Incentives

We are wrapping up the year with a flurry of activity. This week, we held a pair of private dinners as part of The Rebooting Dinner Series. That marked 10 for the year, with a final PvA holiday gathering next week. We are adding a roundtable breakfast series in 2025 where we will have in-depth conversations over specific topics in building sustainable media businesses. Get in touch for sponsorship opportunities: bmorrissey@therebooting.com or elaine@therebooting.com. 

Next week, we have our final event of the year: The Rebooting Show Live at Gannett | USA Today headquarters in New York. I’m going to have a roundtable discussion with top Gannett executives about how they’re approaching AI as an opportunity. The event starts at 5pm with drinks and networking, with the podcast from 5:30-6:30 and more drinks and networking afterwards. Register here.

Today, I have some takeaways from conversations at our recent dinners. 

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Incentives

This week, The Rebooting held a pair of private dinners. On Tuesday, in collaboration with 1440 we brought together a dozen marketers and agencies to discuss the role of human curation in an age of AI. Last night, we collaborated with BlueConic to bring together publishing executives for a conversation about the future of audience-centric strategies in 2025. Some themes that stood out in the discussions, which we held under the Chatham House Rule:

Incentives rule everything. One marketing executive gave a blunt example of how the cult of incrementality has made brands averse to change. Most know intuitively that they overspend on performance marketing, but they’re addicted to the results that fit the CFO’s checklist. That means there’s little incentives to make many changes that aren’t on the checklist. 

Print isn’t back, but it has a role. One of the fake trends for 2025 will be the revival of print. As I wrote on Tuesday, impression-based media is in retreat, as seen by continuing cuts to print operations we’re seeing at the end of the year. That said, I heard optimism that print in certain areas – particularly for affluent audiences – has seen traction. The difference is print isn’t going to be a regular distribution channel and instead serve as a couple times a year statement piece.

DEI is in full retreat. The return of Trump doesn’t hold the shock value of 2016. But the culture shift is apparent. One niche publisher with an audience heavily in the Midwest and South recounted how it faced a wave of cancellations after covering topics deemed “woke.” Another executive lamented that the appetite for diversifying within large media companies has faded, particularly as financial pressures have grown.

Agencies are less concerned about AI. One surprise of our curation dinner: The agency executives at the table have a far more sanguine view of AI than publishers. Most conversation centered on the possibilities it offers rather than the threats. There’s new opportunities to offer the AI version of SEO, and most big agency groups have rolled out AI toolkits for staff. Much is made of AI being used for copyrighting and versioning, but a veteran data-focused marketer noted that governance will slow the adoption.

Subscriptions remain a focus. Any Trump Bump will be muted, although a couple news publishers reported success in converting more readers with resistance-style messaging. More conversation centered on the mechanics of conversion. The scale era is truly a relic of the past, as publishers focus on wringing more value out of smaller but sturdier audiences. That means more sophisticated approaches to subscriptions, including dynamic paywalls and the exploration of bundling options with large-scale subscription giants. 

Headed to CES?

EX.CO will be at CES to give publishers a sneak peek of what they have in store for 2025. From innovations in CTV and DOOH to online video platform enhancements, you won’t want to miss an opportunity to talk to their team of video experts. Request a meeting.

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