Media Briefing: As AI reshapes media, The New York Times taps former Google exec for strategic role

“I can’t think of a better place to continue that journey than at The Times,” Greenberg wrote in a LinkedIn post.

He joins a five-person team responsible for managing the publisher’s relationships with platforms – an area that’s grown more strategic as the publisher takes a harder line on how its content is surfaced, monetized and repurposed in AI systems. According to a Times spokesperson, Greenberg leads partnerships with major tech platforms and other large companies. 

Beyond that, he’ll also work across the organization – including with the newsroom – on content distribution and audience development. 

He reports to Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, the head of strategic partnerships and chief of staff at the Times.

That journey started 14 years ago, when he joined Google to help launch online payment products for Google Wallet. Over time, his focus shifted to partnerships for web and search initiatives aimed at publishers and creators – work that eventually expanded into AI and the mechanics of how content gets found and, increasingly, used.

Throughout, he worked closely with media companies, said a former colleague, who described him as “fantastic” to work with. Two others echoed the sentiment. 

“Adam has extensive experience around media and technology. He’s great at building relationships and understanding what needs to be done to maintain a healthy ongoing relationship. I think it’ll also be helpful that he’ll be able to bridge the culture divide between a news organisation and the big tech companies, in addition to… work with AI companies on distribution,” said Madhav Chinnappa, AI and media consultant, and the former head of Google News partnerships. “I’m hopeful that he can help the NYT act as a leader on behalf of the whole news ecosystem with Big Tech.”

Greenberg’s arrival at the Times is a classic poacher-turned-gamekeeper move: the person who once helped Google optimize its relationships with publishers is now helping one of the biggest publishers push back. 

“The appointment of executives with a clear vision and deep technological expertise is a strategic necessity,” said Nicole Denman Greene, vp and analyst at Gartner. “It allows for more precise evaluation, negotiation, and implementation of AI deals, even as the technology continues to improve and the rules change.”

Neither Greenberg nor the Times are saying much more about his arrival. But the logic behind the hire isn’t hard to read: in an ecosystem where the lines between platform, partner and adversary are increasingly blurred, the Times is bringing in someone who knows how the other side works. 

That’s table stakes now. As the first major publisher to sue OpenAI, and its largest investor Microsoft, over the unauthorized use of its content to train large language models, the Times has made clear it isn’t waiting for the terms of engagement to be dictated to it. Greenberg’s arrival reinforces that intent. 

Especially because, lawsuit aside, the publisher has embraced AI more enthusiastically than others, weaving into the workflow of reporters and baking it into the experience of readers. 

Whether more publishers follow suit remains to be seen. But some signs point that way. BBC News recently hired Meta’s former director for media partnership in APAC Anjali Kapoor as its first director of AI, innovation and growth.

“If that’s a real business going forward, then you need to hire real teams to run it,” said an executive at a large publisher, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to Digiday. 

Bit by bit, that’s starting to look less like a prediction and more like a playbook. As AI systems increasingly rely on real-time, high-quality content to power their tools, publishers have a window to turn that dependence into recurring revenue. 

“Hiring a veteran partnerships person is probably a very good idea for that,” said the publisher exec.

These moves are unfolding during a transitional moment in the relationship between publishers and tech platforms around AI. 

On one hand, publishers are seeing signs of progress – some platforms are finally showing up to the negotiating table, and there’s growing optimism that regulators might step in to enforce stronger protections. On the other hand, doubts remain. Many in publishing still question whether platforms actually want to partner – or whether they’re capable of doing so in ways that address the deeper structural concerns.

“With traditional ad revenue under pressure, publishers are turning to innovative revenue streams such as personalized subscription models, direct customer engagement and even data monetization,” said Gartner’s Denman Greene. “In this context, strategic partnerships are key. By leveraging AI and data insights, publishers can develop more efficient, customer-centric models that drive sustained revenue.”

What we’ve heard

“We all hit the button, there was a big ceremony. We blocked and everybody blocked and it’s like, now what? It’s not like all those AI companies are knocking on the door saying hey, do you wanna do a deal? But then there are rumors that maybe they are having isolated conversations.”

– A publishing exec on flipping the “red button” and blocking unauthorized AI bots from scraping their sites.

From ghosting to courting: OpenAI’s media strategy in two acts

OpenAI may have ghosted the IAB Tech Lab but it showed up for Condé Nast just a week later. Turns out, it’s not dodging publishers – it’s picking them. Carefully.

The AI company hosted its own media event with Condé Nast in its New York City office yesterday (July 30) afternoon, marketed as a discussion and demo of use cases for ChatGPT. Condé Nast signed an AI licensing deal with OpenAI in August 2024 so it’s arguably unsurprising what the message was: that AI can help publishers, not just hollow them out.

So much so, in fact, that the AI company used the event to position itself as a helpful partner in determining the future of content distribution. Never mind the lawsuits or the accusations of large-scale content-scraping – this was all about partnership.

OpenAI execs emphasized the value of publishers’ content multiple times during the two-hour presentation, which also featured Condé Nast editor-in-chiefs like Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher and Glamour’s Sam Barry.

“The reason that we have partnerships with the publishers is that we can explore [and] be a part of the future of content and news, not just as a tool that gets deployed internally… but truly in terms of figuring out what this ecosystem needs to look like,” Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of product, said onstage at the event.

He emphasized that ChatGPT users want information from reliable sources, not AI-generated content. The challenge, he admitted, is that the pathway to that content has yet to be developed.

“What I’m really interested in is finding ways to get that content to our users in completely novel ways. It doesn’t just have to be citations and outlines,” he said. “We’re very much at the beginning of that, but I think it’s very important and it has to be a collaboration to go figure that out, because high-quality content is incredibly important.”

Turley also said he thinks publishers’ content should be highlighted more prominently in ChatGPT, in what felt like a significant admission that publishers need more visibility (and, hopefully, referrals) in the product.

“I think content deserves so much more real estate than what we’ve been able to give it,” Turley said. “We are at our best when we are working with the publisher ecosystem to design these experiences together.”

OpenAI may be talking partnerships but it’s doing it on its own terms. By showing up with Condé Nast and skipping the industry at large, the company seems to be drawing a line: it’s not necessarily here to win over all of publishing, just the parts that play along. The future of content, it seems, will be negotiated behind closed doors.

Numbers to know

1 million: The number of digital subscribers Daily Mail plans to get by October 2028.

79%: The percentage drop in clickthroughs a site could experience if search results are replaced by AI summaries, according to an Authoritas report.

$20 million: The amount new donors have contributed in annual value to supporting public media in the past three months.

350: The number of AI-generated local newsletters run by Good City and acquired by newsletter company 6AM City, adding more than 500,000 subscribers to its base.

What we’ve covered

Publishers rally to wall off AI’s free ride

• More than 80 media executives met in New York last week in an IAB Tech Lab workshop to figure out how to block (and monetize) AI companies scraping publisher content to train their models.
• The AI companies at the core of the issue — OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity — did not attend.

Read more about what the coalition talked about here. 

Creators’ IRL events soak up more of brands’ marketing dollars

• As brands crank up their influencer marketing spend, creators are leaning into in-person events to sweeten the deal for potential sponsors.
•  IRL creator events are attractive to brands because they can measure performance, and they often come pre-loaded with digital content opportunities.

Read more about the growth of creators’ events here.

What publishers want to see from Google’s AI licensing deals

• After years of scraping and stonewalling, Google is beginning to talk AI licensing with publishers. 
• Publishers want to see a deal that brings real money, real transparency and a sense of control.

Read more about what’s on publishers’ wish lists here.

Google’s latest core update leaves publishers rattled

• Google’s latest core update was a nail-biting rollercoaster as publishers witnessed volatility in search referrals and rankings/visibility. 
• One head of audience at a news publisher said there were a few moments where things were looking “grim.”

Read more about the impact of the latest Google update here.

Loose disclosures in creator marketing are finally catching up

• A wave of lawsuits and watchdog scrutiny is digging into undisclosed or poorly labelled posts — and agencies are taking note. 
• Over the past few months, at least six companies have faced class-action lawsuits seeking millions in damages over undisclosed paid influencer posts. 

Read more about it here.

What we’re reading

Google AI Mode expands to the UK

Google expanded its AI-powered search engine AI Mode to the U.K. after bringing it to India and the U.S. this summer, Search Engine Roundtable reported. 

DallasNews Corporation rejects Alden Global Capital’s offer

The parent company of The Dallas Morning News and Medium Giant has rejected an acquisition offer from Alden Global Capital. Hearst Newspapers upped its bid to $15 per share.

Ladbible launches Betches in U.K.

U.S. women’s media brand Betches (acquired by Ladbible Group in 2023), has launched in the U.K. on Instagram and TikTok, Press Gazette reported.

Gannett offers employees buyouts

Gannett is offering employees voluntary buyout packages amid “static revenue trends,” CEO Mike Reed said in a memo, according to TheWrap.

AI tools frequently cite Reuters, AP and Time

A report from Muck Rack found outlets like Reuters, AP, Time and FT were often cited by AI systems (though it varied based on the model), as did niche sites like Good Housekeeping and Investopedia.