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…
On 10 June, John Witherow, editor of The Times, gave this year’s Society of Editors Bob Satchwell Lecture at Stationers’ Hall in London. This is an abridged version of his talk.
There are many challenges, but new strategies are emerging and switched on publishers now have a clearer understanding of what success looks like. We grab five minutes with WAN-IFRA’s deputy director to find out more.
Paid content, customer data and digital targeting, continued consolidation, and a burgeoning array of increasingly imaginative brand extensions have been the dominant preoccupations among US magazine media companies so far this year.
More than one speaker at DIS commented that we are living in a “VUCA” world: meaning an environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
Automation, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and big data are all hyped buzzwords but they are fomenting the next industrial revolution and there’s no escape for the media, says Dickon Ross. Who will survive the march of the robots?
Some redesigns are cosmetic, some are radical. The Big Issue’s recent one was a biggie. Paul McNamee talks us through it.
James Evelegh's editorial from this week's edition of InPubWeekly.
James Evelegh has five recommendations (with a little help from the London Press Club)...
Web Summit in Lisbon is the biggest tech conference on the planet, with numerous tech CEOs as speakers, over a thousand start-ups, and 70,000 attendees, one of whom was Carolyn Morgan. She went along to hear about the latest tech trends and to try an
James Evelegh's editorial from today’s edition of InPubWeekly.
Selligent Marketing Cloud, the B2C Marketing Automation company, last week announced Future plc as a client.
James Evelegh's editorial from today's edition of InPubWeekly.
The Digital Publishing Innovation Summit in June brought together a diverse group of speakers from beyond traditional print publishing: digital start-ups, broadcasters, agencies and brands using content to attract an audience. Carolyn Morgan was ther
Bloomberg Media's innovation lab, BHIVE, has launched The Bulletin, an AI-powered news feed for its mobile app.
James Evelegh's editorial from today's edition of InPubWeekly.
