Media Briefing: The ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ is spreading to publishers

Publishers are vibe coding their way into the ‘SaaS-pocalypse’ debate

The “SaaS-pocalypse” — the idea that AI makes it easier and cheaper to create custom software tools — has largely been framed as a threat to the tech industry. Now, the concept is creeping into “build versus buy” conversations happening within publishers.

Across media companies, engineering and product teams are experimenting with vibe coding — or using AI to write code for products like apps and SaaS tools, through natural language prompts — to automate workflows, and build internal apps and software. The launch of tools like Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex and Replit gave virtually anyone the ability to write code and deploy software — without ever writing a single line of code.

Publishers pay monthly subscriptions for a bunch of specialized software products — from project management tools to analytics dashboards, CRMs, workflow apps and content tools. But now, for an industry under constant pressure to cut costs and adjust to the evolving digital landscape in the AI era, the appeal is clear: why pay for another software subscription when your own employees can build what they need themselves?

Some publishers are now negotiating for shorter-term contracts with SaaS vendors. One publishing exec told Digiday — under the condition of anonymity — that they are pushing for a one-year contract from a typical three-year contract renewal with a vendor. Their thinking is that by the end of that year, they may no longer need that tool because either they built a version of it themselves or another tool will come out that will be cheaper.

Natalie Drucker, director of AI & data strategy for the global marketing team at tech consultancy Thoughtworks, said this shift was playing out across marketing and consulting firms, too. “We’re definitely going for shorter contracts… it’s just about keeping your options open,” she said.

However, shorter contracts are often more expensive, because vendors give a discount for longer-term deals. But that doesn’t bother Drucker. “We’re happy to pay for the flexibility. And it’s not necessarily to vibe code your way to those features. It’s just that the market is changing a lot.” 

Drucker said she was seeing more than a 50 percent price reduction offered by vendors now, in part due to the threat of the so-called SaaS-pocalypse. If a tool is priced well, then publishers may be less likely to try to build their own version of it, she noted.

Plus, just because someone can build something, doesn’t mean they have the resources to maintain and scale it. 

“We have to be really mindful of the gulf between what looks like it works and something that could actually stand the test of being used by thousands of colleagues and millions of users,” said one publishing exec, under the condition of anonymity. Their company vibe coded audience-facing and internal business-focused apps that are live now.

One publishing exec, who spoke during the Digiday Publishing Summit’s closed-door town hall last month, said their company had gone through a slow and difficult process to onboard a new CDP last year. Meanwhile, an engineer showed the exec how they were able to vibe code and build their own version of a CDP, mapping out the exec’s on-platform journey. 

“I was almost dumbfounded that somebody else in the company could be doing this,” the exec said. “Our hold-up has been making sure we have the proper consent everywhere to be reusing that data, and then the other problem is scale. [The engineer] was able to build a map of who I am within our ecosystem, and that’s cool and super interesting. But I want to know who 100,000 of me are… We’re not quite sure yet how to monetize it and if it truly can replace this CDP that we onboarded.”

Publishers also need to be careful with issues like data compliance and data security, as well as how to provide support and updates to a software system, said Ben Murray, a fractional SaaS CFO consultant. Tech vendors have teams dedicated to customer training and support — functions that a publisher would need to offer if they were to build and deploy a tool themselves.

“When you go with a vendor, at least you do have some liability — and especially in the media world, you do want to have that guarantee,” Drucker said. “I think that’s the reality between, ‘OK, I create a vibe coded CRM…’ to take that into production and have a reliable system that can scale across your entire business.”

Another publishing exec at DPS said they were concerned about the reliability of products built from vibe coding, after seeing examples of AI hallucinations.

“You need to just have really good engineers, because the dynamic shifts from them actually writing the code to them spending all their time reviewing the code,” they said. “That’s been one of the main things that’s been stopping us from going deeper… [Vibe coding is] fine for things that aren’t critical.”

But some publishers are finding ways to vibe code and build their own brand safety tools, or asset submission portals, according to another publishing exec at DPS. 

“We’ve just spun them up in a few weeks… The ad ops team will get tech help and if it’s advanced enough, then we save money instead of paying someone else to do it,” they said.

Another publishing exec told Digiday — under the condition of anonymity — that staffers are vibe coding to create concepts that they share with AI engineers. Together, they’ve built AI agents for sales and marketing, such as a proposal builder, a media planner, campaign management and analytics.

Meanwhile, Business Insider isn’t using vibe coding to replace parts of their vendor tech stack, but teams are vibe coding to quickly build and test ideas that previously required a lot of engineering support or outside vendors, according to Jeff Rabb, Business Insider’s chief product officer.

“Small, cross-functional teams can now go from concept to live product in days, unlocking speed, flexibility, and a more editorial-first approach to product development,” Raab said. “It’s changed how we work. We can say yes to far more editorial ideas, build quickly, put them in front of audiences, and iterate based on what actually lands. The technology is enabling our teams to do more, with lower risk and faster feedback loops.”

For example, Business Insider vibe coded to build a number of interactive quizzes, like a TSA carry-on quiz — and, ironically, a quiz to see if AI will replace your job.

“Vibe coding makes it easier to try unconventional ideas and blend storytelling with interactivity in ways we weren’t set up to do before,” Raab said. “Previously, every project had to be scalable, repeatable and compete with other priorities in the pipeline. Now, a single product manager — or even an editor — can go from concept to something live in front of users in a matter of hours.”

What we’ve heard

“We’ve had a good first half… I haven’t heard a ton of, ‘We’re pausing things because of the war,’ or ‘Things are on hold’… I haven’t seen, from an advertiser standpoint recently — knock on wood — that [they’re] not moving forward, or cutting [back] because of the supply chain issue, Iran. Not yet.”

— Chris Anthony, CRO at Gallery Media Group.

Numbers to know

100,000: The number of paying subscribers to the Daily Beast website and app in January, representing year-over-year, double-digit percentage growth.

4x: The increase in average engagement on tweets that begin with “Breaking” or “Breaking News,” according to a Nieman Lab analysis of tweets from The New York Times, AP, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

100: The number of U.S. markets Axios Local aims to be in; right now, it publishes local newsletters for 35 markets, and will be in 43 markets by the end of this year.

What we’ve covered

Forbes creates wine vertical, commerce shop and membership business as AI squeezes traffic

• Forbes is creating a wine-focused new content vertical and business to grow direct consumer revenue beyond its traffic-dependent businesses.
• There’s a sense of urgency to the strategy. In Q1 2026, Forbes’ site traffic was down 37 percent year over year. But its affiliate commerce business for Forbes Vetted, its product review site, was up 2 percent year over year.

Read more here.

Publishers favor generative AI over predictive AI

• More publishers said their companies use generative AI (which creates text or media from a data set) than predictive AI applications (which creates forecasts or classifications, such as statistical modeling or category tagging), according to a Digiday+ Research report.
• Companies are using generative AI for sales (62% of respondents), creative production and design (61% of respondents), and marketing (58% of respondents) – as well as for copy editing and editorial research.

Read the Digiday+ Research report here.

Journalists are striking out alone and discovering the business is toughest beat of all

• Independent journalism is structurally viable for the first time. But what’s lagging is business fluency – and journalists are learning it the hard way. 
• The trend of journalists going independent has been building for years – from bloggers, to podcasters, then newsletter writers, and YouTubers. What’s different now is that the infrastructure has matured, the audiences have splintered around individual voices – and the money has followed. 

Read more on how journalists are building independent businesses here.

New data shows publishers face growing AI bot, third-party scraper activity

• A third-party scraper economy is emerging beneath the big AI companies, making it harder than ever for publishers to know who is taking their content, let alone stop them.
• Dozens of third-party vendors are crawling the web and selling content to enterprise clients. Publishers make no money from these relationships, despite it representing a $1 billion industry.

Check out the four graphs revealing how AI web scraping is evolving here.

The Washington Post’s Arc XP adds TollBit to help publishers make money from AI bot traffic

• Arc XP, The Washington Post’s publishing platform arm, is making it easier for publishers to turn AI bot traffic into a revenue stream, thanks to a new integration with TollBit that helps publishers block scrapers and monetize access.
• Many mid and and smaller sized publishers lack the infrastructure, negotiating power and resources to sign AI content licensing deals with tech companies. The idea behind this new integration is that it’ll be easier for those publishers to use TollBit’s marketplace, streamlining the sign-on process through Arc XP’s platform.

Read more here.

What we’re reading

The Economist puts more reporters in front of the camera

The Economist is taking on a new video strategy, putting more reporters in front of the camera in interview shows hosted from studios in New York and London, part of Economist Play, a new subscription hub in its mobile app, The New York Times reported.

New York Times exec changes signal focus on product, data and AI

The New York Times CTO Jason Sobel is leaving, and Alex Hardiman and Hannah Yang are being promoted to executive vp. Hardiman will now have shared oversight of engineering and Yang will have shared oversight of data at the company. Both also help push AI product oversight, as the company pushes into subscriptions, data and tech, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Google will soon begin penalizing sites for back button hijacking

In June, Google will start penalizing websites that use “back button hijacking,” a tactic that manipulates browser history so that when a user clicks “back,” they get sent to a page that wasn’t actually the one they were last visiting, Ars Technica reported.

Mediaite newsletter author suspended after string of misattribution errors

Colby Hall, author of media newsletter One Sheet, has been suspended after a series of errors appeared, including misattributed information and made-up quotes, Semafor reported. It raised questions over whether Hall was using AI to aggregate the news, though he denied this.

Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal launch sports vertical

The Wall Street Journal and parent Dow Jones are launching a new sports vertical and sports economy event this summer, Axios reported.