08:15 - 09:00
Registration and Networking
Dominic Ponsford will be in conversation with The Economist President Luke Bradley-Jones
Arc XP president Matthew Monahan will unveil a new blueprint for how, along with the Washington Post, they are helping to reinvent journalism for the modern age.
Discussion to include:
Session to cover:
The conference room will close for 45 minutes for an interactive networking coffee session in the exhibition area. Your chance to make fruitful connections.
Publishers everywhere are rethinking the role of paywalls in their digital growth strategy. At Alma Media, that meant embracing AI-powered technology to move beyond static rules and unlock new opportunities. Integrated alongside Alma’s broader growth strategy, the Sophi Dynamic Paywall Engine helped drive smarter decisions, expand known users, and fuel digital subscriptions. In this session, Johanna Suhonen, VP of Content Business, will share the strategy behind this shift and the impact to date. She’ll then take the conversation further in a fireside chat with Ariel Burkett of Mather, digging into lessons learned and practical takeaways that other publishers can apply as they explore AI in their subscription strategies.
AI represents both an existential threat and an existential opportunity for publishers. It's not just a disruptive force—it's a once-in-a-generation on-ramp for transforming staid, traditional firms into high-margin, software-driven businesses with recurring revenue.
O’Reilly’s Julie Baron and Miso’s Lucky Gunasekara share insights learned along O’Reilly’s journey through two software transformations: first, the leap from print publishing to a subscription-based learning marketplace, featuring tech- and business-focused books, courses, live events, and expert workshops; and second, its evolution into one of the largest AI-driven platforms for personalized online learning.
You'll hear how partnerships with companies like Miso are helping O’Reilly pioneer expert AI agents, personalization at scale, and one of the industry’s first AI royalty programs for authors. Julie and Lucky will also explore how O'Reilly is actively defending creator IP in the age of LLMs—leading the charge to stop scrapers and bots from exploiting the hard work of knowledge creators worldwide.
Panel to discuss:
In this session, Sheena Peirse, incoming CEO of Mediahuis Ireland, will outline the company’s transformation from a print-focused mode, where digital access was once given away, to achieving over 100,000 paying digital subscribers in a market of just 5 million people. Sheena will share the strategies that guided this growth, as well as the challenges and ambitions for the next 100,000 subscribers. In a fireside chat with Paul McCarthy-Brain, CEO of Flip-Pay, the technology partner that powers Mediahuis’s monetisation strategy, they will explore how Flip-Pay’s dynamic paywall, subscription management, customer service, and data solutions enabled Mediahuis to unify web, app, e-paper, and print under a single platform. Mediahuis was able to focus on content and audience growth while Flip-Pay implemented custom North Star objectives. Together, they will also discuss emerging global trends in revenue opportunities for publishers.
Panel to touch on brand safety, viewability, tackling fraud and curating inventory to maximise advertiser engagement and direct-sold ad revenue around publisher content.
With referral traffic declining and AI-driven platforms surfacing answers directly, the path to growth for publisher websites is in question.
Is it time for publishers to move beyond clicks and towards targeting trust and participation?
Panel to discuss new ways for publishers to build community, loyalty and interaction (and ways to make money out of a more engaged audience).
With 200,000 online subscribers, news publisher Delfi Meedia reaches 21% of the population in Estonia (a world record).
Chief AI officer for the company Ivar Krustok will explain how the publisher is using AI to transform the way they use audience data and super-charge editorial operations in this 20-minute technology masterclass.
Leading publishers will share the latest insights and strategies from the AI frontline. How are they protecting their content from unwanted scraping and using AI technology in house to drive efficiency and find new revenue.
As AI reshapes discovery and content creation, publishers face twin threats: declining visibility and easy replication. Not all content is created equal - and not all of it will survive the era of generative AI. This talk presents FT Strategies' toolkit, which helps publishers and media owners score their content across discoverability, defensibility and user value. We’ll show how to identify high-risk content types, adapt your strategy, and protect your revenue model from AI disruption.
Purchase your tables and tickets to join us at the Future of Media Awards 2025. See this year’s shortlist here!