Across two Cannes Lions conversations hosted by Teads and Axel Springer, leaders from publishing, technology, media, and advertising explored a counterintuitive idea: AI may disrupt the economics of publishing, but it could also make trusted journalism more valuable than ever.
At The Age of AI Is the Age of the Publisher, Stephanie Himoff of Teads, Katie Weber of Dow Jones, Benedikt Faerber of Axel Springer, and moderator Lara O’Reilly of Business Insider examined how publishers can strengthen audience relationships and modernize monetization. Later, The Power of News in the AI Era brought together David Kostman of Teads, Christoph Eck-Schmidt of Axel Springer, David Sable of Stagwell, Sven Hagemeier of The Trade Desk, and moderator Kelsey Sutton of Marketing Brew to discuss trust, brand safety, and the role of news across the open internet.
More content increases the value of trusted sources
AI is expanding the supply of content while making it harder to know what is original, accurate, or accountable. As Christoph Eck-Schmidt, CCO and CMO of Axel Springer, put it, “trust will be the most important part of news in the AI world,” while David Kostman, CEO of Teads, argued that the “overload of content from AI” will move people “more and more toward trustworthy, authentic content from professional journalism.”
David Sable, EVP, Vice Chair of Stagwell, added an important qualification: “It is going to be the age of some publishers, but it’s news publishers. And it’s the age of the news publishers because of trust.” The opportunity, then, is not simply to produce more. It is to offer distinctive reporting, recognizable brands, and content audiences actively choose to seek out.
News is Not Short on Audience. It is Short on Credit.
Stagwell’s Future of News research discussed during the panels found that 81% of German adults follow news closely, while 35% qualify as “news junkies” who return several times a day. These audiences are also more likely to be urban, employed, highly educated, and affluent.
“These are engaged people,” Sable said. “You want to put your money where people are engaged.” Benedikt Faerber, CSO and Managing Director of Axel Springer, made the same case from a publisher perspective: advertisers say they want “people with high income,” “urban people,” and “real people,” yet often block the very news environments where those audiences are found.
The issue is not a lack of value, but a lack of recognition. News can shape awareness, trust, consideration, and intent long before another platform receives credit for the final click. As Katie Weber, SVP, Commercial Strategy & Head of Financial Services of Dow Jones, noted, premium publishers may not always be “the final click at the cheapest cost per lead,” but they play a critical role when decisions are complex or high value.
Brand Safety Needs More Context
Both panels challenged the broad blocklists that continue to exclude professionally produced journalism. Stephanie Himoff, Chief Commercial Supply Officer of Teads, was direct: “The penalty for hard news is not justified by the data.” She added that many of the tools still in use “were never built for context” or nuance.
Stagwell’s research supports that view. Ads placed beside politics, crime, and inflation achieved an average composite brand score of 66%, compared with 67% beside business, entertainment, and sports.
Weber captured the problem with one striking example: “I had a CMO who said, ‘We’re absolutely investing in The Wall Street Journal.’ I said, ‘Your keyword block actually has The Wall Street Journal on it.’” Her conclusion echoed the same point: “The content they’re blocking is the content that’s capturing all the attention.”
AI offers a more intelligent alternative by evaluating context, sentiment, and meaning rather than reacting to isolated words. That creates room for genuine brand suitability without automatically excluding responsible coverage of serious topics.
Publishers Need to Own the Relationship
As AI changes search behavior and reduces referral traffic, publishers need stronger direct relationships with their audiences. “Google zero is here,” Himoff said. “That needs to be accepted, done, and we need to move on.”
Moving on means thinking beyond the first page view. Publishers need to improve discovery, reduce unnecessary ad density, deepen engagement, and maximize the value of the full audience relationship. “Publishers should not have to make that trade-off,” Himoff said, referring to the choice between immediate monetization and long-term engagement.
Faerber argued that publishers should approach this moment with greater confidence: “It’s us who the others need. It’s not the other way around.” In an AI ecosystem that depends on current, credible, original information, trusted publishers provide the source material that makes the technology useful.
The Case for News is Commercial
The biggest takeaway from both conversations was that advertising in news should not be framed as charity. Premium publishers offer engaged audiences, credible environments, first-party signals, and meaningful influence across the customer journey.
As Kostman explained, AI can help the industry become “much smarter about branding to performance in one experience.” Sven Hagemeier, GM, Inventory Development EMEA, of The Trade Desk, highlighted the broader shift: advertisers need to “focus on value instead of cost,” rather than assuming the cheapest reach will deliver the best result.
The next step is practical: revisit outdated blocklists, measure beyond the last click, and give premium news a more deliberate role in the media plan. As the internet fills with more content, trust may become the rarest and most valuable inventory of all.