Digiday Media Strategies London

Registration opens and our team will be ready to greet you. Please stop by to check in and grab your badge and enjoy some coffee and networking before sessions begin.

The editorial team will set the stage for the day.

In this scene-setting keynote, Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent, breaks down how AI has concretely reshaped the publisher balance sheet over the past twelve months, from the continued erosion of referral traffic and the rise (and volatility) of licensing deals, to the real costs and opportunities of AI scraping and how commercial planning has had to adapt in response. This will be a grounded, numbers-informed look at where publishers actually stand today versus where they were a year ago, setting the stage for the rest of the day’s conversations on strategy, monetization and what comes next.

As AI agents start to mediate how audiences discover and consume news, The Economist is rethinking both how it builds products and who it builds them for. In this talk, Josh Muncke will outline three AI-driven initiatives, sharing concrete examples and the lessons learned – from unexpected adoption patterns to ideas that didn’t land. He’ll also give a progress update on The Economist’s agent-building efforts, exploring the distinction between building AI-powered products designed for AI agents to consume.

Few publishers were earlier or louder than the Mail in sounding the alarm on AI search and Google’s AI Overviews. Now, they’re bringing hard numbers. In this session, the Mail’s Carly Steven shares fresh results from GEO testing, what’s actually working to protect and grow traffic, and how their early measurement groundwork is shaping a more resilient search and audience strategy.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees before the town hall begins.

An open, publisher-led discussion under Chatham House rules.

Sandboxes:
12:50 PM: Commerce Media

Recharge with lunch and network with peers before the next session.

The 6-Minute Meetings are designed to help connect participants with innovative technology platforms and build valuable business relationships.

Search and social no longer send readers your way so how do you get paid? In this conversation, Abs Ahmed, director of subscriptions at Times Media, unpacks how the publisher is looking at diversifying reader revenue beyond subscriptions, reaching new audiences without undercutting core memberships and using AI across the subscriber journey to keep readers engaged when the old traffic playbook no longer works.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees.

Mail Metro Media’s creator unit has become a key revenue and audience driver. Managing director Hannah Blake will break down how the team structures deals, pays creators and makes the model pay off, and why this strategy is now as critical for reaching young audiences on social platforms as it is for insulating the business from AI-driven shifts in search.

CNN International Commercial is pushing its publishing products beyond traditional ad models to unlock new, durable revenue lines. In this session, Faisal Kamali will unpack how CNN evaluates where existing products can be retooled, bundled or extended into new commercial offerings. He’ll explain how this approach fits the industry’s wider shift away from overreliance on search and social, and why building product-led revenue streams is central to publishers’ next phase of growth.

As audiences fragment and advertisers demand sharper proof of impact, publishers are being pushed to rethink what “value” even means beyond the traditional CPM. Nina Gould of Forbes unpacks the monetization strategies, partnerships and performance-based models the publisher is betting on to build a more durable, diversified revenue mix, offering a candid look at what’s actually working as the industry moves past legacy metrics.

Digiday moderators will recap the event’s key takeaways.

Join us for an evening of cocktails and networking following the day’s program in the chic and fun Croc Bowling Alley of the Ham Yard Hotel. There will be bowling shoes available to those that want to fit in a game with peers.