“I know you desperate for a change, let the pen glide / But the only real change come from inside.” — J. Cole, “Change
AI is changing how audiences discover content, and context is redefining its value. Publishers like Forbes, Recurrent, and The Independent are proving that success in the agentic web comes from connection—owning the experiences that AI can’t replicate.
That J. Cole chorus has been looping in my head lately as I think about what’s happening to publishers in this era of AI search and discoverability.
While Cole was talking about personal evolution and the cost of waiting for the world to change, it holds a lot of meaning for media too.
Publishers keep looking outward — to platforms, to policy, to tech — when the real change needs to come from within.
That’s a thread that’s been weaving through discussions I’ve had on LinkedIn and in sessions I’ve attended at conferences over the past month, including AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO, CIMM Summit, and IAB Connected Commerce.
All of these moments keep taking me back to something Stephanie Layser, Global Head, Publisher Ad Tech Solutions, Amazon Web Services, said during her keynote at AdMonsters Sell Side Summit in Nashville back in August.
“We have to move from scale to relationships. We need to focus on bringing users into our experience and keeping them there. It’s very hard to monetize a consumer that doesn’t like you,” she said.
Layser’s point wasn’t just about engagement; it was about agency. The more connected publishers become to their audiences, the less dependent they are on anyone else’s feed.
Publishers vs. Platforms: The Saga Continues
“Publishers deserve clear credit, compensation, and control,” Amanda Martin, CEO of Mediavine, has said about publisher rights in this era of AI scraping and constant platform algorithm changes.
Martin is right. But that’s only half the story. Publishers need to make changes from the inside because, well, the bus has already left the station.
That became all too clear in a recent LinkedIn conversation I had about where publishers fit into the agentic web.
“Pubs need to meet their audiences wherever they are, but that doesn’t mean they need to keep them there. UX updates to your site aren’t going to change the human behavior of a person in an aggregator app. Publishers need to take back control of the relationship they (used to) have with their readers,” said David Geller, Director of Product Management, Fortune.
Things got lively in the comments, but Amit Shah, Product Manager at Haymarket Media Group, stuck a pin in the conversation.
“There is a bifurcation of the internet happening in real time. One is the internet as we know it today, and the second is this gen-AI, agentic one, that is being introduced. You need to ensure you are building for both of the internets,” he said.
And he’s right. The open web and the agentic web are already coexisting. One is built on clicks, while the other is on prompts.
So, perhaps the question isn’t whether publishers adapt, but how they choose to show up in this new, agentic web.
How Publishers Are Already Showing Up
During Programmatic IO’s, “How Publishers Are Turning AI To Their Advantage,” AdExchanger’s Anthony Vargas kicked off the panel with an alarming stat. “Publishers are losing 30 to 70% of referral traffic to zero-click AI search,” he said.
It’s comforting to know that not all publishers are taking the wait-and-see approach.
For instance, Forbes has shifted its focus to AI-powered personalization and diversified beyond search to build its video, e-commerce, and newsletter businesses. They also formed an AI and Strategic Platforms Group to negotiate the use and valuation of their journalism by AI companies.
“We’re working on different ways to monetize our content, but there should be a value exchange when it comes to AI—the content they’re tracking and the journalism behind it,” Rebecca Solórzano, SVP, Programmatic Operations & Strategy at Forbes, said.
At Recurrent, the pivot from search began long before AI started capturing clicks.
“Even in early 2023, we were pushing people more to video, building our YouTube Infrastructure, email, and watching live events — components that are not search-reliant,” Andrew Perlman, Co-Founder and CEO, said.
It’s paying off. Recurrent’s Military View Conference drove 20x revenue growth and sold out 2,700 tickets, with 85% of revenue from sponsors targeting a focused community.
Across the pond, The Independent is experimenting with Bulletin, a human-created, AI-assisted video product that condenses long-form stories into digestible clips. The publisher is driving 20% more traffic, according to Blair Tapper, SVP of U.S.
For these publishers, the path forward isn’t about fighting AI, but instead owning the experiences that AI can’t replicate.
The New Discovery Has Flipped the Funnel
If you’re a publisher thinking this too shall pass, you’re probably missing your next best move.
Publishers once fueled the entire discovery and decision cycle, but now discovery is happening on TikTok and Instagram feeds, on Pinterest boards, in Reddit, in shoppable videos, in influencer collaborations, and yes, across AI-driven search.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for publishers. As I learned from Jack Koch, SVP, Research & Insights, IAB at IAB Connected Commerce last month:
- 81% of shoppers rely on AI more for future purchases.
- 64% discover new products through AI.
- 95% of people still double-check reviews, search, and visit brand or retailer sites before making a purchase.
While AI is helping to narrow product choices and making shopping easier and faster, consumers are still relying on AI summaries, social media recommendations, and often clicking through to learn more about a product.
This has massive implications for publishers — because in an AI-assisted path, your brand, your content, and your audience relationships must be visible and measurable at every step.
As Adam Heimlich, CEO of Chalice AI, challenged during the AI Effect session at Connected Commerce, “For publishers, the question is similar — what does your content look like when these AI agents pull from it? How are you showing up in those summaries? You want to make sure you’re part of the new discovery flow, not left out of it.”
And that’s how publishers thrive when bots, apps, and aggregators are reshaping discovery.
Context Is the New Currency
If AI is reshaping discovery, then context is reshaping value.
For publishers to remain visible in this next wave of discovery, they must make their content readable in the same language. This is where context comes in.
At CIMM Summit, FreeWheel’s Larry Allen was talking about using AI to standardize contextual signals across publishers. He was talking about video, but the same concept applies across the board.
“We’re trying to make contextual easier to transact on — so a buyer can actually buy it at scale instead of ten different bespoke integrations,” he said.
He emphasized AI’s ability to interpret video content beyond metadata — recognizing tone, sentiment, and even brand suitability dynamically. This would allow for real-time alignment between the creative and the environment.
“If we get it right, contextual becomes measurable, reportable, and comparable — and that makes it a currency buyers can plan against,” he added.
And some publishers are already cashing in on that promise.
For example, Gracenote’s recent partnership with Index Exchange lets streaming publishers package and sell inventory using show-level context and brand safety segments, making content-based programmatic deals a reality.
Building the Connected Future
We already know AI is changing discoverability, and context is changing how content is valued. But it’s connection that will help publishers move forward.
The Connected Future is about publishers breaking silos, syncing data, and designing workflows built for both the open and agentic web.
That’s where we’ll pick up the conversation at the next AdMonsters Sell Side Summit in Austin, November 2-4, 2025. It’s where The Connected Future: Your Roadmap Back to Publisher Growth and Profitability will take center stage.
We’ll chat with Amanda Martin, CRO of Mediavine, about connecting buyers and sellers, humans and AI, and publishers to their fair value in an AI-scraped world. James Deaker aka The Yield Doctor will take us inside the evolution of ad ops workflows.
Meanwhile, Anne Thiel from Cox Automotive will dig into what it means to make publisher systems agent-ready. And, Carlos Bracho of Axel Springer and Walt Houseknecht of Politico will show how interoperability and smarter mediation can reduce platform dependency.