News Media Innovation Week: Faster, but above all more human

While every news organisation is determined to speed up its digital transition, the question of how to do so remains wide open. If one theme lingered most strongly during the Media Innovation Week in Dublin, it was the call to remain human.

More than 300 media professionals from across the globe were confronted during Earl Wilkinson’s opening speech with some uncomfortable truths: press freedom is under pressure, and in the long run we cannot rely on ‘search’ and ‘social’ to keep driving traffic to our websites. Both Artificial Intelligence and social video are brimming with opportunities and risks, but the concrete examples on stage showed how innovation in these areas is dividing newsrooms.

1. Not everyone in the newsroom is convinced that media should go all-in on AI and (social) video. One of the most frequently asked questions was: how do you persuade colleagues to adapt faster to global developments?
2. And even when the willingness to change is there, the chosen routes and pace differ widely. Some titles put their energy into strengthening their brand (with ‘trust’ frequently cited as a key metric), while others dig deep into technology, chasing economies of scale through Artificial Intelligence.

Differentiation in media

The three-day programme offered a full menu: ways to differentiate in pricing, audience, and product. Differentiation was the common denominator. As we at smartocto often argue, you must carve out your unique place in the ecosystem of reliable online information. But differentiation was also interpreted as charging one reader more than another if you can demonstrably deliver extra value. It sounds logical, yet in conversations over coffee I also encountered raised eyebrows: is that truly fair?

Strategic change ultimately stands or falls with a clear understanding of what sort of news medium you are today. “Data activation is the new superpower,” said Wilkinson, neatly capturing the spirit of the event. It also explains why most of the vendors present (including smartocto) were all focused on data. Peter Vandermeersch, CEO of Mediahuis Ireland, illustrated the shift with a simple anecdote: “Editors used to say in meetings: my mother thought this was a good article. That was our most important feedback. Today we know, at any given moment, exactly what works and what doesn’t.”

His subsequent warning sounded a bit outdated, but it resonated with many in the room: “If you want to win the fight for pageviews, you risk becoming a porn site. Dashboards are not the editors-in-chief.”

At the same time, the promise of data tools such as smartocto’s was broadly recognised. Greg Piechota pointed out, echoing our own research, that AI has not yet fundamentally altered the sources of traffic for news sites. As a response to AI’s potential disruption, the human side of publishing was repeatedly emphasised: put your journalists centre stage, double down on community features and services.

Focus on ‘$uper users’

At The Telegraph, they found that users who actively comment within the app spend five times as long on the site, visit three times as often, and are 45 times more likely to subscribe. Piechota calls them “$uper users”: just 10 percent of readers generate 78 percent of revenue.

The implicit message: focus on the people who already value you.

Too often the media conversation fixates on news avoiders – those who turn away or find their information elsewhere. Dwell on them for too long, and your energy evaporates.

That energy came flooding back into the room when two young women from Funke presented their initiative Funke.news: short explainer videos about politics tailored for social media. Young people are interested in politics, they argued, if you speak their language. Their pitch earned well-deserved applause, though also critical questions: without a clear end goal, publisher brands risk becoming diluted if their content is consumed only on third-party platforms.

In contrast, Austria’s VOL.at presented a strategy that felt more sustainable: short vertical video at the heart of its own subscription model. Some clips were repurposed for social, but the real aim was to bring audiences back to their own platform, where they could learn more about their readers and reduce dependency on algorithms.

Authentic voice in social media videos

What united these initiatives was their conviction about why such videos succeed: original formatting, visible reporters, and clear brand identity. “Influencers do something fundamentally different from news media. They use their authentic voice and put their audience first", said Carlotta Richter from Funke.news.

That personal touch can of course also be found in newsletters. Greg Piechota pointed out the uncomfortable fact that The Briefing from The New York Times now has more readers than the traditional evening news has viewers. The numbers show it also drives higher engagement – if only because a newsletter lands personally in your inbox. The Times also invests far more time, energy and money in a solid distribution strategy than most other publishers.

So... the focus is not solely on the story, but on how the story resonates. Svenska Dagbladet’s success with in-app podcasts leads to the same conclusion: be unique, and be clear about who you are.

That also means innovation must happen in close dialogue with editorial teams. One warning that stood out: involve the newsroom from the earliest stages of idea formation, and give them a voice in the product itself. Chris Clemo, Director of Innovation at the Daily Mail, described experiments with AI summarisation and archives. His emphasis was on building guardrails: “We’re testing boundaries, but we know trust is the brand.”

So yes, innovation was the dominant theme at Media Innovation Week. Faster, more, bigger – all true enough. But the most surprising takeaway was the insistence that innovation must also be more human. That struck a chord, especially at a time when algorithms are accused of amplifying the least attractive sides of humanity, and when AI, by its nature, can never truly be human.

Or, as Eimear Moran of INMA put it in her closing plea: “Follow the rules of dating.” Sensible advice – though in journalism, as in love, some rules are more often broken than followed.