Liquid Content, Shrinking Ad Supply, and the Retreat from Aggregation

Welcome to this bi-weekly media tech roundup. One clear theme runs through the last two weeks: as AI eats the open web, the value is migrating to what publishers own outright — logged-in readers, first-party data, subscriptions, apps, and work distinctive enough that a chatbot can’t shrug it off.

1. AI’s “Liquid Content” Is the Real Threat to Distinctiveness

Speaking at the Media Voices Publisher Summit in London, Reuters Institute’s Nic Newman warned that AI’s ability to serve “liquid content” is a “really serious challenge” for news media. His example: ask Claude about the UK heatwave and it returns a filterable Q&A, generates graphs, and surfaces Met Office warnings. In short, Claude remixes the information into whatever format suits the reader.

What should publishers do about this? Newman’s survey of 264 news leaders points the same way we keep hearing: distinctiveness wins. Original reporting, contextual analysis, audio, video and human connection are the things AI can’t simply repackage.

📰 Press Gazette: Claude’s ability to remix ‘liquid content’ is ‘serious challenge for news media’

2. Publisher Ad Supply Fell Up to 40% in Q2 — but Apps Held the Line

Fresh Ozone benchmarking data (roughly 20 billion impressions) puts a number on the traffic squeeze: publisher ad-request volumes were down around 32–37% year-on-year in the US and 39–41% in the UK in Q2, as zero-click AI search kept readers off the open web. Prices are cushioning the blow. Indeed, UK eCPMs (estimated ad revenue generated for every 1,000 ad impressions served) were up about 30% YoY in June. However, with fewer pages to sell against, first-half programmatic spend across the cohort still fell 30.6%.

The standout detail for anyone building an app or editions strategy: apps were the only channel to grow year-on-year in June, with US spend up roughly 23% and eCPMs up about 42%. As Ozone’s COO put it, “the open web is shrinking” — and “publishers with subscription businesses and apps look a lot more resilient.”

📰 Digiday: Publisher ad supply fell by up to 40% in Q2 as AI search choked the open web

3. Schibsted’s First-Party Data Playbook: Skip the Registration Wall

With around 1.5 million subscribers (1.25 million digital-only), Schibsted has a clear view on collecting first-party data. Some of their advice is counterintuitive: skip free registration walls and go straight to a low-threshold paid trial, e.g. £1 for the first month. EVP Gustaf Eriksson argues a trial-paying customer is a far stronger relationship than a mere logged-in user, and it captures payment and data in one step.

There’s a newsroom lesson too. Optimising for open-web page views rewards clickbait; optimising for what paying subscribers actually read produces a “fundamentally different” top-stories list. His parting counsel to publishers moving to paid: build volume before revenue, and work on price over time.

📰 Press Gazette: First-party data mastery — tips for publishers from Norway’s Schibsted Media

4. The New York Times Moves from Carrot to Stick on Login Sharing

Disney did it, Netflix did it, and now the NYT appears to be serious too: log in on too many devices and you may be asked to verify with a code. CEO Meredith Kopit Levien once described the paper’s family plans as “the carrot version of password sharing.” This is the stick arriving alongside the carrot.

For anyone building a subscription business, it’s a reminder that a “reader” and an “account” aren’t the same thing. Converting freeloaders into payers is only worth the friction if the product is something people actually want to own which is exactly why the direct relationship matters.

📰 Nieman Lab: The New York Times appears to be cracking down on login sharing

5. Business Insider Bets Against the Aggregation It Pioneered

The outlet once “nearly synonymous with aggregation” says original content has gone from about 40% of output in 2024 to more than 80% today, with a record 788 scoops last year. The driver is familiar: AI Overviews and chatbots have swallowed the quick-hit, repackaged story, and clickthrough rates from those surfaces are in the single digits at best.

Early signals are encouraging on engagement: 85 million return visits in Q1, and “exclusive”-tagged stories converting subscribers at nearly twice the rate of non-exclusives. This, even as the company navigates a fourth straight year of layoffs and a leadership change. Editor-in-chief Jamie Heller’s line captures the whole roundup: “We need to own our destiny, have our own relationships with an audience that is going to be coming back to us directly.”

📰 Nieman Lab: Business Insider’s big bet against aggregation