Name: Media's Next Chapter: Building Trust and Navigating Disruption
Uploaded: 2025-05-21
Duration: 17 min 22 s

Media has undergone a monumental transformation over the past decade, with traditional business models disrupted, consumers migrating to new platforms and formats, and declining trust in mainstream outlets. In this new landscape, how do media companies—both legacy institutions and startups—turn a profit while also building loyal, cross-platform audiences who trust the accuracy of their output? A conversation about the future of journalism and media more broadly.

Media's Next Chapter: Building Trust and Navigating Disruption

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Good afternoon everyone. How's everybody doing here? Good Awake great. All right, here we go, um, so we have a lot of history on this stage actually somewhat of a cool thing about being a woman in business is there's a lot of firsts you can have whether you set out to have a historic career or not. Here we are. So Rashida was appointed as the first ever black woman to run a major cable news network in the United States. Um, Jomanna is the first woman CEO of a media organization here, and I got to be the first woman editor in chief of Fortune in 95 years, so incredible. So all of us have never really seen this media industry in the days of the martini lunches and the really thick magazines that sounded so glamorous. It's been nothing but change for the decades that we've been in it, and now is no different and perhaps we're facing the biggest change yet. So I'm curious though, as you look at the media org that you've run and are running from a global perspective, what do you see as the biggest challenges that we're up against and maybe Jamon, I'll start with you. Um, thank you, Alison. It's such a pleasure to be with you all here today sharing the stage with two remarkable women who are pioneers, um, um, in the media industry, very much paving the way for all of us and the younger generations to come. But I would say. You know, the way that we decided to look at it is that we're embracing challenges opportunity. Of course everyone's talking about the next big disruption, what's happening with AI and how it impact journalism in the media and monetization of our platforms, but ultimately I think fear will result in us losing um our positioning, our credibility, um, and the trust that people have very much put in us. um, we're very excited. About this next chapter, however, excitement means being prepared. Excitement only means that it could work if you have the right strategy in place. Ultimately, I also believe that we live in such a great, um, a time where everyone is digitally connected, so it makes that sort of content creation process easier. Um, we also are empowered by AI and technology that allows you to understand your audiences. Their preferences, what they want to read what they want to see, when they want to see it, but ultimately again it goes back to ensuring that you have the right strategy in place and the right upskilling and reskilling ongoing throughout the year to ensure that your journalists, your media practitioners are also capable to dealing with that challenge. And Rashita, what do you think? Is it, is it the First Amendment being challenged in the United States or is it this business crazy model that we're all trying to sort through? Yes. No, I think it's exactly, um, it's all of those things and, and, and, and I think similar to what uh Javana said in a world where there's a lot of challenge, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of change, there's a lot of uncertainty, uh, we don't have a playbook for how to navigate this kind of change, but we do know how the business has evolved we do know how the industry has evolved if you, if you take this. Moment in time and you're in the middle of the of the the storm and you see all the change happening around you it can be disorienting but I think as you look at the industry overall and look at the evolution over decades and decades and decades you'll see we've been resilient. I mean I I know um for many of you you cannot imagine a world imagine a time where we didn't have streaming. I'm old enough to remember that. Or a world where we didn't have the internet or a world where everyone didn't even have cable and we've been able to survive and evolve in those moments and I have no doubt that in this moment of time while it feels disruptive, the people who figure it out, which many of them are women because in the US at least most news organizations, television, digital whatever are run by women including Alison, um, the women are gonna figure it out and we'll be better for it. Who better right? we solve things. So what do viewers and readers want? It seems like it's getting ever more complicated. The viewing habits are changed. I know here in Reno we have a population that is significantly young, um, like 2/3 of the population we were talking about stage are under the age of 30, um, and I know in the US. The younger audiences are consuming media completely differently than the older generations, and that's something we think about at Fortune all the time. It's how do we cater to the legacy audience that we have and also bring up the next gen who want completely different things. So how are you seeing those viewership changes generationally and, and what are you doing to make it happen? I think we live in a in a world that has been dominated by the scroll um and that's what we're very quickly having to adapt to um attention spans have also become shorter, uh but ultimately that doesn't mean that the content that you create or the journalism that you produce has to be any less important and it doesn't mean that it loses. And it's editorial integrity. um, however, we do have to adapt to changing audience, uh, or, or consumer trends and behaviors and where they want to get that content. We believe that, you know, with the printing press, um, that was a major big disruption and then with social another disruption of course prior to that internet, no, I don't. But I do remember the days of the internet and that dial um and that changed everything for us um and then of course with social media and media companies or organizations saying how are we now going to compete with that platform, how are we going to compete with the likes of X and Snapchat and Instagram and now TikTok but what what we've realized is that if you embrace it and if you make it part of your core strategy, you no longer have to compete for with it. You are embracing it and becoming a part of it, um, I think ultimately. In the Middle East specifically, you have a population, the majority of it is under the age of 30. Therefore, a very young demographic that lives on the internet. They're digital natives. They want content that they can consume via their screens. They no longer want to watch something on demand or want to watch something that is pre-scheduled for them. You need to cater to them on the platforms that they use in the formats that they are now familiar to. I think we lived in a world 5 years ago where you. Content strategy was a one size fits all, um, where you did not repur you simply repurpose content that you were creating for TV or for social across the board that no longer works um you very much need to create native content for these specific platforms that your audiences want to engage with and you have the immediate analytics to tell you whether that's working or not and I think um as an example of that is the power shift and so we've seen the power shift from the content creators from the distributors. To the consumers and so your example, um, about young people consuming content on a lot of different platforms is now driving all of the strategies that news organizations across the world you know we heard leaders from TikTok up on this stage we heard leaders from Microsoft on this stage talking about how they're adapting their distribution tactics, uh, to address that and I think as content creators, as news organizations, as media organizations we have to make that adjustment or we or we're not gonna survive. And what about the crisis of trust that we're facing as an industry, um, you know, it seems like nobody, everybody has the alternative facts. Everybody's getting their information from they don't even know where they're seeing it on their fees, but they don't know the original source of it, if it's been vetted, if it's been checked, and. You would think that's an opportunity for us as journalists and media orgs and yet mainstream mainstream media is really being challenged about how we produce what we produce and how we know what we know so I'm wondering how you all think about this crisis of trust, what that opportunity is for journalists like us and also um what how we can be better at fixing that. You know, I think well it's both a crisis it's an opportunity and so I think because you're seeing a bunch of different um dynamics converge at once it's why it's been such a challenge. There is just the, the fact that there's so many different news or new sources out there that are not vetted. Some people don't even know you have to vet the source. Some people think, well, uh, it made it to TikTok but it must be real like there or there must be a kernel of truth to it. So there's the, the, the increase of. Of content coming in that's not necessarily sourced there is the concerted effort by some entities to convince the public not to trust us like there that is a business model for some entities in in some places and then there's also just the hard work that we have to do as content creators like news organizations have to continue to ensure that they're the content that they're putting out meets all of that criteria. I think we're seeing it at such a um a pace right now because all of those things are happening at once. My thought there and and this is how I, um, guided my newsrooms was we have to just do the work and it's every single day it's every single story it's every headline, it's every script it's every platform every single time and I think sometimes allowing the distraction of the narrative and the messaging get in the can get in the way of the work that you're doing but when you're consistently delivering again this is a moment in time when you look at the totality of the of the business and the and the the public service. that we've all committed to doing it's not gonna change that work it's not gonna change the need it's not gonna change the mission. You just have to be consistent. I do believe that this is one thing that you cannot compromise. This is one thing that you cannot say let's just simply leverage AI or let's, you know, it's on X, so let's report it. I think newsroom 101 is two sources. Do you have two sources, then yes, confirm it. You can go ahead with that with that piece of news, um, but I also, I also do sense that. A lot of social media users or generally your consumer and your population are now reverting to traditional sources of media to confirm that news, especially with this the widespread of misinformation and especially during um breaking news or or live events um everyone's going back to those mainstream traditional platforms. Uh, but ultimately I think you know what these new technologies and these new tools and social media, what it allows us to do is to become more efficient and quicker, but it doesn't mean that it compromises our editorial integrity and I do feel it's an opportunity for media organizations to reemphasize their important role on informing the wider public on the issues at hand. Yeah, I think so much of it is about continuing to educate about how great journalism happens and that it's not just made up or we're not making up sources. Um, one thing we've started including in our articles is like if we do we have a whole anonymous sourcing policy and we also need to say why we're allowing someone to be anonymous. Also, by the way, that fortune knows the identity of the person because that's not even clear sometimes. It's like if you say an anonymous source, a reader might think it's anonymous to fortune. We're like, no, no, no, we really know who we're talking about. We know and we do a lot of work to verify, which is, by the way, ever hard in the world of deep fakes and and videos can be manufactured and everything, so it's a wild time, um. What do you think about the business model of the future for journalism, and do you think that journalism alone can be a business model or does it need to be propped up by something else? Like if you look at Bloomberg, they are a terminal business that funds great journalism. Um, the New York Times, most people spend time looking about cooking and, and, uh, games, which are great things, but they're not the core, you know, news journalism. So do you need something to subsidize it or can it be, do we think the consumer will come back to paying? I don't think you can separate the business and the journalism part of of the organization, you know, you mentioned New York Times and and while they have a lot of different verticals, you also have the athletic which is profitable and it's a content business. So I think it's less about having something to prop up the journalism and more about finding ways to diversify the monetization of the content whether it's through subscription, whether it's it's through a. Advertising whether it's through a diversity of distribution I think the business model of tomorrow is not gonna be as dependent on any one thing you're gonna have the flexibility to bring new streams of revenue in using your content as your core. The core and in your value proposition is the IP of your brand and your business, and I think again that those who do it well know how to diversify that know how to monetize that. And know how to, I would also say be nimble and keep up with the changing times and follow the consumers where they are, where they're consuming content today and and we've talked about this today, um, it's all changing so quickly maybe a different place um where they're consuming tomorrow and I think those news organizations that can be nimble and finding ways not only to move to the new platforms but to monetize on those new platforms are the ones that will survive. I think what we're doing, especially at SRMG is that and then we're not reinventing the wheel here, but we're creating new sources of revenue, but ultimately the foundation is that content creation process that you have and that's why your audiences or your clients or advertisers are going to continue coming to you, but you do need to evolve and you do need to be nimble and agile enough to allow for a diversification of monetization across your platforms. We cannot again have. That one size fits all model and simply rely on archaic ways or traditional business models, um, we have, you know, at SRMG we've now created an events company that is very much an extension of our brands and why we've done it is that we simply did not want to to enter enter the events business which is highly lucrative and has high profit margins, but we wanted to leverage the strength of our brand equity. Um we have 30+ titles under the umbrella of the group. A lot of these types. Or have um loyal audiences and loyal readers but then why don't we create events such as um this event that we're sitting here right now so that you can turn that monologue into a dialogue, hence creating more opportunities for engagement, hence creating more opportunities for advertisement and subscriptions or simply a diversification of those uh revenue. We've also created FRMG Labs which is our in-house creative arm, allowing us to better cater to our advertisers and our clients. And provide them with that premium storytelling very much uh leveraging are the data that we gather via the number of people that are visiting our platforms and our websites. Therefore, now you're able to curate and tailor more that will result in higher monetization and higher profit margins and I think Rashida will agree with me, you know, it depends on the platform and it depends on the topic and it depends on um the business that you're running. There are ultimately more um. With lifestyle, it's a much higher profit margin than it is for example with news and that's why platforms such as the New York Times would have to go into a new product and that's exactly what we're all adopting. Those who fail to adopt are the ones who are not gonna be able to monetize. So I want to open it up for a question from the audience if there are any, if there are, raise your hand, otherwise I have a pile of more. Any questions? OK, um, good, and I get a hug all the time, um, so when you're looking ahead, what are the biggest trends that you're gonna be leaning into? I think along the way there have been a lot of distractions. Actually one of the things that's benefited Fortune the most is I think, um, we were so slow to digitalize, um, there was not even a website for Fortune until 2014 that we missed the whole run up on the attention economy where. Everything was about clicks and and kind of pulling people in um and not about the quality and so that is fundamentally helped us moving forward to get away from the the the mass scale approach of attention um so missing that trend was great um what are the trends here that you think are just buzz and what are the things that you think you're gonna lean into in the next few years of your media careers? I think we're very much leaning into AI. Um, I truly do believe that it's not just the future, it's currently the present. Um, I must say that when I joined the group of over 4 years ago now, um. SRMG has always been a pioneer and SRMG has always been a market disruptor. Uh, we've always had the first websites, the first, um, female only magazine, the first we've had so many firsts, yet when I joined, I did feel that we were way behind when it came to digital transformation and we've embarked on a, um, very detailed comprehensive digital transformation strategy at the time I think. didn't really understand what that transformation entailed. It's not simply about boosting uh viewership on your website. It's not simply about being more interconnected. It's about creating formats that are done in a digital first to cater to your digital audience, and that's what laid the foundations and the groundwork of the groundwork for where we are today of embracing and adopting AI. However, I do. I mean, I sit in meetings now and we're discussing the next big tool in AI and how we're gonna use this versus that, but that is relevant to us today. It could not be relevant not just a year from now, a week from now, um, but, uh, again embracing technology and digital transformation is something that we're most excited about and I think it's a trend that we need to lead and not be as scared of. I'm watching um I would say the race to next who will be the first major news organization to do something revolutionary with AI? Who will be the first to figure out a new monetization model? Who will be what, what entities will be next to converge their efforts and become a bigger, stronger version of themselves? I think, you know, we're in this, this disruptive period and and we'd like to throw that word around. Disruptive, right, but we're in a period where the business itself will look nothing like this in a few years. It will look nothing like this in a year even. And so one of the things I'm watching and it's been really interesting and I think really helpful to watch it from 30,000 ft is what we're we're all on the precipice of change what happens next? Who goes first and who drives it? Well, thank you ladies so much for your insights. Um, I'm looking forward to figuring out the future of media with you, um, and who better to do it with. So thank you very much.