How Taiwan’s United Daily News Group Uses Data and AI to Reclaim Advertising Revenue
United Daily News Group (UDN) in Taiwan has turned artificial intelligence into a commercial engine, using AI‑driven advertising to boost performance and reclaim revenue. Targeted campaigns generated click‑through rates more than 230% higher than standard placements, while thousands of ads across 136 industry categories were executed between 2023 and 2025. The firm leverages first‑ and zero‑party data to build deep audience profiles, organizing its AI stack into interpretive, predictive, generative and agentic layers. UDN now positions itself as a strategic partner rather than a simple ad‑space vendor, linking data, insight and execution into a unified value chain.
Why SPH’s Lianhe Zaobao Is Rethinking How Stories Are Framed
Singapore Press Holdings’ Chinese‑language outlet Lianhe Zaobao used a custom GPT model to dissect 6,006 articles and map them to user‑need categories. The analysis revealed an over‑reliance on "Update Me" pieces and a gap in emotional and actionable stories for different...
How the German Press Agency Is Reinventing News Distribution for the Agentic Age
The German Press Agency (dpa) is launching dpa‑iq, an API‑driven platform that supplies trusted information to AI agents and other automated systems. Built as a modular, multi‑source retrieval service, it will initially draw from dpa’s own news, multimedia, and government...
As Platform Pressure Grows, elDiario.es Bets on Trust and Reader-Funded Journalism
elDiario.es, a Spanish digital-native newsroom founded after the 2011 Indignados protests, has built a sustainable business on reader memberships rather than advertising. It now attracts about 2 million daily readers and 120,000 paying members, achieving a 97% renewal rate and operating...
Service Journalism that Actually Pays Off – Lessons From Canada’s Village Media
Village Media, a Canadian digital‑media group, operates 27 hyperlocal news sites that rely on an ad‑supported, reach‑based model rather than subscriptions. About 70% of its revenue is generated from local advertisers, with a newsroom structure of one reporter per 15,000...
Middle East Journalism Innovates Across Borders, Conflict and Constraint
The 2026 WAN‑IFRA Digital Media Awards highlighted Middle‑East journalism that thrives despite conflict, censorship and technical constraints. Winners leveraged audience participation, AI and data‑visualisation to turn citizen‑generated content into verified news products. Notable projects include the Saudi Gazette’s mobile‑first website...
Serbia’s War on the Press: The Full Playbook in 10 Chapters
Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 Press Freedom Index shows global press freedom at its lowest in 25 years, with 100 of 180 countries worsening. Serbia slipped to rank 104, eight places lower, marking the steepest regional decline. Under President Aleksandar Vučić,...
Changing the Narrative for 3 May, World Press Freedom Day
On World Press Freedom Day, WAN‑IFRA highlighted its global advocacy, noting the tragic killing of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and calling for transparent investigations. The organization underscored a $8 million annual budget to protect independent media, reporting membership growth, AI‑focused accelerator...
Trust Lives in Relationships: It Cannot Be Automated
Generative AI is reshaping journalism, acting as an intermediary that can dilute nuance, scrape content without consent, and blend fact with speculation. While the technology threatens trust and accountability, it also offers practical tools for resource‑poor newsrooms, such as rapid...
Measuring the Multimedia Readiness of Newsrooms
WAN-IFRA is launching a global survey of senior media executives to assess newsrooms’ multimedia readiness ahead of a summer report. The survey, supported by base Media Cloud, follows a World Press Trends finding that 80% of publishers plan to invest...
CMS Platforms Are Evolving with Embedded AI in Newsroom Workflows
Newsroom content‑management systems are moving from experimental AI add‑ons to fully embedded intelligence. Vendors such as WoodWing, Eidosmedia and Atex are weaving AI directly into editorial interfaces, eliminating the need for journalists to toggle between separate tools. The shift relies...
Sanoma Tried to Build an AI Tool. It Ended up Rebuilding Its Workflow
Sanoma Media Finland set out to turn phone calls into draft articles, but discovered that inconsistent interview recording practices prevented any scalable AI solution. The team replaced a patchwork of devices with Elisa Ring, a mobile service that automatically records...
GAMI Incubator #Finland: Six Months, Three Media-Startup Teams, Real Results
The WAN‑IFRA GAMI Incubator in Finland paired three media groups with tech startups over six months, delivering functional prototypes that are already in newsroom use. A‑lehdet and Neuwo launched the Tvink video‑recommendation app, while Sanoma and Limecraft built an AI‑driven...
South Asia’s Best Digital Projects Win Big at Digital Media Awards
The Digital Media Awards South Asia honored leading newsrooms for digital innovation, with The Hindu taking Gold for Best AI‑driven News Product, Collective Newsroom for Best Data Visualisation, and Spot On for Best Emerging News Provider. HT Digital Streams’ Fintech...
NZZ Is Turning Its Archives Into a Newsroom Tool
NZZ is converting its digitised 250‑year archive into a unified newsroom platform, integrating images, agency feeds, and legacy content into a single system that works alongside its LivingDocs CMS. The initiative emphasizes AI tools that embed directly into editors’ workflows...
How Rheinische Post Built an AI Governance that Aligns with Its Digital Subscriber Goals
Rheinische Post Mediengruppe (RPM) built an AI governance model that directly supports its goal of 250,000 digital subscribers. Under Group Head of AI Margret Seeger, the publisher aligned AI activities with its broader digital transformation, creating a three‑pillar framework (Head...
The Canary Sings Again
Artificial intelligence is now generating the core media product—news articles and analysis—at scale, eroding the value of traditional journalism. An AI tool already produces over a thousand pieces a month, slashing manual effort by 80%, while search‑driven traffic, the lifeblood...
At Deccan Herald, AI Turns Articles Into Instant Infographics
Deccan Herald, part of The Printers (Mysore) Private Limited, has deployed an AI‑powered CMS extension that creates visual infographics from article content with a single click. The tool, built during the WAN‑IFRA Newsroom AI Catalyst programme, converts a manual 10‑minute...
At The Quint, AI Is Helping Readers Navigate Long-Form Journalism
The Quint, an Indian digital‑first news platform, launched NewsEasy – an AI‑powered widget that embeds article‑in‑brief summaries, five key takeaways, and a Q&A‑style breakdown within long‑form stories. Developed through WAN‑IFRA’s 2025 Newsroom AI Catalyst program with OpenAI, the tool operates...
Meeting the Audience Where They Are: How Local News International Is Rewriting the Rules of News Delivery
Local News International (LNI), founded by former Washington Post TikTok star Dave Jorgenson and video director Lauren Saks, is championing a creator‑led, humor‑centric news model. Within a year of its mid‑2025 launch, LNI amassed over 250,000 YouTube subscribers and a...
Martin Schori on Hiring for Yesterday While Bracing for Tomorrow
Martin Schori argues that media outlets are stuck hiring for yesterday’s production‑centric roles while the future demands relationship‑focused, creative talent. He notes AI is automating speed and standardisation, eroding the value of traditional newsroom functions. Yet editors still prioritize measurable,...
How AI Transcriptions Have Transformed Audio Content for PRISA Media
PRISA Media, the world’s largest Spanish‑language media group, has deployed AI‑driven transcription across its 1,200‑plus journalists and extensive audio archives. The technology converts live and recorded broadcasts into searchable text, subtitles and short‑form video assets, while a separate AI tool...
Meet the NextGen AI Leaders in News Media
WAN-IFRA, in partnership with the Google News Initiative, has launched the inaugural NextGen AI Leaders programme. After a competitive review of over 100 applicants, 24 media professionals from 14 countries were selected. The cohort will convene on 14 April in Frankfurt...
RSL’s AI-Use Compensation Plan for News: ‘We Think This Is a $100 Billion Opportunity for Publishers’
The RSL Collective, a non‑profit rights organization, unveiled a machine‑readable, open‑web standard that lets publishers specify AI usage rights and demand per‑use royalties. John Boyden highlighted that most publishers currently receive zero compensation from AI firms that scrape their content...
Reporter at the Helm: Adeyeye Joseph on Leading with Punch, Reckoning with AI, and Journalism’s Enduring Purpose
Adeyeye Joseph, managing director and editor‑in‑chief of Punch Newspapers, was elected to WAN‑IFRA’s World Editors Forum board and is completing a PhD on digital disruption’s impact on public‑interest journalism. He leads Punch with a reporter’s mindset, holding open "village meetings"...
Why Audience Participation Is Becoming Core Publishing Infrastructure
Publishers facing trust erosion and AI‑driven search are turning audience participation into a core infrastructure. Rather than treating user‑generated content reactively, newsrooms are designing structured contribution systems that integrate directly into editorial workflows. Examples from Mediahuis, the San Francisco Chronicle, and...
How Are Publishers Responding to AI Search? Take Our Survey
Publishers are grappling with the uncertain impact of AI‑driven search on traffic, fearing potential declines as algorithms prioritize AI‑generated results. WAN‑IFRA has launched a global, anonymous survey to capture executive insights on which content formats are most at risk and...
Print and Distribution Events Unite: WAN-IFRA Announces Historic Co-Location of World Printers Summit and DistriPress Congress in Rotterdam
From October 4‑7, 2026, WAN‑IFRA will co‑locate its World Printers Summit and DistriPress Congress at the World Trade Center Rotterdam, creating a single platform for the entire print supply chain. The joint event features a unified exhibition, data‑driven conference tracks,...
ICQC Introduces New Cuboid and Updated Contest Rules
The International Color Quality Club (ICQC) has unveiled a redesigned Cuboid test patch for its 2026‑2028 contest, shifting from four to three rows and enlarging the square measurement patches. The new layout features a continuous middle row, allowing spectrophotometers to...
C.H.A.S.E.: A Campaign Against Gender-Charged Hate Speech Online
The C.H.A.S.E. initiative, launched in March 2024 with European Commission backing, tackles gender‑charged hate speech online across the EU. It delivered multi‑country research, an AI‑driven real‑time detection tool, and a media Code of Conduct. An International Women’s Day campaign in...
Stronger Together: A Strong Start to 2026
At the start of 2026, WAN‑IFRA reviewed 124 new applications and 40 Year‑1 reports, confirming 22 Ukrainian media outlets for capacity support and 18 for investigative grants. An intensive Investigative Bootcamp in March trained nearly 40 journalists from 18 regional...
When a Global Story Happens in Your Local Community: Steering The Minnesota Star Tribune Through Unprecedented Times
In December 2023 ICE launched Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, sparking intense global attention. The Minnesota Star Tribune mobilized 50 reporters and leveraged community‑generated footage to deliver the most documented local crisis in U.S. history. A revamped digital platform, live‑blogging,...
How Sakal Is Using AI to Turn Print Ads Into Revenue Data
Sakal Media Group has deployed an OCR‑driven AI platform that scans every print advertisement in its newspapers and converts the images into searchable, structured datasets. The system automatically tags brands, categories, placement and size, turning daily print data into real‑time...
‘Ukraine’s Voice in the World’: How the Kyiv Independent Keeps Ongoing War in the Headlines
The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine’s premier English‑language newsroom, has expanded from 19 staff in 2021 to 85 employees in 2026 while operating under full‑scale war. It sustains itself financially through a reader‑driven model—70% of revenue comes from a 28,000‑strong global subscriber...
WAN-IFRA Announces Finalists for the Digital Media Awards 2026
WAN-IFRA unveiled the finalists for its 2026 Digital Media Awards, selecting 278 projects from 811 submissions across 78 countries. The finalists compete in 12 categories, including new AI‑driven and Emerging News Provider awards, with winners to be announced at the...
Future Newsrooms Now: Your Input Needed to Set the Standard for Transformation
WAN-IFRA, FT Strategies and Arc XP have launched the Future Newsroom Study, a global survey aimed at establishing a benchmark for newsroom transformation. The research will probe how editorial leaders are redefining strategy, integrating AI and automation, reshaping organisational structures,...
New 6-Month Programme From WAN-IFRA and OpenAI Supports AI-Native Product Development
WAN-IFRA and OpenAI have launched the AI Futures Lab, a six‑month accelerator for 24 news organizations across Asia‑Pacific and Latin America. Building on the earlier Newsroom AI Catalyst, the programme moves publishers from AI experimentation to fully‑scaled, AI‑native editorial and...
Bonnier News Notches Another Strong Business Result, and CEO Is Bullish on 2026
Bonnier News reported 2025 EBITA of SEK 1.08 billion, a 29% YoY increase, on revenue of SEK 10.9 billion, up 3%. Digital subscription revenue surged 14% with the +Allt bundle reaching nearly 500,000 digital subscribers and over 1.1 million total users. Reader revenue...
How The Hindu Is Embedding AI Into Its Data Journalism
The Hindu’s data journalism team leveraged large language models to process 22 million voter‑record PDFs, automatically generate SQL queries, and build a searchable database that informed court and parliamentary debates. Using prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, reporters assembled a full‑scale...
Children Get Help to Cope with the News of Latest Middle East Bombings
Children’s news outlets across Europe and the U.S. are redesigning coverage of the latest Middle East bombings to suit young audiences. They pair hard facts and historical context with transparent source‑selection guidance, while framing the story in hopeful, distance‑focused language....
Four Years On: Strengthening Independent Media in Ukraine
Four years into Russia's invasion, WAN‑IFRA’s Stronger Together programme continues bolstering Ukraine’s regional media with grants, investigative‑journalism training, and digital‑transformation support. The initiative has helped newsrooms publish over 90 investigative pieces while improving business models and leadership capacity. A new...
WAN-IFRA Introduces the NextGen AI Leaders Programme to Equip Emerging News Executives with Practical AI and Leadership Skills
WAN-IFRA has launched the NextGen AI Leaders Programme, a tuition‑free 12‑week initiative aimed at equipping 24 emerging news executives aged 25‑40 from Europe, the Middle East and Africa with practical AI and leadership skills. Backed by the Google News Initiative,...
Risk Intelligence: Futureproofing Print Through People
Risk Intelligence, the ability to perceive and act on risk, is being highlighted as a critical capability for the print and distribution sector facing disruption. Dr. Aarti Anhal explains that everyone possesses risk intelligence, which balances threat and opportunity, and...
Distinctive and Engaging – Zetland Hoping to Hit the Right Tone with Its Expansion Strategy
Zetland, Denmark’s audio‑first news publisher with over 40,000 paying members, is scaling its mission‑driven, ambassador‑campaign model across Europe. After a successful Finnish launch, Uusi Juttu, the company reached 20,000 members and is now rolling out Demo in Norway, hitting its...
France’s La Provence Seeks Young Audiences and Fights News Fatigue with AI-Powered Audio
French regional daily La Provence has rolled out La Provence Audio, an AI‑driven suite of four audio products that convert written stories into immersive, personalized listening experiences. The platform uses voice‑cloned actors from French AI lab Kyutai and Mistral’s personalization...