The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have profoundly impacted the media landscape, reshaping how news is created, distributed and monetized. As news publishers navigate this evolving ecosystem, AI brings both opportunities and challenges enhancing personalization, streamlining workflows,and unlocking new revenue streams, while also raising concerns about editorial integrity and revenue disruption.
In this insightful conversation, Pankaj Sharma, CEO & Director, MGID India sits down with Dinesh Joshi, Vice President: Product Monetisation & Analytics at NDTV, to explore how AI is transforming news publishing and what strategies publishers can adopt to thrive in this dynamic environment.
Below are a few excerpts from their discussion.
Pankaj Sharma: How is AI currently influencing the way news publishers approach content creation and distribution?
Dinesh Joshi: AI is revolutionizing content creation and distribution for news publishers through predictive analytics and automation tools. By analyzing vast datasets, AI algorithms can forecast content that will resonate with audiences, offering personalized recommendations based on user behavior and preferences. Additionally, automation tools simplify tasks like transcription and summarization, freeing journalists to concentrate on more complex stories and enhancing overall productivity and content delivery speed.
Pankaj Sharma: With the rise of AI-driven content curation, how do you see it affecting the traditional revenue models of news publishers?
Dinesh Joshi: There is no doubt that AI-driven content curation is reshaping traditional revenue models for news publishers; however, it offers both opportunities and challenges. Through AI, publishers can deliver highly tailored content and advertisements by analyzing user data and behavior patterns. This personalization fosters deeper audience engagement, making advertising placements more effective and valuable to advertisers. Moreover, AI facilitates the development of innovative revenue streams, such as programmatic advertising and native ad formats, which seamlessly integrate with editorial content and attract new advertisers. However, the increased reliance on AI also intensifies competition for advertising budgets, placing pressure on traditional revenue sources like standard display ads. To remain competitive, publishers must leverage AI-driven solutions creatively and adapt their monetization strategies to meet the shifting expectations of audiences and advertisers alike.
Pankaj Sharma: How do news publishers balance the benefits of AI-driven personalization with the need to maintain editorial integrity and diverse content?
Dinesh Joshi: To strike a balance between leveraging AI-driven personalization and maintaining editorial integrity, news publishers need to adhere to strict quality standards and foster content diversity. By implementing robust editorial guidelines, they ensure AI-generated content aligns with their values, safeguarding audience trust and credibility. AI also helps identify gaps in content diversity, enabling publishers to offer a wider range of topics and perspectives. To harmonize commercial interests with diverse reporting, publishers must adapt revenue models to prioritize ad formats that support varied content, ensuring that their focus extends beyond just trending or popular topics. This holistic approach maintains integrity while maximizing audience engagement and revenue potential.
Pankaj Sharma: What role do you think human editors and journalists will play in the future of digital news publishing as AI continues to advance?
Dinesh Joshi: Human editors and journalists will remain pivotal in digital news publishing by ensuring content maintains high journalistic standards, safeguarding accuracy, credibility and ethical considerations that AI cannot fully manage. They will play a critical role in curating diverse perspectives, offering a wide range of viewpoints and topics to counteract potential AI-driven echo chambers. Their unique perspectives and storytelling abilities will continue to craft narratives that emotionally resonate with audiences, an area where AI struggles. Additionally, journalists will evolve into hybrid roles, becoming more tech-savvy and leveraging AI tools for tasks like data gathering while applying human judgment to interpret findings and deliver impactful stories.
Pankaj Sharma: What are the potential threats that Google’s AI-generated search results pose to publishers, particularly in terms of traffic and ad revenue?
Dinesh Joshi: Google’s AI-generated search results pose significant challenges to publishers by reducing traffic to their sites, leading to lower ad impressions and impacting ad revenue from display ads and sponsored content. As users increasingly rely on AI for immediate answers, traditional content consumption habits, such as reading full articles, may decline, further eroding engagement metrics. This shift disrupts the traditional ad revenue model, which depends on page views and impressions, compelling publishers to rethink their monetization strategies. Additionally, publishers remain heavily dependent on platform algorithms, and any changes in Google’s AI-driven mechanisms could unpredictably impact their visibility, traffic and overall revenue.
