Kara Swisher Confronts the Crisis in News at Cannes Lions

From competing for ad dollars with platforms to the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in advertising and journalism, the news business is facing a lot of existential questions.

At ADWEEK House in Cannes last week, media and ad tech leaders came together for a wide-ranging discussion about the state and fate of the news business.

Moderated by veteran tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher, the session featured executives from Ad Fontes Media, Bloomberg, Mobian, The New York Times, The Trade Desk, WPP, WSJ/Barron’s, and ADWEEK.

The discussion took place in the context of plummeting trust in journalism, a stark shift in news consumption to social media, and the threat of generative AI on the ad business and on publisher IP. Meanwhile, advertisers remain wary of advertising next to hard news, often due to outdated brand safety logic.

Against this backdrop, Swisher challenged panelists to explain what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to change about the business of news.

The distinction between news and media

One of the key tensions centered on the language the industry uses to describe media, versus content, versus journalism.

Swisher pointed out that companies like Marriott and LinkedIn now refer to themselves as “media brands.” Panelists agreed the definition has become diluted, which risks conflating journalism with content marketing and entertainment.

“I was really glad that you distinguished between delivering factual news, because I think using the broad term ‘media’ might be part of the problem,” said Joy Robbins, global chief advertising officer at The New York Times.

Vanessa Otero, CEO of Ad Fontes Media, offered a framework to divide media into “fact-based reporting, analysis, opinion… and then misleading, inaccurate content.” She added that the nature of the content matters more than the size of the publisher.

Brand safety bugbear

Much of the panel focused on a familiar pain point for publishers: advertisers avoiding news.

Jonah Goodhart, CEO of Mobian, pointed out that between 20% and 50% of news content is being marked unsafe by “two companies that generate $1.1 billion in revenue this year”—a dig at verification vendors.

He added that trying to persuade brands to fund news media out of moral necessity is the wrong approach; advertisers respond to conversations about performance.

“You can’t guilt them into it,” The New York Times’ Robbins agreed. “That’s something they can’t sell to their CEO.”

Susan Schiekofer, chief media officer at WPP Media, said that programmatic and keyword blocking defaults still suppress quality journalism, even though the media buying giant “spent a lot of time doing a huge cleanup.”

“It’s still really easy to suppress the news category,” she said.

Big Tech vs. News

Despite the many challenges facing the news business, panelists pushed back against the idea that in the age of scaled platforms, news media can’t compete for ad dollars.

The New York Times has built direct relationships with readers through its huge subscriber base, Robbins pointed out. Those relationships have also helped the publisher increase its direct traffic so it’s not entirely dependent on search.

“We may not be the scale of Meta,” she said, “but it’s not even about comparing audience size. It’s about building direct relationships.”

Josh Stinchcomb, chief revenue officer at WSJ/Barron’s, argued scale is overrated—especially for B2B brands that have “maybe 10,000” customers looking for reporting on very specific topics. He said the Journal is designing its app to convert casual readers into subscribers—part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on search-driven traffic.

Bloomberg, meanwhile, is exploring new avenues to keep its audience engaged. Leaning more into connected TV has driven a 45% year-over-year rise in video consumption, said Christine Cook, chief commercial officer.

Swisher warned publishers against depending on Google or Meta—especially as generative search begins to reduce news referrals. “I’ve always said this… they’re not your friends,” she said. “They’re there to eat you.”

Will AI save or ruin news?

Swisher invited panelists to share one use case of AI in the newsroom they loved—or hated.

“I think Ember is ridiculous,” she said of The Washington Post’s generative writing tool. “It’s the dumbest application of AI I’ve seen yet—but they keep lowering the standards at the Washington Post.”

Robbins, meanwhile, pointed out how New York Times Cooking uses AI for recipe metric conversions, making its product more accessible overseas. WSJ offers AI-generated bullet points and audio reads on its articles, and may soon test video summaries.

Bloomberg is using AI to power contextual video ads, while WPP is using it to build more accurate audience profiles and to better fight ad fraud.

Goodhart emphasized that as news publishers adopt AI, contextual understanding is paramount. “We cannot sidestep context in any situation,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is better understand the context—not just summarize content, but understand meaning.”