Challenge board: Publishers speak out during the Digiday Publishing Summit

This article is part of Digiday’s coverage of its Digiday Publishing Summit. More from the series →

A highlight of Digiday’s summit events is the challenge board, to which attendees post the top obstacles their businesses face at the moment. During this spring’s Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado, publishers filled the challenge board with a whole host of issues that ranged from traffic troubles to AI anxiety.

“There’s a lot of unknowns. You’ve got generative AI and the impact that’s going to have to all of us. Cookie deprecation, of course; it’s been going on for a while, but it’s finally happening. And I would also say algorithm changes in Google,” said Sharon Milz, chief information officer at Time.

In the video below, a handful of publishing executives from Bustle Digital Group, Dotdash Meredith, Hearst Magazines, Semafor, Time and Yahoo Finance explain the biggest challenges they see confronting the industry and how their companies are going about contending with those challenges.

“Lowering the dependency on traffic sources, no matter where they are, is an important lesson we’ve learned over the last 10 years,” said Sheel Shah, svp of growth, enthusiast and wellness at Hearst Magazines.

More in Media

Inside The Daily Mail’s creator-led content playbook

Inside the structure, strategy, and metrics of the Daily Mail’s creator-led content push.

A subscribe button surrounded by lush green and red tropical plants, symbolizing how publishers cultivate and grow loyalty among their subscribers

Media Briefing: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit, March 2026 edition

With no sign of search traffic returning, publishers are doubling down on subscriptions to build direct reader revenue — but it’s not easy.

People Inc.’s Jon Roberts on the AI licensing boom – and the revenue lag

People Inc’s Jon Roberts discusses the boom in AI content licensing marketplaces — and the revenue that could materialize for publishers.