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
The biggest SEO lessons in 2025 for publishers
KPIs are changing, more AI search data is becoming available, and publishers are looking beyond search to grow their audiences and revenue.
Digiday’s comprehensive guide to what’s in and out for publishers in 2026
Adaptability stopped being a nice-to-have for publishers years ago; it became a survival skill. Here’s a look at Digiday’s guide to what’s in and out for 2026.
Here are the biggest moments in AI for publishers in 2025
Here are some of the moments that defined how publishers adapted to the AI era this year.