With AI serving up answers before readers even click, Ashwin Padmanabhan argues that publishers need to move beyond chasing pageviews and invest in trust and direct audience connections.
As AI tools now deliver answers before readers even reach a publisher’s site, the old strategy of maximizing pageviews is losing ground. Ashwin Padmanabhan, Chief Operating Officer at WPP Media South Asia, told the Indian Printers Summit in Pune that trust-not just information-has become the real currency for newsrooms. In a world where generative AI can produce and spread content at scale, publishers who can’t prove their reporting is authentic and accountable risk being left behind.
In September 2026, Reuters announced a partnership with ITN to make over 1 million video clips from 70 years of broadcast history available through Reuters Connect, with AI-powered search planned for January 2027.
He pointed to The New York Times as an example of diversification, highlighting its success in building separate products for news, sports, and cooking. Each area offers exclusive content and depth, giving readers more reasons to subscribe than just a paywall. This approach, Padmanabhan said, helps publishers reach different audience groups and build habits that support steady revenue. The same thinking applies to advertising: knowing your audience allows for more relevant, higher-value ads.
Padmanabhan also mentioned Reuters for its focus on trusted reporting and understanding its audience. He outlined a four-part strategy for publishers: archive, license, data, and value. By licensing archives and preparing data for AI use, publishers can open up new revenue streams, including supplying enterprise AI models that need reliable, verified information. Journalism, he argued, should be seen not just as content for readers but as a trusted data source for AI systems.
Reuters Connect now aggregates decades of Reuters material and content from over 100 other organizations into a single platform for licensing news, photos, and video, making it a leading example of archive monetization in 2026.
In this environment, the competition isn’t just other news outlets. Padmanabhan warned that the real rivals are anyone the audience already trusts-creators, influencers, or any credible source. He encouraged publishers to consider partnerships with trusted creators, as long as verification and editorial standards remain clear and uncompromised. The challenge is to reach audiences wherever they are, without giving up the direct relationship that drives long-term value.
More than 280 people from 36 companies attended the first day of the Indian Printers Summit, showing how urgent these questions are for the industry. The discussion echoes recent coverage of US newspapers setting boundaries on AI-generated content, part of a wider debate about automation and editorial integrity.
Padmanabhan’s message is clear: technology will keep making information cheaper, but only publishers who invest in trust, judgment, and relevance will keep their value. The winners won’t be those who flood the web with content, but those who own the audience relationship and can prove where every story comes from. For newsrooms facing the AI era, the job is to monetize relationships, not just pageviews.
