On June 3, at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, the 77th World News Media Congress (WNMC) hosted a session titled "How AI Is Transforming the News Experience." The congress, which ran from June 1 to 3, attracted around 1,000 participants representing over 450 media organizations from more than 60 countries.
The session was moderated by Dmitry Shishkin, former digital development editor at BBC World Service and now an independent media consultant. Panelists included Markus Knall, Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief at Ippen Digital in Germany; Astrid Maier, Deputy Editor and Head of Strategy at dpa in Germany; Sannuta Raghu, Executive Producer at Scroll.in in India; and Seo Hye-seung, Editor-in-Chief at AJP, a media group in South Korea.
The central theme of the session was "liquid content," which refers to the concept of news adapting its format based on the reader's context and delivering it in the most suitable way at the right moment. This contrasts sharply with the traditional model where readers are expected to visit media outlets.
Shishkin's "user needs" model provided the theoretical foundation for the discussion. This model starts from the premise that readers consume news not just for information but also to "know," "understand," "feel," and "do." Shishkin emphasized, "Tell the story you want to tell, but frame it from the angle that adds value for the reader." AI enhances this model by analyzing data to determine what a reader currently wants to "understand" or "feel," and then automatically generating content in the appropriate format.
The session also raised the fundamental question: What does it mean to be a news agency in the age of AI?
Traditionally, news agencies have acted as wholesalers, producing articles for distribution to other media. However, as AI automates translation, curation, and distribution, the boundaries of what agencies can deliver are expanding. In this context, AJP's case, led by Seo Hye-seung, garnered attention.
AJP is a multilingual, AI-native media organization that publishes content in five languages, including Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese, centered around its Korean outlet, Ajou Economic Daily, and its English news agency, AJP. Seo explained the paradox of being a latecomer in the English news agency market, stating that starting with AI as the foundation has mitigated initial disadvantages. AJP uses a system called "AI Pick" to select and automatically distribute some of the approximately 300 articles produced daily by Ajou Economic Daily into four additional languages. This automation has reportedly increased the publication volume in those languages tenfold and boosted English traffic by 30%.
This session naturally connected with the previous day's discussion on "Discovery: How to Rethink Search in the AI Era." While the June 2 session addressed the evolution of search strategies from SEO to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the June 3 session looked ahead to a stage where readers experience news even before searching for it.
This shift suggests a change in the long-standing questions facing the media industry. Where publishers once asked, "What is the best journalism?" the new question is, "What is the best experience?" However, both sessions emphasized a common message: the fundamentals remain rooted in the relationship with the reader. Algorithms and platforms may change constantly, but the direct connection with readers endures.
The third key point discussed was how AI is rapidly expanding the reporting scope of local publishers. Sannuta Raghu from Scroll.in shared her experiences using AI to cover broader communities with limited resources, demonstrating the significant benefits of AI automation for resource-constrained local media.
AJP shared similar findings. A small AI video and essay contest conducted last year with the Indian Embassy in South Korea started with a mere $220 marketing budget but achieved nearly one million impressions, laying the groundwork for developing India-focused content. Additionally, AJP transformed into a platform for the global fandom "ARMY" by live-streaming a BTS concert in Gwanghwamun for two months in five languages, showcasing how journalists can reinvest the time saved by AI into exploration and planning.
Ultimately, the session concluded with a unified message: while AI is shaking up the production, distribution, and consumption of news, the reader remains at the center. Technology is merely a tool, and the goal of "predictive journalism" is to enhance the reader's experience. Panelists, including Seo, shared a vision of delivering stories to readers whenever and in whatever format they need, emphasizing that media's competitiveness in the AI era lies in creating reasons for readers to return.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.