What Keeps Media CEOs Awake at Night?

The question I ask every year

Every year, I open the CEO Panel at our Digital Growth Summit with the same question:

What keeps you awake at night?

It is not a question CEOs are often asked—at least not in public.

Yet what concerns a media CEO today has a way of becoming everyone else’s priority tomorrow. Their concerns influence where their organisations invest, what they stop doing and which opportunities they decide are worth the risk.

Sometimes, the answers are surprisingly candid. And sometimes, of course, they tell me that they sleep very well.

This year, I will put the question to Gert Ysebaert, CEO of Mediahuis and former president of INMA, and Stig Ørskov, CEO of WAN-IFRA and former CEO of JP/Politikens Hus.

Bringing them together creates a rare conversation: two seasoned industry leaders who have spent more than a decade transforming major newspaper companies—and who now bring both a publisher’s perspective and an industry-wide view.

Here is why I invited them.

Two paths through the transformation of news

I founded Twipe in Leuven fifteen years ago. We build digital editions, apps and technology for news publishers, which means I have spent much of those fifteen years in rooms with the people responsible for their future.

Gert Ysebaert is also the reason I know Stig Ørskov.

Years ago, when I was trying to find Twipe’s footing beyond Belgium, Gert introduced me to Stig. It is the kind of thing Gert does without making much of it—but for us, it mattered.

Back in 2011, Gert was publisher of De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad. Think about where the industry was then. Smartphones were rapidly becoming the place where people consumed information, while many publishers were still debating whether a digital reader counted as a “real” reader.

Gert had already made up his mind.

He backed the mobile strategy of De Standaard, and Twipe had the opportunity to work alongside the team as a mobile innovation lab. Gert later became the founding CEO of Mediahuis, helping turn a Belgian newspaper company into an international media group. Until May this year, he also served as president of INMA.

Stig arrived at the top of the industry by a very different route.

He began as a financial journalist, became business editor and then editor-in-chief of Politiken before moving into executive leadership. He went on to lead JP/Politikens Hus for almost twelve years.

Stig first joined our CEO Panel in 2024, when he was still running one of Denmark’s leading media groups. He now returns with a much broader mandate: since January, he has been CEO of WAN-IFRA, representing news publishers around the world.

Their paths are different, but the parallels are striking. Gert became CEO of Mediahuis in 2013. Stig took the helm at JP/Politikens Hus in 2014. Both then spent more than a decade transforming traditional newspaper businesses into diversified international media groups.One came through management. The other came through the newsroom.

Both believe strongly in independent journalism—and in the need for publishers to work together if our industry is to thrive.

As Gert once put it: “It will be hard for each publisher—and especially for a small publisher—to do that on their own. Let’s work together as an industry, because otherwise we will not get there.”

They are also both straight talkers. That may be the best reason of all to be in the room.

So, what will keep them awake?

There is no shortage of possible answers.

• Will AI strengthen the relationship between publishers and readers—or place another powerful layer between them?

• Can trusted news brands remain visible as audiences increasingly consume information through platforms, creators and AI interfaces?

• How do publishers keep investing in journalism while print declines and digital subscription growth becomes harder?

• Where should publishers compete—and where should they collaborate?

And perhaps most importantly: what should media leaders do now, rather than wait until the direction of change becomes obvious?

I have my own hypotheses. But I will save those for the panel.

Join the conversation in Leuven

The CEO Panel will open the Twipe Digital Growth Summit on 15 October in Leuven.

Throughout the day, Gert and Stig will be joined by Nic Newman, Ezra Eeman, Julien De Wit, Bart Becks, Joris Himpens and other leaders from media, technology and innovation.

Around 140 people working on the future of news will come together at De Hoorn—not simply to hear about what is changing, but to discuss what we should do next.

You may be able to read a summary afterwards. But it will not be the same as sitting in the room when two people who have helped lead our industry through more than a decade of disruption answer one deceptively simple question:

What keeps you awake at night?

I hope to see you in Leuven.