For Recurrent, this pivot is apparent in its retreat from commerce. Affiliate revenue, once a core component for the company, has been squeezed from every direction.
Answer engines have reshaped search traffic, pushing organic search results farther down the page—if they appear at all. Compounding the challenge, Amazon roughly halved affiliate rates across the publisher ecosystem several weeks ago.
Recurrent began moving away from the model in late 2023, betting instead on direct audience, email capture, and loyalty.
The company points to traffic gains as evidence the bet is paying off. From January to April year over year, traffic to Task & Purpose is up 195%, the military portfolio is up 85%, Outdoor Life 19%, and even The Drive is up 10%, according to Perlman.
Video is the most visible shift. Recurrent’s YouTube brands sit at different stages of maturity—Donut and The Drive are well established, for instance, while the handyman site Bob Vila is newer to the platform—but the direction is consistent.
Donut, the star of its video offering, now runs a FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus, stocked with roughly 100 hours of back catalog refreshed monthly. The company also plans to co-produce at least three exclusive series for streaming platforms this year, the first of which will be announced in the coming weeks.
The emphasis on video also serves the complementary purpose of fueling the events business.
Its two military-centric events, the Military Influencer Conference and Military Spouse Fest, together generated about $750,000 in revenue when Recurrent acquired We Are the Mighty in 2022. This year, they should clear $4.5 million.
Attendance to MIC has climbed from 1,200 in 2023 to a projected 4,000-plus in 2026, and it now also draws non-endemic sponsors like BMW and Starbucks alongside USAA. Similarly, Donut hosted five events last year and expects up to nine this year.
“Video creates a completely different kind of connection with the audience than text-based content,” he said. “With that connection, you’re able to move audiences to engage in live events.”
Despite these shifts, one constant at Recurrent is its relationship with Blackstone, which still holds a board seat. The relationship between the companies is healthy, according to Perlman.
The firm, like investors in so many media companies, is likely still hoping for a liquidity event. But for now, Recurrent has done the harder thing first: it built a business that can last.
