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.

This structural shift sits at the center of today’s sustainability debate across media and culture. And it is important to recognize that copyright remains an economic issue not just a legacy legal one. As platforms centralize distribution and monetization, copyright is one of the few mechanisms that still anchors creator claims to value inside digital markets. Without it, bargaining power erodes further—not because creators fail to innovate, but because market design favors intermediaries over originators. 

Axel Springer’s new research-based assessment, Cultural Funding and Financing, examines this imbalance across traditional and digital markets. Rather than treating copyright as a purely legal safeguard, the analysis positions it within broader systems of value creation and capture. It shows how revenue flows, incentives, and negotiating power have shifted as culture has moved online. The findings clarify why access alone is insufficient, and why sustainable digital markets depend on mechanisms that reconnect scale with compensation. 

Copyright as an economic tool 

Digitalization lowers distribution costs and removes many physical barriers to entry. Creators reach global audiences faster and with fewer upfront investments. At the same time, platforms concentrate decision making around visibility, pricing, and revenue sharing. Creators gain reach but lose leverage. 

Most creators and publishers must accept standardized terms to participate in platform ecosystems. Algorithms shape discovery and prioritize engagement metrics. Data access remains limited. Revenue flows follow platform incentives rather than creator value. This pattern reflects market structure, not individual performance or strategy. 

Public debate often frames copyright as a legal or moral issue. However, this research treats copyright instead as an economic instrument that shapes incentives, bargaining power, and market outcomes. Copyright systems exist to encourage creation while preserving public access to knowledge and culture. 

Digital markets complicate that balance. Reproduction costs approach zero. Content circulates instantly across borders. Platforms mediate nearly every use of creative work. Even so, copyright remains one of the few tools that anchors creator claims within digital markets. Without it, bargaining power erodes further. 

Platform power and value capture 

The research places integrated platforms at the center of the digitalization paradox. These platforms combine content distribution, discovery, advertising, data collection, and payment functions within a single ecosystem. Social, search, and aggregation platforms increasingly act as gatekeepers between creators and audiences, shaping how content circulates and how revenue flows. 

For premium content companies, platform power shapes how value moves through the market. Referral traffic, subscription conversion, licensing opportunities, and brand visibility depend on external rules. Copyright operates inside those constraints, not outside them. Strong rights matter, but market structure determines how those rights function in practice. 

Open access delivers clear public benefits. Audiences gain convenience, choice, and scale. Yet access without compensation undermines long-term production. Journalism and cultural work require sustained investment, not one-time distribution gains. The research highlights this trade off directly. Sustainable digital markets require mechanisms that reward creation while preserving access. That balance sits at the center of policy debates around copyright, competition, and platform regulation. Each choice reshapes incentives across the ecosystem. 

Publishers operate inside this paradox every day. Digital publishing depends on platforms for reach and discovery. It also depends on reliable revenue to support original reporting and production. Understanding value capture clarifies why audience growth alone does not ensure sustainability. It also explains why licensing, attribution, and usage terms remain core business concerns. Copyright debates connect directly to publisher strategy, not just legal theory. 

Markets evolve within policy frameworks. Regulation influences bargaining power, revenue distribution, and long-term viability. The research avoids simple solutions and instead maps tradeoffs between openness, incentives, and sustainability. Copyright reform represents one lever among many. Its impact depends on enforcement, market design, and complementary competition policy. For publishers and creators, these choices determine whether digital markets reward creation or merely distribute it. 

The future of digital copyright

Digitalization does not inherently require dependence on intermediaries. Yet under current market structures, distribution, monetization, and data have become increasingly concentrated within platforms. That concentration shapes bargaining dynamics, revenue flows, and the ability of creators and publishers to translate reach into sustainable economics.  

Copyright alone cannot resolve these imbalances, but it remains a necessary economic foundation. Without enforceable rights, creators have fewer mechanisms to assert value in markets where platforms coordinate access, pricing, and usage at scale. Sustainable digital markets therefore depend on how copyright operates alongside competition policy and platform governance and on whether these systems preserve incentives for continued investment in original work. 

The post More reach, less power: copyright in digital markets today 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.

The post From skepticism to strategy: media adapts to the creator economy appeared first on Digital Content Next.

By collaborating with influential creators, news outlets can access new, often younger, audiences they might overlook. Evolving its newsroom strategies, the Baltimore Banner surpassed subscription goals and expanded its newsroom to 80 staff members. Similarly, the 133-year-old Seattle Times reached record circulation levels, reflecting a broader trend of local and nonprofit outlets successfully adapting to new challenges.

The Poynter Institute’s new report highlights these trends. It identifies how the journalism industry increasingly relies on innovative strategies to adapt, with content creators and influencers playing a critical role in this transformation. While traditional news organizations face ongoing disruptions, this report shows that the demand for credible news remains strong.

Evolving newsroom

Poynter sees the rise of digital content creators, influencers, and the “creator economy” as an opportunity to redefine journalism. Rather than viewing them as purely competition for attention, traditional news organizations can collaborate with a new generation of content creators who bring fresh perspectives and innovative formats.

Social media influencers often cover viral stories, reaching those who get their news primarily from platforms like TikTok or Instagram Reels. Working with content creators can help newsrooms diversify their storytelling formats and engage with younger, digitally savvy audiences. Journalists and creators both serve essential roles in the evolving news ecosystem.

Engaging audiences with news fatigue

Audiences face news fatigue. Wars, political instability, climate change, and economic uncertainty contribute to this exhaustion. However, it’s essential to recognize that news fatigue does not equate to a lack of interest in journalism. On the contrary, data from the Pew Research Center shows that news consumption remains steady, with audiences following major events like the 2024 elections more closely than in previous years.

News organizations must present these topics in ways that resonate with audiences. Context, relevance, and credibility are key to engaging readers and viewers. This is where the rise of the creator economy becomes highly useful. Content creators, with their ability to present news in relatable and entertaining formats, play a unique role in combating news fatigue.

Audiences today are fragmented, consuming information from various platforms and influencers. Journalists and content creators can embrace this reality by delivering tailored, high-quality stories serving distinct audiences. Poynter recommends that rather than diluting content out of fear that audiences will turn away, the focus should be on creating stories that provide context and actionable insights.

Newsrooms must innovate and adapt

Despite ongoing challenges in the news industry, organizations are finding ways to adapt. Collaboration between traditional journalists and digital content creators is key in this evolving landscape, each bringing distinct strengths. The Poynter report highlights the growing influence of creators and influencers in news delivery and building trust with younger audiences. It also explores how they are reshaping the broader media ecosystem.

As the industry transforms, one constant remains: high-quality journalism—whether produced by a traditional newsroom or a smartphone-wielding influencer—retains its crucial role in society. Together, these forces reshape how people consume and trust news. This partnership will shape journalism’s future, ensuring that reliable information reaches audiences in a digital-first world.

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