Time Builds Out Niche Portfolio as Live Experiences Become Its Largest Business

Time is planning another wave of event launches after live experiences became its largest business this year.

The company expects events—including the editorial franchises built around them—to account for more than half of revenue in 2026, up from 28% in 2023. The brand forecasts the addition of another five to 10 events in 2027 after reaching nearly 50 this year.

Time is among a growing number of media companies leaning into events as traditional advertising growth slows. Most are monetized through sponsorships, including at Time. But the driving force begins by identifying communities through Time’s journalism and then building events around them, rather than starting with commercial objectives.

The legacy magazine began expanding beyond the Time100 gala before the pandemic, growing from one event to four, before accelerating after Covid-19’s 2020 shutdown.

“We only offered them the opportunity to do that once a year, and I kept getting feedback from these honorees, like, why aren’t you doing more? Why aren’t you recognizing more people in different industries? So the evolution of Time’s events business really came pretty organically,” said Dan Macsai, executive editor and chief strategy officer at Time.

The rapid growth, he said, reflects demand for trusted communities built around trusted journalism.

“We’re still a journalism company at our core. We’ve just found new ways to bring that journalism to life.”

For Macsai, the starting point isn’t an event but an editorial franchise.

“We build communities, and those communities start with journalism,” he said. “Our editorial franchises identify the people who are shaping an industry or a conversation. So that could be Time100, Time100 Health, Time100 AI, Time100 Sports, Women of the Year, Time100 Next.”

Those franchises have steadily expanded into leadership summits, forums, dinners and networking events. Rather than maximizing attendance, Time intentionally keeps many gatherings relatively small—often a couple hundred influential attendees—to encourage interaction.

“The way that we make sure that we are fostering interaction between those guests is by intentionally limiting the size,” Macsai said. “We really view our audience KPI for those events as how many of the influential people are we getting in that room, not can we convene 1,000 people adjacent to this space?”

The company carefully curates seating charts, builds extended networking breaks into the agenda and even helps facilitate introductions after events when honorees ask to meet one another.

That philosophy extends to sponsors.

Rather than simply selling branding opportunities, Macsai said Time looks for companies whose work naturally fits an event’s editorial focus. At a recent healthcare event, Novartis discussed new investments in cancer treatments and heart health. Target, meanwhile, helped design an event space that showcased its own design capabilities.

“We were basically like, do what you do best, and showcase it to our honorees, and then we can of course amplify this on social and digital,” Macsai said. Sometimes those partnerships evolve into entirely new editorial franchises.

Autodesk’s relationship with Time led to the creation of Time Trailblazers: Designing and Making the Future, a new editorial list and accompanying impact dinner recognizing architects, engineers, designers, builders and technologists.

“The list will be chosen by Time, independent of any sponsorship,” Macsai said. “They don’t want a branded list. They want to align with Time’s credibility and the trust and amplification that comes with the journalism.”

Next year, Time expects to launch another five to 10 events, including in industries Macsai declined to identify, while also expanding internationally. The company will introduce Time100 Next India, recognizing 100 people shaping the country’s future.

Although live experiences have become Time’s largest business, Macsai described those decisions almost entirely through an editorial lens. Rather than discussing revenue targets or sponsorship opportunities, he focused on finding communities and stories that deserve a larger platform.

“What we’re really focused on is amplifying the most interesting stories from a region, and we want to make sure that those stories are not just coming from the 1%,” he said.

Time works with local reporters and editors to identify people whose work might otherwise go unnoticed.

“The stories that rise to the top tend to be the ones with the most money and access behind them, but that’s where we consider it our responsibility as journalists who do these lists to make sure that we’re looking beyond that,” he said. “We’re identifying as many of those stories as possible, and then shining our global spotlight on them by either putting them on our lists or putting them on our stages.”

While curation has largely remained a human process, Time is also exploring how AI can help foster connections at larger gatherings.

“The element of serendipity is important, but we like to call it organized serendipity because we are not just throwing you in a room and hoping that you’ll get to meet each other,” Macsai said. “Everything down to the design of the minute-to-minute run of show, we want to make sure that we are allowing ample networking time, so that people will have the opportunity to get up out of their seats and meet each other.”

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