October 16, 2026  |  SIGN UP

Jim Cooper
DIGIDAY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

It wasn’t quite a Cortés ‘burn the ships’ moment, by the sentiment was there when Jon Roberts, CIO, People Inc. told the audience at our Digiday Media Strategies event in London this week to “build the new thing before the old thing goes away.”

The new is an AI-based publishing model. The old – and it’s incredible to call it this – the ‘legacy digital’ thing. Living up to their reputation for being resolute under pressure, the British publishing execs spoke about being well past the ‘shock and outrage’ of AI-powered content theft and seeing ‘green shoots’ for publishers who approach the future with AI as ‘an active process.’

That means a lot of things based on what was said on stage: dissolving silos between human talent and technology, making trust a commercial metric, creator initiatives and seeing information/journalism as key AI development drivers – certainly not to strip mine – but perhaps to be used in a bespoke or symbiotic way. Carry on.

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MODERN NEWSROOM

Social commerce edges past SEO at The Independent for the first time

The Independent’s social-commerce revenue edged past its SEO-based commerce revenue for the first time in September, CEO Christian Broughton said at Digiday’s Media Strategies event in London this week. He described the gap as narrow, but said the trend was shifting toward social. 

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

Media Briefing: Overheard from publishers at Digiday London Media Strategies Town Hall

This week’s Media Briefing looks at what publisher execs discussed during Digiday’s Town Hall held in London this week, regarding new ways to measure audeince value, the risks of blocking AI crawlers and more.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM CMI MEDIA GROUP

How media planning is evolving into a more interconnected experience

In today’s fragmented ecosystem, media needs to be reactive — in the moment — to customer needs and opportunities, as well as omnipresent for focused audiences. 

AI REVENUE GENERATION

Reach CEO touts Google AI deal as a template, steps up pressure on OpenAI over scraping 

The deal gives Google paid access to expanded rights to use news content from Reach’s UK and Ireland portfolio for its news AI pilot. In return, Google can use that content in experimental AI features.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM ARC XP

Publishers partner with creators as news consumers gravitate to social media

Twenty-six percent of publishers are increasing their creator partnerships, according to a new Digiday and Arc XP survey. Creator relationships help publishers reach new audiences with organically placed content, unlocking new monetization opportunities. 

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CONTENT & COMMERCE

Inside Wirecutter’s push to diversify beyond affiliate revenue as AI reshapes discovery

Wirecutter’s motivation to expand is to find more ways to monetize and distribute its product recommendations, while reducing its dependence on search-driven affiliate commissions.

ZERO-CLICK FUTURE

Brands turn to content series and Jimi Hendrix to improve AI search performance

Brands like Fender can’t tell ChatGPT how to talk about their products. One of the things they can do, however, is invest in more branded content, on their website or elsewhere, in an effort to give the models beneath chatbots used by consumers more to work with.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM TIKTOK

Why attribution alignment matters more in the AI era

Differences in methodologies can make it more difficult to understand whether the system is optimizing toward the results the advertiser ultimately trusts. 

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM DMEXCO