{"id":2726,"date":"2024-03-07T12:21:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T12:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bridged.media\/blog\/?p=2726"},"modified":"2025-07-04T09:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T09:40:08","slug":"ai-publisher-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridged.media\/blog\/automate\/ai-publisher-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Publisher playbook: 3 steps to kickstart your AI strategy on a shoestring"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The media industry is trying its best to adopt AI, with 80% of companies intending to invest in AI<\/a> in the immediate term.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But how do you implement an AI strategy for media companies effectively, avoiding risks and huge investments? Reportedly the biggest blocker to adopting AI is lack of strategy, with 57% calling it out<\/a> according to a Financial Times <\/em>publishers survey.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this blog, we look at why AI strategy is such a sticking point, and how you can kickstart your strategy with Bridged Media<\/a>\u2019s simple 3-step process. (Plus, a tip on how to begin your AI journey for less than \u00a3250<\/a>.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The AI strategy trap<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The complex issues facing the media industries are actually quite simple: lack of money, lack of data and lack of skills. For instance, estimates suggest that 90% of publishers can’t afford to build an AI prototype<\/a> themselves. And even if they did have the funds to build it, they lack real-world data to train and train the prototype\u2019s algorithms.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Then there\u2019s the fact that, aside from international mega-publications backed by serious financial heft, most media companies lack any human resources specialised in AI tech and product management.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Beyond that, the AI world is diverse, decentralised and, frankly, confusing. There is no real standardisation of AI use cases and it\u2019s often exceptionally difficult to predict and calculate a tangible ROI.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s why we wrote\u2014somewhat provocatively\u2014in New Digital Age <\/em>that \u201cmedia businesses don\u2019t need an AI strategy, they need the right tools<\/a>\u201d. Clearly we don\u2019t mean you should ignore strategy altogether or sleepwalk into risk, but instead think about doing business better using simple and tangible tools.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, you want to test AI in your media company, but don\u2019t know where to start? Our AI experts at Bridged Media tend to approach these discussions in three stages.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Identify your use case<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Before jumping into the AI solutions out there, first crystallise the problem you want to resolve. The chances are there\u2019s a particular bottleneck or use case to address, whether that\u2019s lacklustre performance on reader revenue<\/a>, poor user experience due to lack of content personalisation<\/a> or low newsletter subscriptions<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Once you\u2019ve identified a use case to test, next define your KPIs. Here, you\u2019ll probably find yourself in familiar territory, with media organisations we work with<\/a> typically tracking engagement (such as bounce rates, session time and so on), as well as conversion\u00a0 (click-through rate, emails collected, etc) and churn or first-party data collection.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here, we can help you learn from others\u2019 examples to solve the use case you\u2019re targeting, for example:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n