This week’s Media Briefing appears on the rise of the AI browser struggle, and what this implies for publishers who’re already feeling the stress of declining referral site visitors as a consequence of AI search instruments.
Some days, it appears like publishers are caught inside a disintermediation hamster wheel.
At this time, it’s not advert tech or social platforms inflicting it; it’s the AI platforms. And it seems that the true extent of their ambition is barely simply beginning to emerge.
The revolving door of intestine punches retains spinning for publishers, with Google now rolling out AI summaries to Uncover — a transfer which may minimize publishers even additional out of the referral site visitors loop. In the meantime, AI firm Perplexity’s launch of its AI-powered Comet browser and the anticipated forthcoming launch of OpenAI’s browser have despatched ripples of nervous anticipation by way of the media world.
In its press announcement, Perplexity claims that Comet is an AI-powered browser that turns conventional shopping right into a seamless, conversational expertise. As a substitute of juggling tabs and apps, customers can suppose out loud whereas Comet handles all duties, whether or not it’s finishing analysis, evaluating merchandise, sending emails, or reserving conferences. It claims it might do all this by understanding context and collapsing advanced workflows right into a single clever interface.
In Digiday’s assessments with Comet, the browser opens as much as a homepage with Perplexity’s search bar (an analogous consumer interface to a Google search bar in Chrome), however customers may also request duties — equivalent to “shut all tabs” or “summarize my current electronic mail.” Comet additionally has a built-in AI-powered “assistant” in a sidebar that customers can open as they discover the online.
Whereas some publishers are excited concerning the potential of AI-driven browsers and the way the agentic options might outline the long run consumer expertise, there’s a wholesome dose of skepticism about how disruptive this shift could also be as browsers achieve extra management over content material entry.
Naturally, for it to upset the apple cart fully, they want scale. And there are skeptics about that too. At present, Comet is out there to subscribers of Perplexity Max at $200 a month, and that’s more likely to be prohibitive to mainstream uptake, in keeping with Mattia Fosci, authorized and tech skilled and co-founder and CEO of privacy-enhancing tech firm Anonymised. For now, Comet would be the plaything of early adopters, tech-savvy and rich folks, he harassed. But, he does consider that it may incur additional disruption for publishers.
AI browsers may “transform” folks’s conduct
Mark Howard, chief working officer at TIME, was nonetheless on the waitlist to check Comet on Monday, when he spoke to Digiday. However he’d made the AI-powered net browser Dia (constructed by startup firm Browser Firm of New York) his default browser just a few days prior, to get a way of how these new browsers work.
His conclusion was two-fold: AI browsers will speed up the decline of link-based search site visitors for publishers, placing much more stress on their attain and income, however they’ll additionally assist folks work sooner by getting them proper to the knowledge they want.
“All media firms are considering rather a lot about their pageview-dependent companies, whether or not that’s ad-supported, subscription or commerce. All people’s operating these analyses proper now,” Howard stated. “You’ve gotta assume that individuals’s behaviors are going to seriously change to that have, however that conduct is barely going to be accelerated if you even have it constructed into each single web page of your net browser, versus at the moment you continue to go to both a desktop app or a cellular app for Perplexity, or OpenAI or Gemini. When it’s proper there baked into the web page expertise, it’ll solely speed up that.”
It’s not nearly AI summarizing informational content material — it’s additionally about brokers serving to customers take motion. That’s the place the larger disruption is available in, harassed Fosci. Worth comparability websites or journey search engines like google and yahoo may see a drop in site visitors. Some depend on advert income, others on commissions — each fashions rely upon customers spending time on the location. If AI brokers deal with these duties straight, that site visitors (and the related income) may disappear, he stated.
“If in case you have a query or curiosity about something, you’ll skip shopping by way of 4 or 5 totally different web sites, as a result of the AI is doing that for you and provides you the reply immediately,” stated Fosci. “Generationally, we’re already shedding the behavior of going deep and spending time consuming content material.”
Nicholas Diakopoulos, computational journalism professor at Northwestern College, stated the timing of the AI browsers rolling out simply because the media trade steps up efforts to clamp down and block undesirable AI bot site visitors could also be greater than coincidence. He speculated that if the web turns into extra anti-bot, AI firms might develop instruments that mimic human conduct to bypass safety measures and proceed amassing information, giving them an edge in information acquisition.
In the meantime, Howard believes publishers can curb free scraping whereas incomes income from AI brokers that pay to entry content material in response to consumer queries.
“How rapidly that may scale? We don’t know. It’s exhausting to venture,” Howard stated. “However there’s little doubt that with the introduction of issues [like AI browsers and AI agents]… increasingly of these items are going to be on the market day by day… retrieving real-time info, and that is a chance for the media trade.”
What we’ve heard
“The trade and market will adapt, together with that. On the finish of the day, there’s a want for trusted journalism. Earlier than, we have been based mostly on scale, and everybody was going after scale – now we’re coming again to, folks do need that trusted journalism and authoritative opinion… I feel readers will come again to us… It’s additionally why we’re constructing on these totally different platforms.”
– Forbes CEO Sherry Phillips on Google Uncover including AI summaries.
Numbers to know
$1 billion: The quantity of public broadcasting funding Congress will vote on chopping this week.
$1 billion: The quantity of Information Corp’s inventory repurchase program, approved by its board.
$4.99: A brief “surcharge” Lee Enterprises has added to its native information subscriptions, blaming inflation and tariffs.
3: The variety of titles bought by World of Good Manufacturers (which is shutting down), two of which to Ziff Davis.
What we’ve lined
IAB Tech Lab’s pitch to assist publishers achieve management of LLM scraping
- The IAB Tech Lab is working to assemble a activity pressure of publishers and edge compute firms to kick off its plan to create a technical framework that helps publishers achieve higher management of, and be paid for, LLM crawling.
- Up to now, it has roughly a dozen publishers on board for the duty pressure, who will meet for the primary workshop in New York Metropolis on July 23 (subsequent Wednesday), to debate subsequent steps for what it has referred to as its LLM Content material Ingest API framework.
Take a look at the IAB pitch deck to publishers (and what it means) right here.
Publishers’ current workforce variety studies present DEI efforts stay sluggish
- Regardless of years of pledges to diversify their ranks, main publishers are making barely perceptible progress, and in some circumstances — none in any respect.
- General, employees variety at The New York Instances, Hearst and Condé Nast has both marginally improved or stalled in 2024, in keeping with their annual workforce variety information this yr.
See extra of the information – and different DEI program adjustments – right here.
A lot of publishers faucet clear room tech for smarter information focusing on
- Information UK, The Impartial, and journal publishers Quick Media and Future are teaming up with retail media community Ocado to check clear room-powered information matching.
- The aim is to match Ocado’s shopper information with the publishers’ viewers behavioral and contextual information, to unlock extra granular advert focusing on for advertisers with out giving up consumer management.
Learn extra concerning the deal right here.
Esports occasions are placing creators middle stage
- In 2025, esports occasions are more and more placing particular person content material creators entrance and middle to maintain each followers and types .
- The rising presence of creators at occasions such because the Esports World Cup exhibits how the esports trade is acknowledging creators’ position as key drivers of each viewers and advertiser curiosity — and is more and more placing them entrance and middle in consequence.
Learn extra concerning the technique right here.
Condé Nast and Hearst strike Amazon AI licensing offers
- Condé Nast and Hearst have signed multi-year agreements with Amazon to license their content material to be used in its AI purchasing assistant Rufus.
- Rufus is Amazon’s LLM-powered purchasing assistant educated on Amazon’s product catalog and data from throughout the online, to reply buyer questions on purchasing wants, merchandise, and comparisons and make associated suggestions. It launched final yr.
Learn extra concerning the offers right here.
What we’re studying
Google Uncover provides AI summaries
Google has begun rolling out AI-generated summaries in its primary information feed Uncover, additional threatening publishers’ referral site visitors, TechCrunch reported.
Skydance trying to purchase The Free Press
Skydance CEO David Ellison has held early discussions about buying The Free Press, the web publication co-founded by Bari Weiss, The New York Instances reported.
Hearst buys The Dallas Morning Information
Hearst Newspapers has purchased DallasNews Company, the mother or father firm of The Dallas Morning Information and Medium Large, the publication reported.
The Washington Submit restructures newsroom with a brand new “Futures” desk
The Washington Submit is creating a brand new “Futures” workforce to cowl the “forces shaping life within the twenty first century,” Speaking Biz Information reported.
Reuters launches AI-voiced video content material in Spanish and Portuguese
Reuters is packaging up video content material translated and voiced by AI expertise, in Spanish and Portuguese, for individuals who pay for its information wire service.
