On Monday, 83 delegates fanned out on foot and by bus across New York on two sold-out study tours as part of the weeklong INMA World Congress of News Media.

One key takeaway: Print content from the 1980s gives news company many clues as far as audience needs. 

“Looking at readership research from the 1980s, the most important sections, the top 10 … this is basically where The New York Times expanded in the past 10 years,” INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota told attendees. “Not because today’s readers are the same as before, but because human needs are not changing that much.”

Attendees found that, amid media industry upheaval and the impact of AI, many of the challenges they are encountering are shared between them all, although they come from many different regions of the world. 

“It’s amazing how close we are, how we are all facing the same issues,” said attendee Ulrich Schönborn, editor-in-chief of Nordwest Zeitung.

Here is a quick look at the tour stops: 

The New York Times

Attendees heard from three leaders at The New York Times who are in the key, non-news verticals at the news company: Everdeen Mason, editorial director/New York Times Games; Cliff Levy, publisher/The Atlantic and Wirecutter; and Olivia Myszkowsky, chief of staff/data and audience.

What’s important for all of these non-news products — from Wordle to any review on Wirecutter: They all are rooted in the core values of The New York Times.

These products are now part of the news company’s important bundled option, bringing in revenue and better engaging — and expanding — its audience base.

“It’s about getting people at any moment in their life,” Levy said. “Sometimes you want news. Sometimes you want to play games. Sometimes you want to cook. Sometimes you want to shop. We’ve learned the hard way there are moments when people don’t want news. News is the core. It’s the sun. It’s the most important part of what we do. But we want to be there for you at other times.”

Gannett

Like The New York Times, Gannett, meets its audience in many places that aren’t breaking news.

Puzzles and games are particularly “sticky,” Dara Sanderson, vice president and general manager for the USA Today brand Play, which will debut later this year.

“They provide a nice break from the stresses of the world and also give mental stimulation. Thirty percent of our audience is already playing games online but we have a tremendous opportunity because only 1% is playing games on our Web site. So what we need to do is engage our existing audience.”

The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones

Ryan Daly, senior vice president/consumer products, at Dow Jones, shared how the U.S.-based news company has mobilised around an audience-first approach to Trump’s trade war. 

Brian Gelinas, the company’s senior vice president/B2B Products, followed up with a discussion on how they are evolving their B2B business with generative AI, while Tom Gebauer, senior vice president/design, discussed the role of design in business strategy. 

Gebauer spoke about the way designers can help consumers understand how new, cutting-edge AI features work and why they should trust Dow Jones’ AI capabilities with handling their important news: “Designers can create experiences that provide users with control and understanding over AI features and how algorithms work, promoting brand and content trust.” 

Advance Local

Pam Siddall, co-president at Advance Local, demystified the transition from print to an all digital news platform and embracing AI. 

“Our content teams continue to increase adoption of approved AI tools to improve workflows, boost performance, and enhance audience experiences,” she said, adding that “since going all digital in Alabama and New Jersey, we have expanded our reporting teams and haven’t had to let anyone go.”.

Grant Whitmore, vice president/ad tech and programmatic revenue, explored the possibilities of using AI to “improve our relationship with our users while also improving our business outcomes.”

Whitmore presented strategies such as “identifying KPIs, understanding if users are more or less likely to engage with certain offer at certain times, and putting a system in place that allows us to manage the delivery of our various offers and calls to action in a way that optimised their presentation based on their likelihood of interaction.” 

He also emphasised the importance of a strong buy-in from the newsroom to accomplish these strategies.

Condé Nast

Members of Condé Nast leadership team spoke to attendees about revenue and engagement strategies within a digital multi-brand platform. 

Having multiple brand platforms means “having to constantly experiment with new techniques,” Senior Director Adam Lifshitz said. “What worked last year won’t work this year.”

Having digital platforms that are decluttered, personalised, and interactive is imperative when creating a loyal and engaged subscriber base, he said.

Katharine Bailey, global head of product design, pointed out that managing multiple brands with diverse audiences makes “standardisation across all brands important, but we want to unify not not uniformly all platforms.”

Scientific American

Kim Lau, general manager and business development executive at Scientific American, was hired more than three years ago to push the New York-based publication through its digital transformation. What started as a print magazine, still published 11 times a year, celebrates its 180th birthday this year.

The company’s three pillars of transformation are:

• Develop a digital platform and capabilities.

• Grow audience/engagement.

• Use data to monetise subscriptions and advertising.

“We have a wonderful, long history of doing what we do, but we also have any number of challenges as we continue to try to adopt to media these days,” Lau said. “I used to think you get through transformation and you get to the other wide. Now I’m pretty sure you’re never done.”

The Guardian

The biggest revenue growth for The Guardian is happening in the United States, where the UK-based news company has seen a 40% increase in the past year.

The best thing to happen to its readership and donation numbers (The Guardian’s business model is donation-based, not subscription-based) seems to have been the election of Donald Trump in 2024.

“People are really angry at the media,” Georgia Warren, membership director at The Guardian said. “They’re tired of both-ism. That really is the difference in what resonates between us and our competitors.”

The biggest jumps in the U.S. product have included: the day The Washington Post decided to pull its endorsement of candidate Kamala Harris, Election Day, Trump’s inauguration, and the visit to the White House by Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Dotdash Meredith

Dr. Jon Roberts, chief innovation officer at Dotdash Meredith, led a conversation around the importance of how publishers can use AI to enhance quality content.

Instead of AI taking over the role of a news publisher, Roberts argues that AI priotises “new facts over quality content,” making it the role of the publisher and editor to ensure high-quality content makes it onto the platform. 

While it is impossible not to incorporate AI and its benefits into this work, “only publishers can give nuanced expertise and creativity while Chat [GTP] cannot,” he said. As the demand for expert content the moment it is needed increases, “AI plus publishing becomes better then AI/publishing alone.”

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