'To GPT or not to GPT? That is not even the question anymore'

Credit: Created using a generative AI app Imagen

"In a few generations, they will look back at us and laugh that we didn't have a search agent who would do the search us, instead of us going manually through homepages looking for things," says Jessica Scholz, Ringier's group chief marketing officer who worked for the publisher for a decade. She spoke to Journalism.co.uk about the future of journalism in a world dominated by large language models (LLMs).

Axel Springer, which is partly owned by Ringier, was the first publisher to strike a deal with OpenAI, making the generative AI platform pay for the use of its titles' content. And, according to Scholz, publishers who are still undecided are missing out.

What is the value of your journalism?

There are two types of content. Commodity content, which has little value since it is mass-produced and easily replicable, and unique content that gives you an edge, such as exclusives or investigative journalism.

"The coming of AI is bigger than mobile transition. It's not just a set of new tools, this is like going from print to internet," says Scholz.

Unlike many publishers, some of which sue generative AI platforms for unauthorised use of their content to train their models, she is optimising Ringier content for being prominently featured.

"I disapprove of The New York Times' approach to 'block the bot'. If you don't put the value in, you don't deserve the visibility," she says.

And, in the world where generative AI platforms are becoming part of the information ecosystem, visibility matters. If you do not act now, you will be left behind. Or, as Scholz puts it, "if you don't, others will."

Her stance is that there are multiple audiences. There are your loyal readers, but there are also people hanging out on Gemini and Perplexity and these platforms help publishers maintain a link with the readers. If the machines do not know you and do not trust you, they will simply not use your content and feature someone else instead.

But is that not stealing copyrighted content?

Copyright infringement depends on how you see large language models (LLMs), says Scholz, who compares the use of publishers' content by genAI platforms to syndication. However, she remains pretty lucid about the inequality this generates in the media world.

"It's never going to work for smaller publishers who focus on niches," she says, adding that the true challenge is the differentiation between those producing valuable content and, well, the others.

The complicated money question

But if generative AI platforms get to feature (and rake up views and money thank to) original journalistic content, who is going to pay those who produce it?

"If you have systems reliant on Google search, it's already unsustainable," Scholz says soberly.

"We should have been investing in direct relationships with readers, for example, in newsletters, for years."

So, sell or sue?

If publishers understand how the algorithm works, they can work it. Optimising for generative AI platforms essentially means making sure your content is not only indexed on Google but also LLMs.

Indexing is exciting, according to Scholz, who, for the first time in her career, is exploring web tools to optimise for generative AI.

"These things are not going to go away," she says. "You need to be good and fast enough to be indexed by these engines so they serve your content to the reader."

Continue the conversation: Join us on 27 November for our digital journalism conference Newsrewired where we will discuss how publishers can deal with generative AI platforms that use their content. Check out the full agenda and grab your ticket today

But, in the end, publishers will need to focus on diversification of revenue streams to counter the fact that small brands will never get the deals afforded to larger media organisations.

Scholz explains that, in the old days, the revenue stream was quite straightforward - readers bought the paper, and papers got the advertising money. This led us to an ad frenzy that cheapened journalism.

"Google tried to do something about it, penalising websites with too much [substandard] advertising," she says.

"I think that readers will also go to LLM platforms because they will not be interrupted by ads."

Power to the robots

One of the biggest worries around letting generative AI platforms access, rehash and feature news content is that this automated curation gives enormous power to robots who are not driven by journalistic values, nor they are regulated by any editorial standards or held accountable in the same way as editors.

"It's worse than that," says Scholz. "These algorithms are created in America. They are built on American values and put a US-centric spin on everything, even the phrasing of an article or the style of a debate. It's a threat to European culture."

There is no ignoring that some Big Tech companies accrued the power of nation-states. That does not mean, however, that we as media should give up.

"We rise in the face of adversity and speak up. I don't see these values going away," says Sholz.

But we need to understand how the tech works. Whether it will be used to make the world a better place or for nefarious purposes depends on whether you are a "white or black hat SEO editor," who is helping people find what they should be looking for.

"Google has at least tried to make the internet a better place but it's not a fair system either," muses Scholz.

Not even robots are all equal

Newcomer Perplexity is not a platform Scholz optimises for, unlike OpenAI. She explains that OpenAI were more open about what they wanted to do with the content and gave the publishers the right to opt out, albeit retroactively.

Perplexity did not give that option so she does not trust them.

She further explains that Microsoft (OpenAI) and Google (Gemini) are the main actors in the war for the future of the internet. Perplexity is not as big a player. If the platforms do not have their own indexes - as is often the case for the smaller ones popping up - they are unlikely to be able to compete with the big guys.

So what should publishers do?

You need journalists who produce unique content and an audience person who understands that LLM users are your audience. It is time we realise our value is distribution.

"LLMs don't change the need for journalism. We need to understand that it's not just the words we write, it's how we get them to people."

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).