Beyond Content: Redesigning Media Value in the AI Era

Ladina Heimgartner, President of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and CEO of Ringier Media Switzerland, argues that the media industry is facing a structural crisis where the pursuit of reach and cost-cutting through artificial intelligence is scaling irrelevance rather than value.

In an analysis of the current state of the industry, Heimgartner asserts that AI is not a solution for broken business models but a catalyst that exposes them. She suggests that the abundance of content, now rendered effectively infinite by generative AI, has diminished the value of traditional production models.

The Cost of Structural Imbalance

According to the WAN-IFRA World Press Trends Outlook 2025-2026, editorial and content production remain the single largest expense for media companies, accounting for 32.5 percent of total expenditure.

Heimgartner notes a mismatch where organizations produce what is easy to produce rather than what is worth producing. This trend is exacerbated by the industry’s reliance on metrics designed for reach rather than value, leading to the creation of formats that generate views but fail to produce subscriptions, loyalty, or transactions.

While 93 percent of publishers have prioritized AI and automation as top investments, 46.2 percent of the industry still describes its AI maturity as emergent. Heimgartner contends that the primary constraint is not the technology itself, but the underlying operating models. automating an inefficient process only scales existing irrelevance.

Brand Authority and the Rise of Individual Creators

As generic content becomes abundant, Heimgartner identifies trust and brand authority as the only remaining differentiators. This shift is manifesting in a move toward personality-driven journalism, where individual journalists become more visible and accountable.

The emergence of platforms such as YouTube, Substack, and podcasting allows journalists with significant loyal followings to own their audience and monetization without the need for institutional overhead.

Our question needs to be: what can a media institution offer that no solo creator can build alone?

Ladina Heimgartner

Heimgartner argues that the value of a media institution lies in combining reach brands that create scale with depth brands that build the context necessary for loyalty and transactions. She suggests that media brands must articulate a specific, defensible value to their best journalists or risk losing them to independent creation.

Moving Beyond the Subscription Model

The analysis suggests that the era of subscription growth served as a bridge rather than a final destination. Heimgartner claims that companies treating subscription growth as the ultimate goal are now hitting structural limits.

The industry is shifting toward capturing value wherever user intent materializes. Here’s evidenced by a rise in revenue from services, partnerships, and events, which increased to 25.4 percent in 2025.

Heimgartner proposes a distinction between service-oriented content and public interest journalism. While commercial optimization can be applied to the former to enable actions—such as booking tickets or solving real-time problems—applying the same logic to investigative or political reporting reduces trust and value.

She argues that efficiency gains from service and transaction portfolios must explicitly fund journalism that cannot pay for itself, as relying on goodwill is unsustainable during economic downturns.

Redesigning the Operating Model

The real opportunity for AI, according to Heimgartner, is not in efficiency but in the redesign of the operating model. She advocates for automating routine tasks to shift editorial capacity toward the high-value work that differentiates a brand.

The organizations most likely to thrive in the AI era will be those that:

• Invest in journalists who build trust around specific user needs while maintaining a civic mission.
• Develop product teams capable of converting user intent into action.
• Establish partnerships that extend the media ecosystem without compromising editorial sovereignty.

Heimgartner concludes that AI is a tool rather than a strategy. The survival of media companies depends on their courage to redesign traditional patterns and move away from an operating model that prioritizes anonymous traffic over meaningful outcomes.