Contents · 7 min read
01 / 05 · Revenue gap
Why is the revenue gap growing?
In short
Your ad revenue is falling faster than subscriptions replace it. At the same time, AI lets new entrants publish passable routine coverage at far lower cost.
You are reviewing year-end results with your leadership team: subscriptions grew, but not enough to close the gap left by falling ad revenue. At the same time, a new entrant can publish similar routine coverage with a lower cost base, so your trusted brand is carrying more of the defense than production cost.
The pressure also comes from costs. Standard sector coverage was once costly to copy, but AI has made much of that work cheap to produce.
That gives a new entrant room to offer similar routine coverage with a lower cost base. Your trusted brand still matters, but production cost alone no longer protects it.
Your old model relied on content that helped fund the newsroom. As that content becomes easy to copy, the media finance briefing warns about the risk. A lower production cost may bring no new value to your company.
That makes the next question whether a lower cost base can close the gap.
02 / 05 · Cost cuts
Why will cheaper routine coverage not fix it?
In short
Making routine coverage for less can improve your margin for a time. It does not restore what customers or advertisers will pay for that coverage.
Lower cost helps because your business must stay sound while revenue shifts. AI can also free time your team now spends on routine work.
But more standard coverage adds little defense when others can make similar work just as cheaply. You may produce more while the market price keeps falling.
You face a choice in how to use the saved time. You can cut newsroom costs and keep the old model. But you can move senior time toward work that stays hard to copy.
The first choice gives you a cheaper version of the same business. The second can change what customers buy from you.
The publishing COO briefing shows why output at lower cost can weaken perceived value under an ad-funded model. That is why the saving must fund a change in revenue, not just a better cost line.
So the next choice is what your business must protect while routine work gets cheaper.
03 / 05 · What remains
What should you defend?
In short
Defend your editors' judgment and your direct ties to the audience. Those still matter when routine coverage becomes easy to copy.
Customers do not seek your best work just because it is new. They seek it because your editors know what matters and what deserves more attention.
That judgment supports trust, which means cutting the people who carry it can speed up the decline. The media COO briefing says audiences still need editorial voice and commissioning judgment that a platform cannot copy.
Direct access to your audience matters for the same reason. Opted-in email and events let you learn what customers need. You no longer have to wait for a platform to send traffic.
Use the time released by AI in two places:
Have senior editors deepen the work customers seek by name
Give them more time with sources and customers, so their judgment is easier to see.
Have your audience team strengthen direct access
Use opted-in email and events to hear what customers need from you.
Have management keep that knowledge inside the company
Record why editors made key calls, so one departure does not remove the full basis for them.
The media CEO briefing sets out the same choice. You can cut output costs or move senior time into authority and audience work.
Once those parts are clear, you can turn them into something customers buy more than once.
04 / 05 · New products
What should customers pay for next?
In short
Customers should pay for help with decisions they make in their daily work. Your editors' knowledge and the questions raised at events can support a recurring product built for that use.
A report may be read once, but a decision comes back. That creates room for a paid sector service or a tool customers use as part of their work.
Your events can supply useful input because attendees reveal what they are trying to decide. Speakers also show which issues are changing and where views differ.
Most of that value now fades after the event ends. Save the questions and the editor's view, then test whether customers will pay to use the result again.
Your archive can also help, but access to old content is not enough on its own. The useful product joins past work with current judgment around a live customer decision.
The B2B media CEO briefing points toward sector intelligence and decision tools that fit into daily work. It also shows why events should feed the product instead of ending with ticket income.
The next step is to choose one customer decision and prove the first paid use.
05 / 05 · First choice
Which product should you fund first?
In short
Choose one decision your customers make often and know well. Then use some savings from routine work to fund a paid product that helps with that decision.
Do not start with the whole archive or a long product plan. Start with a decision customers already bring to your editors or raise at your events.
Use this test with your leadership team:
Frequent need
Do customers face this decision often enough to return for help?
Trusted judgment
Can your editors add a view that standard coverage cannot give?
Direct access
Can you reach the people who make the decision without relying on a platform?
Fresh input
Can reporting and events keep the product useful as the market changes?
If all four answers are clear, run a paid test. Let your customers show the right package and price, and whether the idea earns a place in their work.
Have the CEO name one customer decision
Choose a need your editors hear more than once.
Have the editorial lead set out the useful judgment
Show what your team can add beyond routine coverage.
Have the audience lead recruit a small test group
Use direct contacts who face the decision in their work.
Have the commercial lead test payment
Ask customers to pay for a clear first use before you fund a broad build.
Have the finance lead set aside part of the savings
Fund the test with savings from routine work.
This is a business choice before it is a product build. How to build an AI strategy explains why management must choose what will change before tools and projects take over.
The result gives your board the next decision: fund the paid product or test another customer need.
Plan the revenue shift
Your next task is to choose one repeated customer decision and decide whether savings from routine coverage should fund a paid test around it. The B2B media and publishing CEO briefing sets that choice inside the wider shift in discovery and production, showing what AI changes in your industry and where the economics of routine content are weakening. Use it to judge whether the product you are considering moves your company toward revenue customers choose to renew.
What AI changes in B2B media and publishing, written for the CEO. Free to read, no form.
Questions CEOs ask about this
How should a media company change its business model as AI reshapes content discovery and production?
Change what customers pay for, while using AI to cut the cost of routine coverage. You must decide whether to keep those savings or direct them into trusted editorial work and a paid product, because waiting leaves you with cheaper coverage whose market price keeps falling. The stake is whether recurring customer revenue can replace falling advertising.
Which content becomes commoditized first?
Routine sector coverage becomes cheap first because AI tools can make passable versions at low cost. Work that relies on trusted editorial judgment remains harder to copy.
How valuable is direct audience access when AI sits between search and the reader?
It becomes more valuable because a platform may show the answer without sending the reader to you. Opted-in email and events let you keep learning from customers while building a relationship you control.
Should we license our content to AI platforms?
Licensing can bring revenue now, but it can also leave you more reliant on the platform. Judge the terms by which audience signals you expose and whether the deal weakens the asset you want to build.
Which products can we build from our archive and editorial skill?
Start with sector intelligence or a decision tool that customers can use in their work. Your archive supplies evidence, while current editorial judgment keeps the product useful and supports pricing power.
How should our revenue mix change?
Rely less on ad-funded content volume. Build more recurring income from intelligence subscriptions and community. Events can remain both a source of revenue and an input to paid products.
Founder, GRAIL
Johan has spent fifteen years in management consulting and executive leadership, including as Chief Product Officer of a SaaS company. He founded GRAIL to help European leadership teams work out what AI changes at the core of their business. He is the author of The Execution Revolution and the host of the ThinkRoom podcast.
Related reading
Sources
- B2B media and publishing CEO briefing: why routine content is becoming cheap and what remains worth defending. (accessed October 29, 2026)
- B2B media and publishing COO briefing: how lower production cost affects the old publishing model. (accessed October 29, 2026)
- Media and communications CEO briefing: why saved time should move toward authority and direct audience work. (accessed October 29, 2026)
- Media and communications COO briefing: where trusted editorial judgment can still hold value. (accessed October 29, 2026)
- Media and communications CFO briefing: why production savings alone may fail to improve value capture. (accessed October 29, 2026)
- Media and communications CTO and CPO briefing: how to judge content licensing terms and platform dependence. (accessed October 29, 2026)
Next scheduled review: February 9, 2027