On June 2, during the second day of the World News Media Congress (WNMC) in Marseille, discussions surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) have moved beyond threats and experimentation. News organizations worldwide are unveiling different strategies on how to utilize AI and what kind of relationship to establish with it.
India's The Hindu is using AI as a tool to solve article discovery issues, while Sweden's Bonnier News is focusing on AI-driven personalization and interactive news archives. In contrast, Austria's Kleine Zeitung is redefining its news distribution strategy by viewing AI as a new audience.
"There are too many articles that readers have not seen"
Pundi Srirami, Chief Product Officer (CPO) and business head of The Hindu Group, identified 'discovery' as AI's most significant role.
"Our site is overflowing with articles that subscribers have never seen," he said.
The Hindu has approximately 35 million monthly users and around 1 million app users, but expanding its paid readership remains a challenge. Srirami diagnosed the issue as not a lack of content but rather that readers are not reaching the right articles.
To address this, The Hindu is reprocessing a single article into various formats. Readers can choose from AI-generated summaries, Q&A formats, short articles of 200 words, or expanded articles of 300 words.
As a result, the usage rate of AI-based content formats increased from 6% to 36%.
Personalization also focused more on 'exposure space' rather than the content itself. Through AI-driven trend recommendations, customized notifications, and personalized app screens, about 15% of current app page views come from personalized areas, with some areas reaching up to 30%.
Audio content was not applied indiscriminately.
Srirami explained, "We only apply it where it adds value."
Notably, audio content providing current affairs commentary for civil service exam candidates recorded a 24% conversion rate. He noted that about half of the increase in app engagement over the past year came from AI-based features.
From Search to Conversation
Sweden's Bonnier News is changing the way news is searched using AI.
CPO Jan Helin explained that AI enables much more sophisticated personalization than existing recommendation algorithms.
A key area of focus is the interactive archive.
Instead of entering keywords to search, readers can ask questions in natural language, and AI will provide answers based on years of accumulated article data.
Helin stated, "The conversion rate for users using the conversational interface is 60%."
This is seen as evidence that readers are increasingly turning to conversation windows for information rather than search boxes.
"AI is a new reader"
The most striking claim came from Sebastian Krause, digital head of Austria's Kleine Zeitung.
He assessed that for the past 15 years, media companies have focused on increasing clicks and search engine visibility.
However, he noted that a new type of visitor has emerged in the AI era.
That visitor is the AI bot.
These bots read and summarize articles but rarely click on them.
Krause interpreted this not as a threat but as a new opportunity.
"AI is a new reader," he said.
"Do not fight against a great product; AI is an excellent product," he added.
Kleine Zeitung is even considering building separate sites for humans and AI agents.
The strategy is to provide content in a format that machines can easily read and utilize, while the conditions will be determined by the media company.
"Summaries can be made. But they must pay for it."
Krause stated that in the AI era, distribution is no longer a bottleneck.
In the internet age, how widely content is distributed was crucial, but in the future, unique content that cannot be found elsewhere will be the key competitive advantage.
He emphasized, "In the AI era, the bottleneck is not distribution but originality and scarcity."
In the AI Era, Competitiveness is 'Exclusive Content'
Toshi Panigrahi, co-founder of Tolbit, pointed out that AI companies are currently collecting content in real-time.
He argued that media companies need to understand which AIs are reading their content, what topics they are seeking, and which journalists' content holds influence in the AI environment.
As AI agents evolve beyond simply reading content to performing actual actions, media companies must also establish systems to measure and monetize AI utilization.
AI is no longer just a tool to enhance newsroom productivity. It is establishing itself as a new media environment that changes how news is discovered, consumed, and distributed. Global news organizations are moving beyond viewing AI as a source of fear and caution, seeking to leverage it to expand the value of journalism and create new reader touchpoints.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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