This week’s Media Briefing digs into why The New York Occasions is hiring the previous head of Google’s search and AI partnerships staff to handle its relationships with platforms and massive tech firms – and why the rent is coming at a pivotal time as AI reshapes the media ecosystem.
Nobody leaves Google for a writer gig as a result of they’re chasing an even bigger paycheck.
Which is why Adam Greenberg’s transfer to The New Occasions this month is drawing consideration.
At Google, he was deep within the engine room, main search and AI partnerships. Now, he’s entering into a well-recognized territory however a really totally different function as vp of strategic partnerships at The Occasions.
“I can’t consider a greater place to proceed that journey than at The Occasions,” Greenberg wrote in a LinkedIn submit.
He joins a five-person staff answerable for managing the writer’s relationships with platforms – an space that’s grown extra strategic because the writer takes a tougher line on how its content material is surfaced, monetized and repurposed in AI techniques. In keeping with a Occasions spokesperson, Greenberg leads partnerships with main tech platforms and different massive firms.
Past that, he’ll additionally work throughout the group – together with with the newsroom – on content material distribution and viewers growth.
He stories to Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, the pinnacle of strategic partnerships and chief of employees on the Occasions.
That journey began 14 years in the past, when he joined Google to assist launch on-line fee merchandise for Google Pockets. Over time, his focus shifted to partnerships for net and search initiatives aimed toward publishers and creators – work that finally expanded into AI and the mechanics of how content material will get discovered and, more and more, used.
All through, he labored carefully with media firms, mentioned a former colleague, who described him as “unbelievable” to work with. Two others echoed the sentiment.
“Adam has intensive expertise round media and know-how. He’s nice at constructing relationships and understanding what must be finished to keep up a wholesome ongoing relationship. I feel it’ll even be useful that he’ll have the ability to bridge the tradition divide between a information organisation and the massive tech firms, along with… work with AI firms on distribution,” mentioned Madhav Chinnappa, AI and media advisor, and the previous head of Google Information partnerships. “I’m hopeful that he may also help the NYT act as a pacesetter on behalf of the entire information ecosystem with Huge Tech.”
Greenberg’s arrival on the Occasions is a basic poacher-turned-gamekeeper transfer: the one who as soon as helped Google optimize its relationships with publishers is now serving to one of many greatest publishers push again.
“The appointment of executives with a transparent imaginative and prescient and deep technological experience is a strategic necessity,” mentioned Nicole Denman Greene, vp and analyst at Gartner. “It permits for extra exact analysis, negotiation, and implementation of AI offers, even because the know-how continues to enhance and the principles change.”
Neither Greenberg nor the Occasions are saying rather more about his arrival. However the logic behind the rent isn’t laborious to learn: in an ecosystem the place the traces between platform, accomplice and adversary are more and more blurred, the Occasions is bringing in somebody who is aware of how the opposite facet works.
That’s desk stakes now. As the primary main writer to sue OpenAI, and its largest investor Microsoft, over the unauthorized use of its content material to coach massive language fashions, the Occasions has made clear it isn’t ready for the phrases of engagement to be dictated to it. Greenberg’s arrival reinforces that intent.
Particularly as a result of, lawsuit apart, the writer has embraced AI extra enthusiastically than others, weaving into the workflow of reporters and baking it into the expertise of readers.
Whether or not extra publishers observe go well with stays to be seen. However some indicators level that means. BBC Information not too long ago employed Meta’s former director for media partnership in APAC Anjali Kapoor as its first director of AI, innovation and development.
“If that’s an actual enterprise going ahead, then you want to rent actual groups to run it,” mentioned an government at a big writer, who spoke below the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to Digiday.
Little by little, that’s beginning to look much less like a prediction and extra like a playbook. As AI techniques more and more depend on real-time, high-quality content material to energy their instruments, publishers have a window to show that dependence into recurring income.
“Hiring a veteran partnerships individual might be an excellent thought for that,” mentioned the writer exec.
These strikes are unfolding throughout a transitional second within the relationship between publishers and tech platforms round AI.
On one hand, publishers are seeing indicators of progress – some platforms are lastly exhibiting as much as the negotiating desk, and there’s rising optimism that regulators may step in to implement stronger protections. Alternatively, doubts stay. Many in publishing nonetheless query whether or not platforms truly wish to accomplice – or whether or not they’re able to doing so in ways in which handle the deeper structural issues.
“With conventional advert income below stress, publishers are turning to modern income streams resembling personalised subscription fashions, direct buyer engagement and even information monetization,” mentioned Gartner’s Denman Greene. “On this context, strategic partnerships are key. By leveraging AI and information insights, publishers can develop extra environment friendly, customer-centric fashions that drive sustained income.”
What we’ve heard
“All of us hit the button, there was an enormous ceremony. We blocked and all people blocked and it’s like, now what? It’s not like all these AI firms are knocking on the door saying hey, do you wanna do a deal? However then there are rumors that possibly they’re having remoted conversations.”
– A publishing exec on flipping the “crimson button” and blocking unauthorized AI bots from scraping their websites.
OpenAI might have ghosted the IAB Tech Lab however it confirmed up for Condé Nast only a week later. Seems, it’s not dodging publishers – it’s selecting them. Fastidiously.
The AI firm hosted its personal media occasion with Condé Nast in its New York Metropolis workplace yesterday (July 30) afternoon, marketed as a dialogue and demo of use instances for ChatGPT. Condé Nast signed an AI licensing cope with OpenAI in August 2024 so it’s arguably unsurprising what the message was: that AI may also help publishers, not simply hole them out.
A lot so, the truth is, that the AI firm used the occasion to place itself as a useful accomplice in figuring out the way forward for content material distribution. By no means thoughts the lawsuits or the accusations of large-scale content-scraping – this was all about partnership.
OpenAI execs emphasised the worth of publishers’ content material a number of instances through the two-hour presentation, which additionally featured Condé Nast editor-in-chiefs like Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher and Glamour’s Sam Barry.
“The explanation that we’ve partnerships with the publishers is that we will discover [and] be part of the way forward for content material and information, not simply as a software that will get deployed internally… however really when it comes to determining what this ecosystem must appear like,” Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of product, mentioned onstage on the occasion.
He emphasised that ChatGPT customers need info from dependable sources, not AI-generated content material. The problem, he admitted, is that the pathway to that content material has but to be developed.
“What I’m actually interested by is discovering methods to get that content material to our customers in utterly novel methods. It doesn’t simply must be citations and descriptions,” he mentioned. “We’re very a lot initially of that, however I feel it’s essential and it needs to be a collaboration to go determine that out, as a result of high-quality content material is extremely vital.”
Turley additionally mentioned he thinks publishers’ content material needs to be highlighted extra prominently in ChatGPT, in what felt like a big admission that publishers want extra visibility (and, hopefully, referrals) within the product.
“I feel content material deserves a lot extra actual property than what we’ve been in a position to give it,” Turley mentioned. “We’re at our greatest once we are working with the writer ecosystem to design these experiences collectively.”
OpenAI could also be speaking partnerships however it’s doing it by itself phrases. By exhibiting up with Condé Nast and skipping the trade at massive, the corporate appears to be drawing a line: it’s not essentially right here to win over all of publishing, simply the components that play alongside. The way forward for content material, it appears, can be negotiated behind closed doorways.
Numbers to know
1 million: The variety of digital subscribers Day by day Mail plans to get by October 2028.
79%: The proportion drop in clickthroughs a website may expertise if search outcomes are changed by AI summaries, based on an Authoritas report.
$20 million: The quantity new donors have contributed in annual worth to supporting public media previously three months.
350: The variety of AI-generated native newsletters run by Good Metropolis and purchased by publication firm 6AM Metropolis, including greater than 500,000 subscribers to its base.
What we’ve coated
Publishers rally to wall off AI’s free journey
- Greater than 80 media executives met in New York final week in an IAB Tech Lab workshop to determine how you can block (and monetize) AI firms scraping writer content material to coach their fashions.
- The AI firms on the core of the problem — OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity — didn’t attend.
Learn extra about what the coalition talked about right here.
Creators’ IRL occasions absorb extra of manufacturers’ advertising {dollars}
- As manufacturers crank up their influencer advertising spend, creators are leaning into in-person occasions to sweeten the deal for potential sponsors.
- IRL creator occasions are engaging to manufacturers as a result of they’ll measure efficiency, and so they usually come pre-loaded with digital content material alternatives.
Learn extra concerning the development of creators’ occasions right here.
What publishers wish to see from Google’s AI licensing offers
- After years of scraping and stonewalling, Google is starting to speak AI licensing with publishers.
- Publishers wish to see a deal that brings actual cash, actual transparency and a way of management.
Learn extra about what’s on publishers’ want lists right here.
Google’s newest core replace leaves publishers rattled
- Google’s newest core replace was a nail-biting rollercoaster as publishers witnessed volatility in search referrals and rankings/visibility.
- One head of viewers at a information writer mentioned there have been a number of moments the place issues have been wanting “grim.”
Learn extra concerning the affect of the most recent Google replace right here.
Unfastened disclosures in creator advertising are lastly catching up
- A wave of lawsuits and watchdog scrutiny is digging into undisclosed or poorly labelled posts — and businesses are taking observe.
- Over the previous few months, at the very least six firms have confronted class-action lawsuits looking for thousands and thousands in damages over undisclosed paid influencer posts.
Learn extra about it right here.
What we’re studying
Google AI Mode expands to the UK
Google expanded its AI-powered search engine AI Mode to the U.Ok. after bringing it to India and the U.S. this summer time, Search Engine Roundtable reported.
DallasNews Company rejects Alden International Capital’s supply
The mum or dad firm of The Dallas Morning Information and Medium Big has rejected an acquisition supply from Alden International Capital. Hearst Newspapers upped its bid to $15 per share.
Ladbible launches Betches in U.Ok.
U.S. ladies’s media model Betches (acquired by Ladbible Group in 2023), has launched within the U.Ok. on Instagram and TikTok, Press Gazette reported.
Gannett presents staff buyouts
Gannett is providing staff voluntary buyout packages amid “static income tendencies,” CEO Mike Reed mentioned in a memo, based on TheWrap.
AI instruments steadily cite Reuters, AP and Time
A report from Muck Rack discovered retailers like Reuters, AP, Time and FT have been usually cited by AI techniques (although it diversified primarily based on the mannequin), as did area of interest websites like Good Housekeeping and Investopedia.
