The transition from unlicensed to licensed seems like a big step. Did the publishers just reach out and ask you to pay a fee?
It was pretty clear that others would be next. Hence unlicensed wouldn't be maintainable.
Next to that, I wanted to sell advertising to big brands. My advertising partner insisted we needed to be licensed for the Coca Cola's of this world to spend money on my traffic.
So for me it was an opportunity to increase revenue, at the costs of lower profit margin.
Did publishers just reach out to say "hey, pay this fee"? Or did they straight up start with lawsuits/C&D? Or did you reach out to them and say "hey I got this site, how much do I pay you to become licensed?"