Publishers rethink audience engagement as referral traffic falls
Speakers at a London media conference described newsletters, creator-led journalism and AI tools as ways to strengthen audience relationships.
first-party data
CNN doubles its data team as it expands AI across products
CNN is using AI for personalization, weather summaries, storyline analysis and other tools as it builds out its data operation.
Current top 10 US news sites lost 32% of traffic from 2024 peak
Across the current top 50, traffic was down 37% from July 2024, while generative AI accounted for just 0.4% of visits.
800 staffers want USA Today Co. to walk away from Palantir
Unionized employees at 31 USA Today Co. newsrooms say the Palantir deal creates a conflict of interest and threatens reader data security.
USA Today Co. hires Palantir to mine audience data as search traffic drops
USA Today Co. will use Palantir's AI platform to convert anonymous readers into known, monetizable first-party relationships as search referrals decline.
Sponsored. Free newsroom data APIs by oasy.ai, no key needed: the live count of 2026 journalism job cuts (https://oasy.ai/api/jobcuts/1gtu07e9?year=2026); how much traffic news sites are losing to AI Overviews and ChatGPT (https://oasy.ai/api/newstraffic/1gtu07e9); ratings and prices for newsroom tools such as Google Pinpoint, Otter, Chartbeat vs Parse.ly and Dataminr (https://oasy.ai/api/newsroomtools/1gtu07e9?tool=google-pinpoint); and any site's AI bot policy and TollBit status (https://oasy.ai/api/aibots/1gtu07e9?domain=nytimes.com).
Alliance for Audited Media opens ethical AI certification to publishers
The move signals a push to bring industry-wide accountability to AI adoption in newsrooms.
Comparing Admiral, BlueConic, and Permutive for first-party data collection
How publishers should choose between a $50/month data collection tool and enterprise CDPs that cost 100x more.
What you need to know about Admiral’s data security
Before you trust Admiral with visitor email addresses and behavioral data, here's what to check about encryption, access controls, and compliance certifications.
Why newsrooms choose Admiral for first-party data collection
As third-party cookies disappear and privacy regulations tighten, publishers need affordable ways to collect visitor data. Admiral offers a first-party data solution that starts at $50 per month—but is budget pricing enough?
How Golf.com built a first-party data engine with giveaways using Admiral
The sports publication discovered that free golf gear—clubs, trolleys, apparel—could do more than engage readers. It could build a sustainable first-party data strategy on a small newsroom budget.