A couple of years ago, the AI question for most publishers was whether to experiment. That has been settled. AI is now at work in newsrooms, archives, ad sales and production, and the harder conversation is about what it is doing to the business around it.
Search is the pressure point. Answer engines summarise journalism without sending the reader on, and referral traffic is falling as a result. Publishers are split between signing licensing deals and blocking crawlers, with more of them now looking to negotiate collectively. Before any contract is signed, it is worth knowing which of your content is genuinely hard to replace and exactly what rights are being sold.
AI might be able to knock out something quickly, but speed isn’t the same as value and fluency isn’t the same as truth.
Toby Wiseman AI in practice: Hearst UK
Inside the business the picture is brighter. Regional groups use AI-assisted reporting for routine local stories, which frees other reporters to get out of the office. B2B publishers have turned deep archives into search tools that answer readers' questions, and at least one has sold subscriptions off the back of it.
Whether the human checks survive cost pressure is the open question. So far, the industry's bet is that original, specialist journalism and a direct relationship with readers will hold their value however the technology moves.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on AI in publishing, from licensing strategy and search to newsroom case studies and editorial policy, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
Before rushing in to make deals with AI companies, publishers need to properly evaluate the value of their content, says Sajeeda Merali, CEO of the Professional Publishers Association.
The biggest puzzle for publishers today is where to find audiences and how to keep them. How to meet this challenge was the focus of the latest AOP CRUNCH event, writes AOP’s Richard Reeves.
emap’s Nursing Times was quick to explore the potential of AI when it launched its LLM search service last year. Sixteen months on, Robin Booth tells us what they’ve achieved so far and how they plan to use AI next.
Newsquest has published over 10,000 articles with the aid of AI. Jody Doherty-Cove, head of editorial AI, tells us how and why Newsquest is deploying AI across its newsrooms.
Toby Wiseman, MD, content, tells us how Hearst UK is using AI now and where he sees the best opportunities for future development.
Most publishers are trialling AI tools to some degree, but how many are actually seeing quantifiable benefits from their efforts? Meg Carter talks to Ana Jakimovska, head of AI strategy at Mediahuis, about their approach to AI adoption.
Steve Pinches, chief product and technology officer at Which?, looks at the tech opportunities and challenges facing his company and the wider consumer publishing sector.
Peter Barr-Watson, chief technology officer at The Independent, looks at the tech opportunities and challenges facing his company and the wider news media sector.
Reuters Institute’s ‘Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2026’ report shows how publishers are reacting to the twin threats from AI answer engines and human creators, writes Nic Newman.
Having humans involved in the process has been what’s given publishers the license to explore all that artificial intelligence has to offer…
When it comes to image quality, publishers tend to put much more effort into pictures that appear in print than those that appear online. This, says Pixometry's John de Jong, is a mistake and one that can be easily avoided.
Dickon Ross attended the Future of Media Technology Conference to find out.
New Scientist has just held the first event in its ‘Business Insights’ series, a new B2B offering from the successful science publisher. The conference title was ‘AI Unleashed: Revolutionising the future of your business’. James Evelegh was there.
With Meta backing away from ‘news’ and AI accelerating the growth of disinformation, we need to redouble our efforts to safeguard access to quality journalism, says News Media Association Chief Executive Owen Meredith.
The publishing world, indeed the whole business world, will soon divide into those that have started to think through AI and those that are avoiding the subject…
Future has announced the launch of Future Context, its contextual targeting solution for advertisers.
Wolters Kluwer Health has launched AI Labs, a collaborative resource that brings the power of generative AI to UpToDate, its clinical decision support (CDS) solution.
Springer Nature has announced a new AI-powered in-house writing assistant to support researchers, particularly those whose first language is not English, in their scientific writing.
A recent survey commissioned by digital magazine and newspaper subscription app Readly has highlighted perspectives on the use of AI across a number of sectors.
Copyright must not be weakened for news publishers, the Guardian's Matt Rogerson said during a panel discussion at the Labour Conference.
AI is the most hyped topic of the year. James Evelegh attended a recent event, organised by New Scientist, to learn more about it.
The Advertising Association’s AI Taskforce is to review the developments, benefits, and opportunities of AI to the UK advertising industry.
Angel Business Communications has announced the launch of AI Transform: Empowering SMEs through AI technology.
Predicting the future can be a thankless task, but here is what our sector might look like in ten years’ time…
How your magazine is designed says a lot about you and your title. It’s worth doing a professional job. We grab five minutes with Dean Cook of The Magazine Production Company to talk about magazine design.
