | +16% to $12,534 | Upsell success and platform adoption; up 8% sequentially from $11,651. |
| Adjusted free cash flow (FY2025) | $1.3M vs $2.8M | The 2025 figure includes over $2.2 million paid in taxes primarily related to the compliance-business sale, versus only $342,000 in the prior year. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription-first / ARR transition | Pay-as-you-go mix with subscriptions at 45% of Q4 2024 revenue | Moved the business to majority recurring subscriptions (53% of revenue), with ARR per subscriber up 16% year-over-year and management expecting subscription counts and ARR to accelerate in 2026. | — |
| Rebrand and portfolio focus | Separate Newswire and ACCESSwire brands plus a legacy compliance business | Completed the strategic rebrand to ACCESS Newswire, divested the compliance business, reduced debt by over 83%, and launched sister brand pressrelease.com for single-circuit entry-level distribution. | — |
| AI product innovation | AI editorial validation deployed internally, saving 5% of editorial time per release | Made the AI editorial assistant customer-facing as ACCESS Verified, launched #KillTheReport agentic real-time distribution reporting, and added real-time social monitoring and sentiment analysis across more than 30 social platforms. | — |
| Marketplace partnerships | — | Launched a Marketplace with add-ons including Hootsuite integration for scheduling, publishing, and analyzing content, positioned as a driver of ARR expansion and new-customer acquisition. | — |
| EDU program and Bateman pipeline | Launched Axis Edu and the Bateman Case Study Competition | Rolled out to universities on a zero-ARR model with over 2,000 free student users expected to convert at graduation; already closed two PR firms from Bateman efforts, with expansion planned across additional departments per campus. | — |
| Churn and customer experience | — | Reset the customer experience team and management in November, found roughly 70% of churn stems from credit card and payment failures, and began removing monthly payment options in favor of quarterly and annual billing. | — |
| Expansion beyond PR/IR into marketing | Focused on public relations and investor relations communications | Plans to extend the platform into marketing communications where budgets are larger, which management says multiplies the total addressable market by four or five times, supported by partnerships like Hootsuite and an agile agent-builder technology stack. | — |