The implicit deal publishers had with search – make good content, earn rankings, convert traffic – no longer holds. The publishers in the best position today recognized early that this wasn’t a temporary dip and started planning for referrals to keep declining.

Search was always a rented audience

Search was always someone else’s distribution channel. Google’s incentives lined up with publishers for a 15-year stretch, and most of the industry built acquisition strategies on that alignment. The alignment is over.

It’s a familiar pattern. Social played out the same way. Facebook referral traffic peaked around 2016 and has fallen unevenly since. Any publisher whose acquisition engine depended on organic social reach has already been through a version of what’s happening with search now.

Owned channels are what’s left. The publishers who built them early are ahead and everyone else is catching up.

From traffic intelligence to relationship intelligence

According to Parse.ly data, across the publisher network it works with (more than 400 sites with 15B+ pageviews a month) the pattern is consistent. The publishers whose audience base has held up are the ones that started investing in direct and newsletter channels years before the search decline forced the issue. The ones that didn’t are trying to build that muscle now, during the decline, which is a much harder job.

Most publisher analytics, including ours, grew up in an era when the publisher’s job was to understand what search traffic did once it arrived. Which articles held attention. Which converted. Which didn’t. That’s content intelligence, and it was the right problem to solve when traffic was abundant and external.

The new problem is different. How does a reader move from a first visit to a repeat visit to a loyal relationship? What content earns the second visit? Which acquisition sources produce readers who stay? When should the newsletter signup appear, and to whom?

That’s a different type of analysis – one that we call relationship intelligence.

Three diagnostic questions

The starting point is a traffic-mix audit. This is not to confirm assumptions, but to see where things actively stand. Most publishers are surprised by what they find. Three questions cut to the picture quickly:

1. What percentage of your traffic is direct or newsletter-driven today, compared to 12 and 24 months ago? If that figure is flat or shrinking while search declines, owned audience isn’t developing fast enough to offset the loss.
2. Which pieces of content drive newsletter signups or repeat direct visits, as opposed to the ones that get the highest raw pageviews? These are often different articles, and the conversion-first bias tends to be under-examined in editorial reviews.
3. Where did your most loyal subscribers originally come from, and what was the first piece of yours they engaged with? The acquisition path that produces a long-term subscriber is probably the most underused signal in publisher analytics.

What owned relationships produce

Direct traffic converts to paid subscriptions at a higher rate than search-referred traffic. A reader typing in your URL or clicking through from your newsletter already has a relationship with your site. A search visitor often doesn’t.

Newsletters are the most concrete example. Publishers sent 28 billion emails in 2025 to over 255 million readers, with average open rates above 41%. There’s no intermediary algorithm between the publisher and the inbox, which is the whole point. The Financial Times now gets more than 70% of its subscriber traffic through its mobile app. That traffic doesn’t move if Google changes a ranking signal next quarter.

What’s missing: the audience connection

What’s missing in most publisher analytics today isn’t more pageview data – it’s relationship intelligence. The acquisition path that produces a long-term subscriber. The content that earns a second visit. The newsletter signup that started a ten-year reader relationship.

A reader who found you through a newsletter, opens your app a few times a week, and subscribed because they trust your coverage on a specific beat is not a reader Google or an AI assistant can reassign. That’s a different audience than the one search was providing for most of the last decade. It’s a much more valuable audience. And relationship intelligence is how you build it.

About the author

Bob Ralian is Head of Unified Analytics at Automattic, including Parse.ly, the content analytics platform for enterprise publishers. His team works with publishers to make sense of their audience data, what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do about it.

The post How publishers rebuild audience ties as search falls appeared first on Digital Content Next.

What seemed especially significant was not simply the scale of the change media leaders face. It was the degree to which they recognize what this moment requires. They must move from reacting to disruption to setting terms for it by defending the value of their content, deepening direct audience relationships, investing in unmistakably human differentiation, and applying AI where it creates real business advantage.

This became clear from the four big themes that stood out this year:

1. AI is redrawing the value chain around content

Unsurprisingly, AI was a nearly constant topic across sessions. One idea that cut across the event with unusual clarity, however, was that AI is not just another technology wave. It is forcing a fundamental reset in how media leaders think about the value of content, the economics of publishing, and the terms by which others get to access journalism and other professionally created content.

In his opening remarks, DCN CEO Jason Kint described AI as “the latest and most consequential event of an ongoing story” saying that it is disrupting “the value chain on the Web.”

That sense of responsibility and urgency echoed across many sessions. Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, talked in no uncertain terms about the fact that media leaders must work to shape the model so that publishers “will get the compensation they should,” even as he acknowledged the larger risks around scrapers, declining search, and disintermediation in an “agentic future.” Guardian CEO Anna Bateson emphasized the need to establish “the value of our IP” and protect the investment behind centuries of journalism.

Scott Havens, Chief Growth Officer and Global Head of Consumer of Dow Jones was even more direct about the value media companies bring to LLMs. In describing the way in which agentic AI is reliant on current, quality information, he said, “AI companies need our content and that’s not going to change.” The implication was unmistakable, however. If the industry does not actively assert the value of its work, someone else will define that value.

Perhaps the starkest articulation came from Jon Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer at People Inc. “Index for discovery is fine. Stealing our content is absolutely not.”

2. Audience strategy is replacing reach strategy

For decades, the industry’s growth logic was built around distribution at scale. Reach was the organizing principle. However, AI answers fundamentally change the math. Therefore, search strategies will no longer be reliable or sufficient to drive traffic or revenue.

Axel Springer’s Supervisory Board Chairman Jan Bayer noted that Business Insider has become “more focused on engagement and time spent now, less on reach.” That shift was emblematic of a broader theme. Again and again, leaders returned to the audience as the center of gravity: not traffic, not sheer distribution, but the depth and durability of the audience relationship.

COO Alex MacCallum described CNN as a “consumer first organization” focused on “delivering the most value to their audience.” That language resounded in other conversations about consumption habits, format flexibility, and the need to build around how audiences actually want to consume and engage with information.

At the Guardian, Bateson described a shift from being reader-funded to “audience-funded,” a semantic shift which recognizes that people are consuming journalism in many forms across video, audio, and visual formats. Award winning investigative journalist Julie K. Brown talked about the way her Substack and work for the Miami Herald reach different readers and create a bridge to new audiences. This approach is complementary, she said, rather than competitive. It allows her to use different tones, formats, and distribution models to grow the audience for her reporting.

As discovery is becoming less reliable, the business value of a direct relationship with the audience has risen sharply. This impacts product development and higher-level strategy. Media companies that know the audience, serve focused and meaningful needs, and create value across multiple formats are better positioned than those optimizing for reach. As Ankler CEO and Editor-in-chief Janice Min pointed out, the opportunity is not merely to serve narrow audiences, but to “broaden the total addressable audience” through sharper value and stronger relevance.

3. Human connection, talent, and voice may be the moat

Much of the AI conversation has been understandably dominated by automation, efficiency, and scale. But one of the most interesting through-lines of the event was the opposite idea: that the more abundant and synthetic content becomes, the more valuable human connection, recognizable talent, and editorial voice will be.

That point surfaced when COO Jen Wong described the agentic Reddit search experience as one designed not to replace conversation, but to drive people toward “human communication.” That framing stood out because it runs counter to the grain of so much AI hype. Wong says they must “never disintermediate human communication.” And, as CNN’s MacCallum pointed out: “AI can’t do the human-to-human connection,” which makes it a defensible moat.

That same logic extends to creators and talent. If human connection is becoming more valuable, then the people who embody that connection matter more, not less. In a market flooded with interchangeable output, audiences gravitate toward individuals they recognize, trust, and want to spend time with. That gives journalists, creators, and other distinctive voices a different kind of strategic value: They are not just contributors to the product. They are increasingly central to how media brands build authority, loyalty, and differentiation.

As Christine Cook, Chief Commercial Officer at Bloomberg Media put it: “Aren’t journalists the original creators?” Thus, surfacing their authority, authenticity and lived experience will build loyalty. Carlos King, Founder & CEO, Kingdom Reign Entertainment spoke about the strategic importance of “recognizable talent” and the “creator perspective” in an increasingly fragmented consumption landscape. And Min argued for “the value of voice.”

That connection between humanity and distinctiveness may be one of the most important takeaways from the event. In a noisy world with too much content, what stands out is not generic output but rather trust, perspective, and personality. As others pointed out, what matters is offering information people “can’t get anywhere else” and face-to-face experiences that create “genuine connection.” As King put it, we must harness the power of “human advantage.” Havens talked about the futility of ignoring creators and other talent ecosystems and encouraged his peers to find “ways to work with them.”

For leaders, this means the industry has to stop thinking about talent, journalists, creators, and experiences as nice-to-have complements to the brand. Particularly in an AI-dominated landscape, the people who create our content and human to human connection will define the brand.

4. Operational change is no longer optional

Many of the most grounded comments across the event were not about AI-generated content or media products. They were about AI’s impact behind the scenes to improve workflow, efficiency, product development, emphasizing the practical ways AI can help companies move faster and operate smarter.

Thompson from The Atlantic warned that too many companies are focused on AI in the “front of house” when it is “really useful in the back office.” Min drew a similar line for the deployment of AI in media companies: “On the backend: opportunity. On the front end: not so interesting.”

CNN’s MacCallum categorizes AI as something that can help create “better consumer experiences” and help media companies “be more efficient.” And Bayer from Axel Springer described the need to create experiences that are “personalized and relevant,” while still arguing that content creation itself should remain “a human area.”

These comments point to a meaningful leadership test: It is no longer whether or not to use AI, but rather where, how and to what end. Leaders who approach AI strictly as a shiny consumer-facing feature, or as a way to replace journalists risk missing the deeper opportunity to rethink internal systems, reduce friction, improve decision-making, and better align product, editorial, and business teams. For example, Havens from Dow Jones made a clear case for how AI can help business leaders accelerate the “speed to approval” to enable growth and innovation.

Guiding the future of media

Overall, the tone from the speakers and attendees at this year’s DCN Summit was one of leadership. Of stepping up and owning the challenges they face in order to shape the future.

They recognize that the old search and platform dynamics are weakening, that AI is reshaping the economics of content and that audiences want relevance, flexibility, and value on their terms. They also see that human connection, distinctive voice, and trusted talent are not being diminished by this moment. If anything, they are becoming more valuable.

Media leaders know the value of content and need to set equitable terms around access and compensation. They need to double down on business models that center on audience value rather than reach. A human-differentiated media market requires investing in journalists, creator partnerships, experiences, and products that offer unique value. But that doesn’t mean ignoring the value of AI. Rather, it requires understanding how to use AI where it strengthens the business — behind the scenes, in operations, in product intelligence, in speed and efficiency.

As ever, the future will be neither predictable nor easy. But, as the conversations at the DCN Summit made clear, it can and will be shaped by informed leadership.

The post Four forces shaping digital media and the leadership this moment demands appeared first on Digital Content Next.

The main goal of our social media team is to bring people into The Wall Street Journal universe. And when we consider that 1 in 5 adults are now getting their news on TikTok according to a recent Pew Research survey, it’s a platform of significant importance.

For current subscribers, these videos reinforce the value of their subscription. For non-subscribers, we’re giving them a reason to build a relationship with us and, hopefully, a reason to subscribe.

By focusing on exclusivity, authenticity, and trust—principles that matter more than ever amid today’s ocean of AI-generated content—we sharpened and refined our editorial output. As a result, our audiences responded with sustained attention and deeper engagement. Here is the strategic playbook we used to achieve those results.

Each video has a purpose

Since 2022, we’ve experimented with a variety of styles, topics and formats. But the biggest lesson from our first 1,700 videos is that every piece of content must have a specific intent.

Some will be conversation starters, like our piece about how Italian pasta could be decimated by tariffs, or Billie Eilish’s message to billionaires at our WSJ. Magazine Innovator Awards. 

Some will add to an existing conversation. This might be joining sports reporter Laine Higgins in a curling rink when the Winter Olympics made us all obsessed with curling, or explaining how Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance inspired fans to learn Spanish.

Others showcase our exclusive reporting or distinctive storytelling. This demonstrates our value by showing audiences something they can’t get anywhere else. For example, we asked why Americans traveling abroad love visiting Costco, and looked inside the Titan submersible with an interactive graphic. 

By laying out a purpose from the outset, we were able to focus our storytelling and publish each piece with a clear ‘why’, telling the viewer what’s in it for them.

Promote individuals, not just the brand

By launching the Talent Lab, a new team in our newsroom that trains and upskills journalists in audience-building, we’ve been able to expand our focus on the reporters themselves. On social media, audiences want to know the people behind the reporting, and we want our reporters’ expertise to help build the credibility and trust that people crave. 

In the ultimate example, Ryan Knutson, co-host of our daily podcast The Journal, went to a party for people named Ryan and took behind-the-scenes footage for our team to tell the story from the inside. It was a great case of lowering the barrier between the host and the audience, allowing us to connect them in a way that might be more difficult for a straightforward article.

We’ve seen similar success on LinkedIn. Ben Cohen’s video about the Ford engineer who created the dashboard arrow to show which side your gas tank is on was a simple idea expertly executed. We helped produce a piece for Ben that performed exceptionally well on his personal LinkedIn account, which we then amplified across our TikTok and Instagram pages.

The goal here is to move beyond relying solely on our institutional voice. By encouraging reporters to promote their journalism on their individual pages we bring the audience closer to the people who make the Journal what it is. In a media environment where audiences increasingly gravitate toward individual voices over institutional brands, investing in reporter-led audience development positions us to build trust and loyalty in ways that align with how people connect with journalism today.

Social video producers are key

Our social video producers act as strategic bridge-builders. Sometimes they are the faces on screen, such as Julia Munslow, and other times they are coaches, guiding reporters through the technical nitty-gritty of lighting, mic placement and self-filming. On complex pieces, their role shifts to translator—working one-on-one with reporters to turn their stories into a format that feels native to the platform.

While some reporters gravitate toward the camera naturally, some may prefer to keep their focus on reporting and writing. Our social producers are the “village” that ensures their expertise gets the visual treatment it deserves.

Looking toward the next million

Surpassing 1 million followers is a milestone, but the real work is maintaining momentum. We are currently honing our short-form video strategy on LinkedIn, X and Instagram Reels, as well as our own WSJ app. Design updates to our platforms allow us to showcase this format in a way that matches how audiences consume content in 2026.

The goal of our social team is to share our journalism with the widest possible audience by meeting people exactly where they are. We’ve proven that a legacy media organization can be authentic in its social presence: by showing the world the reporters behind our stories, we aren’t just gaining followers, we’re building the next generation of The Wall Street Journal’s audience.

The post How The Wall Street Journal is reaching the next generation on TikTok appeared first on Digital Content Next.

That makes sense: the platform has grown over the last two decades into a service that’s  too big to ignore. Last year it reportedly generated $60bn in revenue, indicative of its might. Even the most reticent broadcaster has experimented with dropping short highlights onto the service. It has also proven to be an excellent place to host video podcasts, with the visual element acting as a multiplying factor in terms of views.

Most importantly, however, YouTube has been consistent in delivering views to its biggest channels.

That consistency will be a welcome respite for publishers. With AI-powered search results reportedly cutting traffic to news sites’ by up to 79%, it’s understandable that they would look to increase their presence on a platform that is, at least, reliable in at least one way. 

To that end we have seen a number of news sites recruiting for YouTube-specialist video producers, suggesting that the platform is climbing publishers’ priority lists in 2026. The Reuters Institute’s ‘Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2026’ found that “in terms of off-platform strategies, YouTube will be the main focus for publishers this year with a net score of +74, up substantially on last year”.

In the UK, for example, Reach Plc’s CFO Darren Fisher noted that Facebook and YouTube “are increasingly rewarding, engaging content”, in the face of falling digital revenue elsewhere. 

Where before the platform might have been seen as a source of supplementary ad revenue, it is now being factored into audience acquisition strategies more directly, as legacy media seeks ways to turn off-platform engagement into a viable audience development strategy.

In the UK the platform is the second most-watched service in the UK, behind the BBC and ahead of the commercial-powered ITV. That provides media businesses with a reliable opportunity to scoop up new fans, who can either be monetized through ads on the platform or converted to paying subscribers on the business’ own site.

YouTube personalities

Typically, the channels that succeed on YouTube have a recurring team of creators and on-camera talent, which is consistent with video consumption trends and preferences. This format, aping the traditional television content alongside which YouTube increasingly competes on CTV, is increasingly personality-driven. There are YouTube news stars whose fame eclipses that of traditional television.

That presents a big shift for some media businesses who typically put the brand front and center over individual journalists.

Chris Gallipeau, director of video and audio strategy at Canada-based Postmedia notes that, indeed, the team has found personality-led content – or at least videos with consistent hosts – has worked especially well across its brands/ “We’ve also found that having a consistent host or voice makes a big impact on engagement, he said. “Videos with a familiar, regular personality often see viewership double compared to those without. 

“The best performing voices or faces are often well-known contributors and popular names from our opinion and commentary sections of the newspapers where audiences already have a strong connection to their perspectives.”

Similarly, The Sun’s Director of Video Jon Lloyd explains that works well on YouTube, with its reliance on thumbnails that prominently feature the hosts:

“We have found through hosts, shows are more likely to become appointment viewing  with viewers. Our viewers for Tactics Exposed love Dean Scoggins and Will Pugh’s football expertise – and let us know in the comments. They come back to it weekly as they know they’re going to have a clearer understanding of the game. They might stay through any dips if they recognize and trust the person speaking, which leads to longer listening sessions and higher completion rates.”

As an example, the group’s Vancouver Sun editor-in-chief Harold Munro is a frequent face on the paper’s channel, speaking with various members of the team in explainer style shortform videos. Some publications have a leg up on that approach, having monetized their personality-led podcasts on the platform for years. 

Chris Stone, executive producer of podcasts and video at the New Statesman, says: “That video extends our audience reach on YouTube but also on social platforms. The purpose of that is to grow the top of our funnel. Having video helps to expand your reach on socials, that’s certainly what’s happening with us… and the easiest way to produce that is from our podcasts.”

Consistency and growth

Gallipeau explains that, even if the form of the journalism has necessarily changed, the group’s editorial strategy is an extension of its coverage elsewhere: “Postmedia has found success in both long and short-form video content on YouTube especially for our major news brands. 

“What seems to really drive success is the topic. For brands like National Post and The Toronto Sun, there is a big appetite for federal and provincial political content. When we produce videos on those subjects, regardless of length, it generally outperforms the average video.”

That lines up with research about the news consumption habits of US adults. Per a Pew Research Center study, 35% of US adults self-report that they ‘regularly’ get news from YouTube channels.

The big question is the extent to which YouTube will remain consistent and prioritize that sort of news-led content within its algorithm. Writing for Nieman Lab, Joon Lee argues that, as it gets squeezed by Netflix, YouTube has recognized the need for legitimacy of the sort that legacy media can confer. 

As Lee puts it, “YouTube doesn’t need journalism to boost ad revenue. It needs journalism to anchor its reputational power in the same way newspapers once anchored civic life.”

Shorts and resources

While YouTube might want legacy content to increase its legitimacy, publishers do have to tailor their content to each platform if they want to succeed. 

Charlie Carmichael, Head of Audience at talkSPORT, states that the brand has seen some significant uptick in subscribers as a result of taking advantage of the subchannel option on YouTube. “This platform-first mindset helped us grow our YouTube revenue by 30% YoY in 2025,” he said. “In addition to diversifying our audience and reducing the talkSPORT main channel’s share of views from 81% to 67%. It’s also unlocked new partnership opportunities, and we’ve increasingly experimented with live-streaming non-traditional rights.”

However, despite a media brand’s popularity on shelves or screens, there is plenty more competition on the video site. As a result there are examples of best practice that even the biggest news brands have to adhere to, particularly with regards to recurring personalities and recognizable series.

Gallipeau explains: “On some of our larger brands, we work to apply YouTube best practices to help our video content stand out. We’ve also found great success in using formats like YouTube Shorts to raise awareness and drive traffic to our channels. This has a significant impact on subscriber and viewership growth.”

The benefit of committing to the Shorts format is that – while tweaking is still required – it allows media business’ YouTube efforts to bear fruit elsewhere. 

At the New York Times, for example, the video team is investing heavily in vertical video of the sort that can sit on YouTube Shorts in addition to TikTok and Instagram. The paper’s video director Solana Pyne told The Hollywood Reporter that “our videos live both on our own platform and on a whole range of social platforms, Instagram, TikTok, also YouTube. We don’t make video that would live only or thrive only on one platform.”

Unsurprisingly, many other newspapers are making their video content work harder on the platform. 

The Guardian, for example, repurposes sections of its longform explainers for the Shorts section. It acts as both a trailer for the ‘main’ video and an antennae that reaches the subsection of the YouTube audience that primarily consumes Shorts.

As YouTube climbs publisher and broadcasters’ priority lists in the face of uncertainty elsewhere, they are to some extent dancing to the platform’s tune in terms of video format Personality-led videos and the parasocial relationships they create with an audience are the order of the day, and Shorts are practically mandatory for discovery.

Alex Rothwell, Head of Video for The Times and The Sunday Times, notes that the team has identified that different forms of video on the platform work towards different ends. He said, “We have different approaches to our multiple YouTube channels to serve specific goals; revenue, audience growth, or a combination of the two.”

He does note, though, that maintaining a consistent identity across those channels is key: “Across all of our YouTube output, we maintain a consistent visual identity by using The Times thumbnail branding. We’ve also developed repeatable formats – such as Explains, Investigates, and Documentaries – which help build a loyal audience over time by establishing a clear and recognisable editorial identity.”

YouTube, then, presents legacy publishers with an opportunity to widen the top of the funnel when it comes to acquiring audiences. It is, though, still a platform over which publishers and broadcasters have next to no control; the trick is in gaming its ability to concentrate audiences around a news channel while increasing investment with the brand itself.

The post Publishers rethink YouTube strategy as search traffic erodes appeared first on Digital Content Next.

Despite progress, there remains cultural challenges that could stymie their growth outside of the Far East. As Tom Harrington, Head of TV at Enders Analysis points out, “People have been trying to make drama more snackable in the West for a long time and it has never really taken.” 

Jen Cooper, a vertical drama critic and journalist, sees a change though, with experimentation and interest growing. “America is beginning to tip … people are aware of them and willing to kind of talk about it now. I know from friends in New York that [say they] see people on the subway watching vertical dramas.” However, “America is nine to 12 months ahead of both Europe and the UK,” she says. 

The primary audience is “women aged about 25 to 65 who were looking for romance,” according to Cooper. Henry Soong, founder of US-based microdrama company, Watch Club, notes that many in this category have disposable income to be spent on those microtransactions. 

While several apps have sprung up, there are currently two major players in the field – China-backed Reel Short and Singapore-based Dramabox. According to Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2026 report, downloads of Reel Short increased 115% year-on-year in 2025, with the researchers finding there were 2.3 billion downloads of Short Drama apps over the 12-month period.  

Unsurprisingly, the global media industry has started to take notice.  

Making mega money from Microdramas 

Microdramas are generally monetized via microtransactions; viewers are lured in with free episodes before being asked to cough up cash. Big name brands such as Shein and Crocs are starting to take interest though and back projects, according to Cooper 

Research from Omdia back in October estimated that microdramas would bringing n $11billion globally last year. They said: “60% of global microdrama revenue comes from subscription or transactional payments, often following a free introductory model.” At that time, China accounted for 83% of total revenue. 

The basic monetization model involves making the first seven to 10 episodes of a show available for free. The companies producing the shows then ask for “about 50 cents per minute long episode, or they charge you a weekly subscription, which could bring in $17 USD per week,” explains Soong. Some also provide the option to purchase digital coins or watch an advert in-app.  

The audience hook 

The shows find their audience through heavy marketing on social media, drawing viewers back to the platform on which the show is based. That is how Cooper, a bookseller before becoming an expert in the medium, discovered them.  

Marketing spend is around nine times the production costs. “It’s all about really aggressive customer acquisition, working around the clock with social media ads, pushing them out, seeing what takes off, experimenting,” she says. 

“Spreading on social media is the key. “You want the show to go viral,” says Dan Lowenstein, a director on a many vertical dramas 

Crucial to turning people from casual viewers brought in by social media into paying customers is the hook – the episode at which people are required to pay. This is not just a responsibility of the business team, but the creatives too. Lowenstein says it is “part of…my job to make that hook a reality. So, you can play with that a lot. And that’s the that’s the kind of good part of this format is that there’s room to play and room to experiment.” 

Cooper outlines that a show has production costs of $100,000 to $200,000. That number is ridiculously low compared to traditional film budgets. 

Costs are kept down by very quick shoot times. “The whole thing is that you have these six, seven days to shoot basically a feature film,” explains Lowenstein. “The business plan is about smaller budgets, less risk… you’re shooting on average 12 to 13 pages a day.” That is considerably more than on traditional TVs or movies. The vertical nature of the output helps with this. “You’re not seeing as much you can shoot faster, says Lowenstein. 

Another key element of the revenue strategy is making a huge amount of content, possible due to those low shoot costs. “There’s been a race to just put out more and more,” says Cooper. There is an element of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Cooper believes that “it does feel with some of the apps it’s kind of quantity over quality.” 

Niche content ripe for growth

The truth is, many of these shows are schlocky and low grade, with an emphasis on romance. Some even veer towards the pornographic. (There is a BDSM tag on Reel Short, for instance.) The acting and story lines are basic and hammy. The range of subject matter and quality may need to mature for the format to gain wider traction.

“I would categorize all of these shows on Reel Short and Drama Box as romance” says Soong. “And the reason why people are willing to pay per episode is because it fills a similar emotional need as OnlyFans does.” I’m sure various show creators and actors would dispute this, but the comment is largely a fair one.  

Platforms like Reel Short and Drama Box have a huge amount of power and, to access their particular shows, you must have their app. Of course, these firms, which, as Cooper explained, are essentially media ventures back by massive tech companies, can further exploit the IP they create. At a smaller scale, Soong is hoping his firm can build a social network around the vertical dramas, again keeping viewers on the platform. 

The content is certainly addictive. I began watching one show when researching this piece and found myself increasingly intrigued as to what would happen next. I later realized I’d watch 26 episodes of a certain show over a couple of different sittings, including navigating adverts to keep going. It wasn’t exactly HBO-style prestige TV, but I had been reeled in.  

While the recent growth of microdrama’s is certainly exciting, one high-profile failure looms large in media memory: Quibi. The app, launched by Jeffrey Katzenberg and led by Meg Whitman, which garnered $1.75B and folded six months after launch, was meant to bring shortform streaming to the US.   

Maybe it was just bad timing, as we headed into the pandemic and people were at home on big TVs, not swiping on the go on their phones.  Maybe the West was not yet ready to consume content in this way, before audiences became acclimated to TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts.  

Vertical dramas have been popular in China for a while now. Though it’s not yet clear whether their growth elsewhere will be a fad or a genuine shift in consumption habits, however the future plays out, there is currently enough interest in microdramas that the format is worth a look. There is a real sense that this is an area for creativity and a way to capitalize on the audience appeal of social vertical video.

The post How microdramas hook viewers and drive revenue appeared first on Digital Content Next.

One problem many newsrooms face centers on how they bring new users into content products and what they invite those users to do first. Propensity modeling often uses signals such as repeat visits, time on site or article depth to estimate future action or value and to surface prompts like newsletter sign-ups or subscription offers. These signals work well for timing and targeting. However, they rarely point to actions that help a person express interest, claim a preference or begin personalizing the experience. As a result, first interactions often involve reading a story, scrolling and leaving with no clear path to in shaping what they see next or necessitate a repeat visit.

Why early user choices shape retention

This matters because people naturally look for ways to organize information around their own needs. Across digital products, consumers consistently choose tools that let them save, follow, collect or personalize content in small ways that feel useful and self-directed. When those options are missing or delayed, audiences move through content as passive visitors rather than active participants. They consume what is in front of them, but they do not signal what matters most or establish a reason to return.

Designing the first action that makes news feel personal

Audience retention improves when content products give people an early chance to make a deliberate, personal choice that reflects interest, identity and preference. When a person follows a topic or builds a reading list tied to a personal interest, they have something they want to come back to. A single action turns a visit into a relationship because the product now reflects what the person cares about, not just what they read. When newsrooms design for these moments, something personal begins to live inside the experience.

To better engage and retain audiences, focus on creating a first interaction that feels personal and meaningful. These early, identity-driven choices lead to more return visits and stronger retention. This helps grow a larger and more loyal audience that is more likely to subscribe or become members. Rather than prompting new visitors to read more or subscribe right away, guide them toward a small action that anchors interest, such as saving a story, joining a focused newsletter, or engaging with a local beat or community space.

The New York Times has reported that visitors who sign up for a newsletter are twice as likely to become paid subscribers, and that newsletter readers show higher retention over time. This supports the value of offering a simple and intentional first step that deepens the relationship early. I have previously outlined how content organizations that focus on self-directed engagement tend to create products that are more relevant, easier to return to, and more closely aligned with the daily interests of their audience.

Some publishers already design these first actions into the earliest moments of the experience. Axios developed an “Add Axios on Google,” option as a simple step that lets someone designate the outlet as a preferred source. That one action helps ensure Axios appears more often in Google Discover and search results for that reader, while giving the user a steady stream of stories without having to seek them out. It is a small choice, but it creates continuity, reinforces preference, increases likelihood of repeat exposure and helps turn an anonymous visit into an ongoing relationship. 

Each of these examples invites an early, voluntary action that lets a user claim preference before the product tries to convert them. Other first actions include simple reflection prompts that help users connect a story to their own lives. For example, asking “Why did this story matter to you?” and offering quick, selectable responses such as:

• It affects my community
• It affects my family
• It affects my vote
• I had not seen this reported before

You can also invite small, self-directed steps like selecting a topic tag or choosing areas of interest that reflect how they think about local or national issues. Each of these actions is fast, personal, and intentional, helping users see themselves in the experience from the very beginning.

These fit neatly into existing propensity models as a deeper layer of signal. Rather than relying only on baseline behaviors, the model now incorporates choices users actively make to shape what they see next. That balance between prediction and participation produces stronger signals, supports healthier personalization and contributes to better outcomes over time, including higher retention and more durable long-term engagement.

Where audience retention really comes from

People come back to a news site when they do something that makes it feel like it belongs to them. The encouraging reality is that many organizations already do this well, especially as cookies have faded and familiar personalization tools have lost strength. Retention now grows from the choices people willingly make inside a content product, where identity, personalization and a sense of ownership align with everyday relevance and usefulness.

Across audience development, subscriptions, membership and retention, the same pattern shows up again and again. Products perform better when they invite one clear, personal action early on, rather than relying only on recommendation loops that surface similar stories. Discovery still matters, but relevance deepens when users can signal what they care about and see that choice reflected back to them in practical ways.

This moment matters more than ever. Audiences navigate an endless stream of content across platforms, formats and devices, and attention follows experiences that feel purposeful and personal. The next phase of audience and product development depends on designing for these single-step moments that turn passive visits into active relationships. Over time, this reduces one-and-done visits and increases how often people return within a given week. When teams do this well, they create better experiences, generate clearer signals and build stronger connections without compromising trust.

The post To ensure audiences return, invite one meaningful action early appeared first on Digital Content Next.

AI inevitably looms large in this mix in 2026, particularly in terms of using these technologies to deliver on promised efficiencies and product innovation. But this isn’t the only issue keeping leaders up at night. Just as important, if not more so, are questions of maintaining and growing audiences, as well as the continued need for revenue diversification.

These issues play out against a backdrop where attracting and retaining attention remains a challenge. In an era of mass news avoidance, that a key consideration for news outlets. However, in an era where we have access to more entertainment sources than ever before, responding to the attention economy is a driver for every media company.

In terms of AI, embracing this technology strategically (without it eating publishers’ lunch) remains a tightrope that has to be walked. And the need for diversified revenue models is more important than ever as referral traffic from major platforms continues to decline.

As the latest predictions from Nieman Lab, Reuters Institute, and Deloitte demonstrate, the industry is grappling with these three interconnected factors. However, there are also opportunities to plot a successful way forward.

1. Tactics for audience growth and retention

Writing at the end of last year, Burt Herman the principal and co-founder of Hacks/Hackers outlined the risks of “People Zero,” noting the growing challenge of getting audiences to come directly to publisher content in the AI age.

As Herman notes, this challenge “pushes journalism to reconsider what we offer as our product.” That’s a sentiment applicable to all media outlets, and one which reinforces the need for publishers to demonstrate value (in terms of quality and cost), as well as distinctiveness, if they are to attract and retain consumers.

Herman argues that “journalism’s future is utility,” pointing to tools and approaches that can help publishers stand out. These include providing unique datasets that audiences can use to inform their lives, creating spaces that foster connection with others, developing immersive media experiences, and strengthening direct publisher-to-consumer communication.

This last point has become especially important as referral traffic from search and social platforms continues to decline. The trend is being further accelerated by AI summaries and chatbots, alongside the continued deprioritization of news on many platforms. As a result, publishers face growing pressure to reduce their reliance on platform-dependent distribution and focus instead on building direct relationships with audiences.

As Debra Aho Williamson put it in an article for The Rebooting, “To thrive, publishers must shift from renting audiences on external platforms to owning relationships through newsletters, direct engagement and differentiated content.”

For many publishers, newsletters are central to this approach. They provide a direct line to audiences, generate valuable first-party data, and offer clear advertising and sponsorship opportunities. The rise of personalized newsletters, along with a shift toward named newsletter hosts rather than anonymous corporate voices, has also made the format more appealing and more human.

Podcasts represent another important channel for deepening these relationships. Hearing the voice of a host creates an immediate sense of familiarity and connection. Like newsletters, podcasts are typically released on predictable schedules. Publishing at consistent times and delivering content directly to inboxes or podcast apps helps build habits, making engagement part of a listener’s daily or weekly routine and supporting retention over time.

By leaning into voice-led formats such as newsletters and podcasts, publishers can also tap into some of the dynamics that have fueled the creator economy. This sector thrives on perceptions of authenticity, personality, and direct connection. Recognizing this, organizations including The Washington Post and CBS are expanding the range of voices they feature, introducing new contributors and republishing material from partner organizations.

Rather than positioning the creator economy as competition (or a threat), partnering with trusted creators can be a way to bring new audiences into publisher ecosystems. This is particularly relevant as audiences increasingly follow individual voices they trust, often independent of institutional affiliation.

Publishers are also responding to these preferences through video podcasts, vertical short-form video, and more personality-led formats across platforms. A recent Reuters Institute survey found that three-quarters of publisher respondents say they will be encouraging their staff to behave more like creators this year. At the same time, Deloitte predicts that global ad revenues for podcasts and vodcasts will reach approximately $5 billion in 2026, representing close to 20 percent year-over-year growth.

Taken together, these efforts reflect a growing focus on aligning content formats, tone, and distribution with audience preferences. As we look at the big trends right now, we see media leaders doubling down on direct engagement, aiming to build stronger, more resilient audience relationships that are less dependent on external platforms.

2. AI: From experimentation to implementation

Alongside audience strategy, the second major priority for media companies is AI integration, specifically the shift from experimentation to practical, day-to-day implementation.

Deloitte’s 2026 TMT predictions describe this as a year defined by less exciting but essential work. This includes data hygiene, governance, and the challenge of scaling AI across organizations rather than launching isolated pilot projects. As Deloitte observes, “New foundational models, or even shiny new enterprise agentic applications, continue to impress,” they note, “but they will likely be more useful in the near term.” 

In practice, publishers are increasingly experimenting with AI-powered summaries, text-to-audio versions of articles, and translation tools that allow content to reach new audiences. These applications point to clear product and workflow opportunities, even as broader efficiency gains have yet to fully materialize.

At the same time, for all the rhetoric about the efficiencies that AI technologies will unlock, much of this potential across multiple industries has yet to be realized. Partly, this is due to the need to fact-check and correct AI outputs. More widely, as The Wall Street Journal observes there is also a disconnect between “how much time workers say the technology saves them on the job is vastly different from what executives report.”

Nevertheless, we can expect to see major investment in AI tools and technologies to continue, even if anticipated gains take longer to become reality than expected. According to a recent report from WAN-IFRA, nearly 93% of respondents to their annual World Press Trends survey identified AI and Automation as a top investment area for the coming year.

At the same time, publishers must grapple with a more fundamental shift. AI is increasingly becoming a primary route to information discovery for many users. Systems such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Claude are now intermediaries between audiences and content, raising new questions about visibility, attribution, and value.

As Nikita Roy, founder of Newsroom Robots Lab, incubated at the Harvard Innovation Labs, puts it, “ AI is becoming the new audience.” She argues that organizations will need to return to first principles and re-engineer themselves to meet this reality. That includes building teams focused on creating structured, living information that can surface effectively within AI-driven environments.

Licensing will be part of that mix, but these financial relationships are not necessarily lucrative, and often only the largest players get a seat at the table. All of this makes it incumbent that publishers don’t just optimize for being cited and summarized. They must also continue to build their own products and create reasons for audiences to engage directly with them, rather than third party tools and applications.

Without this, publishers risk becoming little more than content suppliers in an information ecosystem where others own the audience, data, and financial benefit of these behavior shifts. If they fail to do this, publishers will simply be creating a new form of platform dependency. To avoid this, it’s fundamental that media companies can demonstrate value, engagement, and impact on their own terms and across their own properties.

3. Revenue diversification remains central

Lastly, when it comes to broadening their revenue mix, media companies need to keep their foot on the gas.

Global advertising spend is expected to surpass a trillion dollars in 2026, but the percentage of that coming to traditional media companies continues to decline. Instead, the big tech companies, retail media players and influencers/creators ae among those who will benefit the most. The value of US creator economy, for example, is expected to exceed $20 billion in 2026, representing a CAGR of 16.2%, according to EMARKETER’s forecast.

All of this makes it essential for media companies to continue to look beyond advertising to ensure a firm financial footing. Subscriptions will play a role here. However, continued hikes in prices will test the patience, loyalty and wallets of even the most ardent consumers, especially as questions of affordability and the cost of living continue to loom large.

As I’ve previously argued, revenue streams such as live events, e-commerce and non-news content (such as games) are becoming progressively important.

Events continue to be the area that sparks the most interest, and perhaps has the most potential  for many media players. As summarized by Lineup, “events turn media brands into hosts. They deepen loyalty, open sponsorship opportunities, and extend the value of your content into real life.” “For media companies seeking to stay ahead of the curve, hosting, managing and monetizing events is no longer a nice add-on, “ they contend, “it’s a strategic imperative.”

By strengthening audience ties, generating new sponsor income, expanding geographic reach through hybrid and in-person formats, events can be a channel for growth, supporting strategies for audience growth, as well as efforts to move beyond traditional advertising and subscription models.

This is part of a wider trend identified in WAN-IFRA’s latest World Press Trends study. The report revealed that globally non-advertising and subscription revenues now accounts for over a quarter of publisher income. As a percentage, this is almost the same as companies make from digital!

Alongside events, companies are further expanding into areas such as B2B services, grants and philanthropy, and affiliate relationships, as well as more tried and trusted (if potentially volatile) activities such as content licensing and paid partnerships with platforms.

Successful publishers are maintaining their focus on these types of revenue generators, embracing strategies that align with their audience needs and their own content propositions.

Condé Nast, for example, help to generate $600 million in product sales for their partners in 2024. This represented a fivefold increase over four years, enabling the company to grow its affiliate revenues from brands which have editorial authority and strong ties with audiences.

And just as the year ahead is about the less glamorous side of AI, the same can be said in the revenue space. Kimberly Miller, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Payway, points out the importance of investing in payment systems and payment recovery. “Every declined or expired card represents more than a lost transaction,” she told Editor & Publisher. “Sometimes it is also a lost reader relationship. In 2026, publishers that prioritize payment data integrity and recovery automation will quietly strengthen their revenue foundation.”

The bottom line: Differentiating success from survival

Collectively, these three interlocking challenges will be at the heart of publisher success (or failure) in the year ahead.

The audience crisis is real and accelerating, making it a strategic imperative that media players tackle questions of news avoidance, declining referral traffic and identify how they can best grab – and retain – audience attention.

That means investing in direct relationships through newsletters, podcasts, video-first formats, and creator partnerships. It also requires a “barbell” strategy that prioritizes either snackable social content or deep, high-value consumption.

In terms of AI, the year ahead will see a maturing of efforts designed to improve workflows and products. Publishers will need to decide not only how AI supports their workflows and offerings, but also how their content is surfaced, summarized, or withheld in AI-driven environments. These choices will shape visibility, value, and control in ways that extend well beyond technology teams.

Lastly, building and nurturing multiple revenue lines while investing in retention, habit-forming products, and experiences that audiences actually want, remains key.

For media companies in the year ahead, a focus on deepening audience relationships, diversifying revenues, demonstrating value and deploying AI strategically and realistically, will be the key to success. These areas are firmly interwoven, and increasingly contingent on one another. In 2026, none of these media trends works in isolation. Media companies who understand this, and plan accordingly, will be best positioned to navigate whatever the next 12 months throws at us.

The post How to tackle the three tensions defining media in 2026 appeared first on Digital Content Next.

YouTube rewards speed over polish, feedback over control, and consistency over campaigns. Results aren’t simply about reach, but something harder to manufacture later: audience trust and habitual viewing. For organizations accustomed to control and predictability, capitalizing on the true value of YouTube has been challenging to say the least.

These dynamics came into sharp focus during a panel I moderated at the Content London conference in December on the Secrets of YouTube Success. The panelists were Patrick Walker, Senior Advisor at Electrify Video Partner and founder of Nowherian, Luke Hyams, co-founder of Pangaea and former Head of Originals at YouTube, James Loveridge, Co-Managing Director of Little Dot Studios, and Sam Glynne, Head of EMEA, Entertainment and Culture Marketing at UTA. Between them, they represent some of the deepest institutional memory the platform has, people who were there before YouTube knew what it was going to become.

The topic of our discussion was straightforward: What lessons from YouTube’s evolution can be applied today to build audience loyalty, sustainable monetization, and long-term relevance in a rapidly shifting video landscape? For executives, it’s not just about understanding history; it’s about recognizing the behaviors, relationships, and creative choices that will determine who thrives on the platform in the next few years. Many media companies and brands still treat YouTube as a bolt-on distribution channel rather than what it actually is, a direct and ongoing relationship with audiences.

Media leaders have seen this movie before

I first encountered YouTube professionally in 2007, when I was Global Head of Digital at Fremantle. At the time, the idea that a user-generated platform could be a serious commercial partner was controversial, if not seditious. Despite that skepticism, we signed one of YouTube’s earliest global partnerships, which went on to generate tens of millions of dollars for the group. Not because the content was radically different from what we were already making, but because the relationship with the audience was.

Later, as Managing Director of ChannelFlip (one of the early YouTube creator studios), I saw the same pattern repeat. Creators who understood their audiences deeply, published consistently, and responded to feedback in real time routinely outperformed far better resourced traditional media brands. The lesson then, as now, was simple: YouTube rewards those who treat viewers as participants, not recipients.

From distribution to relationship

Early in our panel, it became clear that the industry took years to understand what YouTube truly was. For many companies, success was initially measured in uploads and views rather than in loyalty or trust. Creators, by contrast, quickly learned that the real value was in return visits. They read comments, adjusted formats, experimented publicly and often failed in full view of their audiences. That feedback loop made them faster, sharper, and more relevant than traditional media teams working behind layers of approval.

For executives used to broadcast scheduling, YouTube requires a rethink of what drives loyalty and revenue. While formats, devices, and business models have evolved, the principle of building habitual viewing and trust remains as true today as it was in 2007.

The algorithm is not the villain

YouTube is often described as unforgiving. That’s true. However, it is not arbitrary. Luke Hyams, former Head of Originals at YouTube, reminded the audience that many creators learned early to “post first and apologise later,” experimenting quickly and learning from audience feedback. Thumbnails, titles, and pacing are not optional marketing add-ons; they are part of the storytelling. Optimisation, as James Loveridge noted, is a creative act, not just a technical exercise. Patrick Walker framed the challenge another way, describing a “post-algorithm world” where sustainable businesses build audience ownership rather than relying solely on platform mechanics.

Over-reliance on algorithmic growth is a trap. Formats age, platform dynamics shift, and businesses built entirely on rented reach are fragile. Companies that succeed are those that use the algorithm to find audiences, then work deliberately to keep them. Audience ownership, not algorithmic dependence, is where long-term business value lies.

Why brands still struggle

Brand success on YouTube remains uneven, not because audiences reject brands, but because brands struggle with the loss of control. Content cannot be quietly taken down or endlessly revised. Comments accumulate. Audiences talk back. Trust, once broken, is visible.

Sam Glynne highlighted that brands often attempt to behave like creators but underestimate how quickly audiences notice inauthenticity. Our panel agreed that brands perform best when they treat YouTube as a studio, not a campaign channel. This means investing in talent relationships over time, respecting the audience’s expectations, and accepting that authenticity cannot be reverse-engineered. Creators have always understood this instinctively; organizations are still learning it.

Connected TV and the return of long-form

Another strategic opportunity is the growth of long-form viewing on YouTube via connected TV. Audiences may be leaning back, but they still expect creator-led storytelling, direct address, and a sense of intimacy. Companies that assume connected TV automatically validates old commissioning models will struggle. Those that design long-form formats specifically for creator ecosystems will find growth.

YouTube strategy now cuts across content, brand, product, and distribution. It cannot sit in a social media silo. This is an urgent operational and strategic issue for executives responsible for long-term growth and engagement.

Key takeaways for media executives

For media and advertising leaders, the lessons are practical and immediate:

• Stop treating YouTube as a distribution endpoint; treat it as a relationship platform.
• Optimization is part of creativity; packaging and format matter as much as content quality.
• Views without loyalty are not a business; retention and habitual engagement matter more than scale.
• Brands succeed when they behave like studios, not advertisers, investing in long-term talent relationships.
• Long-term value comes from audience ownership, not algorithmic favor.

YouTube is no longer the future of television. It is part of today’s media infrastructure. Leaders who invest in audience-first thinking, treat creators and talent as strategic partners, and prioritize trust and habitual engagement will find sustainable growth and loyalty. Those who cling to legacy approaches risk irrelevance.

About the author

Claire Tavernier is a media and technology adviser and board chair. She was previously Global Head of Digital at Fremantle and Managing Director of ChannelFlip.

The post From reach to relationship: unlocking value on YouTube appeared first on Digital Content Next.

Together, these forces are changing what competitive advantage looks like. No longer seeking scale for its own sake, publishers are focused on proof, predictability, and performance.  

To gain a high-level view of the industry, DCN gathered perspectives from companies that work with publishers every day across measurement, monetization, infrastructure, workflow, and operations. Their proximity to daily decision-making across media companies of all sizes and types provides insight into the competencies publishers are actively strengthening as they adapt to discovery volatility, evolving advertiser expectations, and the operational realities of AI.

Several capabilities stand out as especially relevant for publishing priorities in 2026.

Authenticated audiences anchor revenue growth

The media industry’s shift from quantity to quality has accelerated. Advertisers are increasingly focused on confidence in who they are reaching, how audiences engage, and what outcomes media delivers.

Rich Murphy, CEO, president, and managing director of Alliance for Audited Media, points out that buying continues to move away from pageviews and impressions toward outcomes. In that environment, independent, third-party verification is foundational. Publishers able to demonstrate authenticated reach and engagement across channels are better aligned with how advertising investment decisions are being made this year.

This change is reshaping how growth is defined. Audience scale still matters, but only when it is identifiable, engaged, and repeatable. Audiences must be respected as business assets rather than traffic streams—assets that need to be cultivated, measured, and maintained over time.

That redefinition is already influencing advertiser behavior. Jack Marshall, head of news at DoubleVerify, points to engagement data showing that trusted news environments outperform non-news content. For advertisers prioritizing attention and impact, proof and performance are increasingly intertwined.

Cross-platform adaptation reflects audience discovery

As search and social referrals become less reliable, publishers are rethinking how content travels and how value is captured beyond owned-and-operated environments.

John Nardone, CEO of JWX, says publishers are strengthening their ability to adapt content across platforms rather than rely on a destination-first model. With referral dependency declining, publishers can no longer wait for audiences to arrive. Instead, they need systems that allow high-integrity journalism to meet audiences in the formats each platform favors—whether vertical video, audio, or short-form social expressions—while still reinforcing the core brand.

That shift turns content operations into an adaptive engine. The goal is not simply wider distribution, but more relevant, context-aware presentation of journalism across platforms. This enables audiences to experience content in ways that feel native to where and how they are engaging.

From the demand side, Sean Dean, vice president of media owner development at Criteo, notes that clearer signals around context and engagement make it easier for adapted content to be understood, valued, and discovered as it moves across platforms.

And from an audience perspective, Naomi Owusu, CEO and co-founder of Tickaroo, emphasizes that relevance is built through formats that invite participation and transparency. When audiences feel content is timely, understandable, and connected to their needs, cross-platform presence reinforces trust and habitual return behavior rather than fragmenting it.

In 2026, brand presence across platforms is increasingly tied to audience loyalty and repeat engagement, not just reach.

Modern media infrastructure is about signal quality and orchestration

In 2026, modern media infrastructure is less about adding tools and more about connecting systems that have historically been siloed.

From the demand side, infrastructure quality shows up as signal quality. Dean at Criteo says accurate, complete bidstream and bid-response data allow buyers to understand context, pricing, and performance with greater clarity. When those fundamentals are in place, innovation and premium demand tend to follow.

In premium video and streaming environments, infrastructure also needs to support consistency and accountability across screens. Nicolas Mignot, vice president of publisher sales and strategy at FreeWheel, emphasizes that modern infrastructure increasingly connects ad exposure to business outcomes such as sales and conversions. As advertisers expect video to behave more like digital channels, infrastructure becomes a growth enabler rather than background plumbing.

From the content side, JWX’s Nardone describes modern infrastructure as an orchestration layer, which collapses the divide between the newsroom and the ad tech stack. When a single piece of content can be automatically optimized for reach, engagement, and yield across platforms, publishers are better positioned to monetize attention wherever it occurs.

Engagement becomes the key to unlock monetization

As reach fragments and acquisition costs rise, sustainable monetization in 2026 depends less on volume and more on depth of engagement. It’s also critical to understand how clearly that engagement translates into advertiser value.

Ginny Hunter, vice president of publisher client development at DoubleVerify, says one persistent inefficiency is treating performance, media quality, and revenue as separate conversations. Publishers that unify these signals can proactively package and price premium opportunities around advertiser-favored KPIs, shortening the path to investment and strengthening trust.

In video environments, engagement is also reshaping how inventory is valued. Nicolas Mignot, vice president of publisher sales and strategy at FreeWheel, notes that advertisers increasingly look beyond content metadata to signals such as attention and ad interaction. These indicators help distinguish passive viewing from moments when ads are more likely to resonate and perform.

This year, monetization strategies that treat engagement as a secondary outcome face growing pressure. Approaches that design for engagement as a core input to pricing, packaging, and measurement are proving more resilient.

Trust and inclusion support long-term audience value

In a market saturated with automated and commoditized content, differentiation increasingly hinges on whether publishers can deliver journalism that audiences perceive as credible, relevant, and trustworthy.

Tickaroo’s Owusu believes that inclusive, audience-first journalism is closely tied to trust. Audiences no longer grant publishers the benefit of the doubt; they want to see their communities and lived experiences reflected authentically in coverage. That requires more than hiring practices. It depends on editorial, technical, and product systems that allow a broader range of voices to shape storytelling.

Trust also depends on accountability beyond the newsroom. Marshall from DoubleVerify points to engagement data showing that trusted news environments consistently outperform other content categories, reinforcing that credibility is not just a values issue—it is measurable and meaningful for advertisers. When trust is supported by transparent signals and outcomes, it becomes a durable source of audience and revenue value.

Owusu emphasizes that transparency is of particular importance as publishers adopt new tools. In the context of AI, audiences want clarity about what is human-led, what is assisted, and where accountability sits. Trust, once lost, is difficult to regain. And in 2026, it is increasingly visible in retention, engagement, and willingness to pay.

AI becomes operational infrastructure, with limits

This year, AI has moved beyond the experimental phase for many publishers. As media companies increasingly work with AI, it has started to function as infrastructure, shaping how inventory is forecast, priced, packaged, and sold.

Unni Kurup, director of client consulting and strategy at Theorem, describes AI’s real impact as emerging in commercial and operational decision systems—forecasting demand, optimizing yield, planning inventory, and coordinating decisions across teams. In volatile markets, AI can be used to forecast demand more accurately and align decisions across sales, pricing, and operations, reducing costly missteps.

At the same time, leaders are clear that not every application is appropriate. Murphy from Alliance for Audited Media emphasizes that, as AI becomes more deeply embedded in media operations, strong governance is essential. Without transparency, human oversight, and clear data-privacy protections, AI can introduce bias and opacity in the push for efficiency.

In 2026, effective AI adoption is less about speed and more about judgment: applying automation where it sharpens decisions and operational clarity, and restraint where trust and accountability are at stake.

Looking ahead: partnerships, execution, and what matters now

As publishers navigate 2026, decision-making has become more deliberate. An environment defined by uncertainty has sharpened the consequences of choices about audiences, investments, and partnerships. That execution depends not just on internal capabilities, but on the partners publishers choose to work with and the standards those relationships reinforce.

From a business perspective, performance, flexibility, and transparency have become baseline expectations. Tina Pautz, chief business officer at Raptive, says publishers have less tolerance for partners who underdeliver or fail to evolve alongside changing business models. Sustainable growth depends on alignment, clarity around tradeoffs, and a shared focus on long-term outcomes rather than short-term gains.

Supply-chain integrity is also receiving greater scrutiny this year. Bill Wheaton, CEO and co-founder of Symitri, believes that complexity and opacity (particularly the spread The of MFA inventory) are diluting value for both publishers and advertisers. Direct connectivity, clearer supply paths, and reduced waste are increasingly part of how publishers demonstrate accountability and rebuild confidence in the digital marketplace.

Taken together, these perspectives point to a broader shift. Publishing partnerships and priorities in 2026 are less about maximizing scale at any cost and more about reducing uncertainty, protecting trust, and enabling consistent performance over time.

The publishers in the strongest position this year aren’t trying to do everything. There’s less appetite for new-for-new’s-sake, and more focus on capabilities that actually move the business forward. That means understanding and authenticating audiences, adapting content strategy to the new rules of discovery, improving signal quality, and tying monetization more directly to engagement.

The post Trends shaping publishing priorities in 2026 appeared first on Digital Content Next.

Publishers have often viewed influencers with skepticism, dismissing them as “YouTubers” or “TikTokers” in much the same way they once talked about bloggers. At the same time, there is growing recognition that this new wave of creators commands the attention of both audiences and brands. Goldman Sachs estimates it is already worth $250 billion annually, while IAB projects U.S. advertising spend alone will reach $37 billion in 2025. That’s up 26% year-on-year, and a growth rate four times faster than the overall media industry.

Given this, it’s no surprise that media companies are now waking up to the power of this sector and seeking to learn from, and partner with, it. As a result, we are (finally) seeing a shift in how traditional media views this sector, with an emphasis on partnerships, talent development and a mimicking of content styles.

Here’s what media companies need to know:

State of play: five models for collaboration

Publishers are increasingly taking the creator trend seriously, according to Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. “They want to learn from creators but at the same time they need to maintain their editorial control and independence and that is not always an easy line to tread,” he told me.

The approaches vary significantly by vertical. “It is clearly much easier in lifestyle areas such as fashion and sport and much harder to collaborate around hard news and politics,” Newman notes.

George Montagu, Head of Insights at FT Strategies, shared with me a handy typology for understanding how these types of partnerships can work in practice, and examples of what this can look like:

The In-House Creator Model sees news and media organizations nurture internal talent to become quasi-creators. John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times, specializing in data visualization, exemplifies this approach.

The Creator Hire Model brings successful external creators into an organization. ESPN’s signing of Katie Feeney (a former Snapchat star) as their “Sports and Lifestyle Content Creator” demonstrates this strategy.

The Creator Contributor Model engages creators on a per-content basis. Der Spiegel’s work with Tara-Louise Wittwer as a columnist illustrates this selective collaboration approach.

The Creator Roster Model sees publishers building a portfolio of creators who, Montagu says “are given full creative freedom to pursue their own career, while feeding back to the “mother org” by virtue of audience.”

He cites Morning Brew’s hiring of Emma Chieppor (Excel Dictionary), as one such example, noting that Chieppor  “is allowed to continue her work on her own channels,” at the same time as helping to enhance the Morning Brew brand.

The Creator Licensing Model sees publishers license specific content from established creators. The Athletic’s licensing deal for Pablo Torre Finds Out, exemplifies this approach. The titular show, named one of TIME’s 100 Best Podcasts of All Time, is hosted by Torre, a Murrow Award winning journalist, and a former staff writer ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

What this looks like in practice

As Montagu notes, “it’s interesting to see all the different types and how they work in practice.” What these, and other examples, demonstrate is a growing convergence between traditional media and the creator economy, showing how they can align around key strategic goals and important points in the content calendar.

NBCUniversal’s strategy for the 2024 Olympics in Paris featured the work—and audiences—of content creators as a cornerstone of its coverage. The company embedded 27 creators into its Olympics output and generated over 300 million views across social platforms during the Games. NBCU has since announced it will adopt a similar approach for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

As Gary Zenkel, President of NBC Olympics, explained at the time, the goal was to “bring a unique perspective to fans of the Olympic Games,” while also reaching younger audiences with “the personalities, content, and voices they consistently engage with in their daily lives.” Capitalizing on established creator brands and giving them access to NBC’s platform helped the company reach new audiences.

Capitalizing on existing creator brands, and giving them access to NBC’s platform, helped NBCU reach new audiences. Moreover, they didn’t try to turn their journalists and  broadcasters act like TikTokers or other online creators, instead they partnered with TikTokers and creators and brought them into their digital fold.

In a further sign of the times, in July 2025, Dotdash Meredith rebranded to “People Inc.”, reflecting a strategic emphasis on a “distinctly human legacy.” The move places “people” front and center in its output, aligning with a broader desire for audiences to engage more authentically with brands and creators.

Meanwhile, at the grassroots level, the American Press Institute has documented how local newsrooms can bridge trust gaps with communities through creator partnerships.

Factchequeado, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, partnered with Latino content creators to counter disinformation among Latino and Hispanic communities in the United States. They worked with established creators who already have loyal audiences, enabling those creators to help spot—and push back against—false online narratives.

Alongside this,  THE CITY, a non-profit local news outlet covering New York recently collaborated with Gerrie Lim, a comedian and host of “The Pigeon Post,” to create explainer videos for the 2025 New York mayoral primary. Lim posts videos on TikTok and Instagram that use a comedic delivery (think The Daily Show) to unpack local NYC news stories. Videos produced via this collaboration were up 147% on THE CITY’s average reach for this type of content.

What’s prompting the shift in publisher-creator relationships

These examples demonstrate some of the ways that media companies are partnering with creators as part of their broader strategies to reach new audiences, deepen engagement, and stay relevant in a fragmented media landscape.

And it’s not hard to see why they are making this shift. IAB-backed research cited by Axios found full-time equivalent digital creator jobs grew from 200,000 in 2020 to 1.5 million in 2024. In the process the sector has attracted audiences, investment from brands and platforms, as well as interest from traditional media companies.

Moreover, as noted in 2025’s Digital News Report (DNR), “personalities and influencers are, in some countries, playing a significant role in shaping public debates.” Their data found that in France, the news creator Hugo Travers (HugoDécrypte) reaches 22% of under-35s, predominantly across YouTube and TikTok. Closer to home more than one-fifth (22%) of the DNR’s U.S. sample had come across news or commentary from Joe Rogan in the week following Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The Institute explored some of these themes further in a recent report on news creators. They found that mainstream organizations often struggle to compete for attention on visual platforms, with news creators especially dominating on YouTube and TikTok.  

As the Indian magazine Creative Brands put it, “the report is the most formal recognition to date by a leading journalism institution that news is being redefined by TikTok explainers, YouTube commentators, Instagram teachers and solo Substack journalists.” “The authority of the news is no longer assured by tradition of reputation.”

Moving forward: from experimentation to intentional strategy

Although there are clear synergies between media companies and creators, this relationship is still constrained by structural, cultural, and editorial obstacles. For those, on both sides, interested in working together more closely, these issues need to be overcome if this potential is to be realized.

Here are three of the most important:

1. Adopt the right model for your organization

Montagu’s typology offers a number of different models that media companies can pursue. Not every approach will work for every organization, and certain verticals – such as sports and lifestyle – will find this easier to embrace than hard news, where editorial norms around impartiality and control are deeply embedded.

As Nic Newman notes, “the issues of editorial control loom large, and impartiality and objectivity are deeply challenged in a creator world where point of view is part of the proposition. That will not sit easily with some publishers,” he observes.

Vox Media’s podcast network offers another model, providing infrastructure and ad sales for creators in exchange for a share of revenues. This model, whereby creators retain control while companies handle the business side, offers another way for media companies to manage their reputation while still dipping their toes into creator economy.

The opportunity for publishers lies not in abandoning standards, but in allowing trusted creators to help stories travel in platform-native ways, and to finding the right way to make this work for your company.

2. Build this into your structure

The American Press Institute stresses that partnerships must hinge on mutual trust, creative freedom, and respect for how audiences connect. Ideally this is built over time, not as a result of one-off collaborations.

Creator collaboration cannot sit on the margins of the newsroom.  It must be built into workflows, incentives, and leadership structures, in line with FT Strategies’ argument that newsrooms require “bridge roles” between editorial, audience, product and external talent.

Similarly, more publishers are developing their own staff as creators. Think about the trend to put star journalists front and center in newsletters and podcasts (including in the title), as an example of how this trend has been bubbling away for some time. It’s now accelerating, a recognition that some audiences are drawn more to individual voices than the wider media brand that they work for.

3. Redefine what success looks like

Traditional metrics such as page views and time on site, tell only part of the story in creator-led environments. Engagement, loyalty, and community strength increasingly matter more. As a result, publishers shouldn’t always default to working with creators who have the highest follower count. Niche, deeply engaged, audiences may be more valuable than large passive ones.

Similarly, as Nic Newman notes, “collaboration with creators for distribution—tapping into networks to help promote stories or coverage,” is an underutilized approach. “Communications teams and politicians have done this successfully (Trump/Rogan/Nelk Boys), but journalists have done this much less,” he says.

Final thoughts on publisher creator collaboration

The creator economy is forcing traditional media to adapt and evolve. Publishers that successfully can combine their institutional strengths (e.g. editorial standards, legal safeguards, and production capacity) with dynamics inherent in the creator economy (such as authenticity, platform fluency, and audience engagement) are best set to prosper in the coming years.

Ignoring the lessons from the creator economy, and overlooking opportunities for partnership, means opting out of the spaces where younger and more diverse audiences increasingly encounter news and information. That’s something few media companies can afford to do.

Importantly, this dynamic is not just one way. Research from the Reuters Institute shows that while audiences are increasingly reliant on creators for news, they also recognize these channels can be sources of misinformation. Moreover, many creators depend heavily on original reporting from established outlets, repackaging it with added context or personal perspective. That means there’s still a place for traditional media, both in terms of original reporting, and in the vigorous standards that underpin it. Working together can extend the reach, relevance, and impact of credible journalism.

Greater collaboration can also help address some of the major challenges faced by many creators, including burnout, platform dependency, shifting audience tastes, and relentless competition. Publishers, meanwhile, can potentially benefit from reaching new audiences, revitalizing their brand, and unlocking new commercial models.

This closer alignment will not happen overnight, and both sectors will continue to march to their own beat. But they can potentially be stronger together. For publishers wanting to capture part of the $37 billion creator marketplace, that means treating creators as partners rather than threats, building structured collaborations rather than one-off experiments, and maintaining their standards while at the same time embracing more personality-led content.

A failure to do this effectively means opting to become increasingly irrelevant to a growing number of audiences. And no one wants that.

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