“I’m a big believer that, with all this change (AI), you cannot succeed by being top-down,” says Sean Cornwell, CEO of Immediate Media, the UK subsidiary of Hubert Burda Media: “You’ve got to try and encourage and empower the bottom-up.”
Specpub Immediate is a ray of hope amid the AI pessimism and anxiety. Over the last few years Cornwell has looked hard for ways to make AI work to its advantage. The CEO joined The MediaVoices Publisher Podcast this week to talk about how he’s preparing the business to stand out in a world of seemingly infinite content – and why he believes in sharing his optimism about the trajectory for AI in publishing.
Cornwell is also a speaker at the Flashes & Flames and MediaVoices upcoming event, The Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information & Events in London on 25 November. He’ll be talking to Colin Morrison about what AI means to Immediate Media now and in the future. Full agenda, speakers, Masterclasses and tickets are available here.
Most important for Cornwell, when it comes to Immediate’s approach to AI is his core belief that it presents a host of opportunities alongside the disruption. “Whatever the change or technological disruption, my philosophy is one where actually, we’ve got to lean into this,” he explained. “There’s no point putting your head in the sand and hoping that it goes away.”
Defending against infinite AI content
For media organisations, the primary disruption of AI is the sheer volume of content it can produce. In this world of infinite content, it’s a hard task to stand out. But this is the starting point for Cornwell. “What is defensible?” he asked. “What cannot be replicated, not just now, but in 18 months, or 36 months, or five years’ time?”
Brand is the first strongly defensible point Cornwell pointed to. But he noted that this applies to market-leading titles, and that brands in the mid- to long-tail will be more difficult to defend. “There is something about the trust that comes with a category-leading brand, and the scale that has, which I think offers some protection,” he said.
The second defence against AI content is talent, or what Cornwell describes as “faces and voices.” He noted that younger audiences in particular have a tendency to follow individuals and talent rather than brands.
“That’s quite hard for AI to replicate because, by its nature, it’s generic,” he said, explaining that AI can be presented with an element of ‘personality’ – but nothing close to unique human talent.
Other defences Cornwell cites are communities, unique IP, and experiential in various shapes and forms, including live, virtual and AR. These are all areas Immediate in which is investing because many of its brands are category-leading, such as Gardeners’ World, Radio Times and Good Food.
But underpinning this is the urgent need to double down on first-party relationships. “You’ve got to have a direct relationship with as many of your users, customers, and audience as possible,” Cornwell emphasised. This has been a core focus at Immediate for some years, and is part of the reason it went even deeper into subscriptions back in 2020.
The work is not done, however. Cornwell highlighted that Immediate is currently “focusing now big time on talent, and building our own external talent as well as partnering with external talent.” It is also seeking to integrate its already successful live events more effectively with the parent brands and content.
Optimism from the top
Cornwell believes that the key driver for Immediate’s success with AI so far is a positive attitude. He believes in its potential – and the whole company’s overall approach and philosophy is positive. However, he also identified some practical aspects which have helped bring everyone along.
The first point is in being careful what language the senior leadership are using around AI publicly. “I hear a lot of people who are spending energy going, ‘It’s outrageous what Google is doing, and what Amazon and Meta and OpenAI are doing,’” he illustrated. “Yes, maybe. But you can’t control it, so move on.”
This doesn’t mean Immediate isn’t cognisant of the risks of AI. As an example, Cornwell pointed to the scenario where publishers could see more than half their Google search traffic drop in the next two years. “It’s not ideal, but it’s not catastrophic,” he explained. “Our energy is very much focused on the positive – and the opportunity.”
Secondly, Cornwell is investing heavily in upskilling his teams. Immediate has invested a “huge amount” over the last three years in learning programmes for staff, from summer workshops and programmes to regular hackathon-style experimentation days.
The aim with all these is to encourage people to try new projects and test new ideas. Although AI features heavily, it’s not the exclusive focus. FutureFest, a day held in March for all Immediate people, had creativity and innovation as core themes. Tech expert Benedict Evans and comedian Lenny Henry were among the speakers talking about content engagement, creative disruption, and future trends.
“We had people from Venture Capital, we had comedians, we had people who are experts at building brands, and we brought all these people together to foster ideas and talk about where we’re heading, and the future, and what opportunities might look like and what the world might look like,” said Cornwell, explaining that this was to create an environment where people can embrace the future confidently.
Immediate is also prepared to put its money where its mouth is. The business has an Innovation Fund to give staff not just the permission, but also the resources to innovate. It has green-lit more than 50 projects since launching three years ago.
“Essentially, it’s a very quick way to give small amounts of money – £2,000, £5,000, £10,000 – to internal ideas and internal projects,” said Cornwell. “There are tonnes of good ideas in your business. You’ve just got to unlock them, and give people the opportunity to go and run with them.”
One tip Cornwell shared for other publishers was to measure the use of AI internally; not to put staff under pressure, but to assess progress. He said that 53% of Immediate staff now use AI tools on a weekly basis, and more than 80% use them at least monthly.
“Actually, over 60% of our people are excited or open-minded about AI and the opportunities,” Cornwell outlined, also pointing out that only 5% are ‘anxious’. He believes this is reflective of the work the business has done to embrace and figure out AI opportunities together.
Bottom-up empowerment
All these initiatives and strategies have a single aim: to empower all staff to experiment and innovate with new tools and technologies. “With all this change, you cannot succeed by being top-down in terms of the answers,” emphasised Cornwell. “You’ve got to try and encourage and empower the bottom-up.”
His advice to other publishers is to focus on what can be controlled, be clear on strategy, and know where you’re heading. People at all levels must understand the ‘why’ of decisions, and crucially, leaders need to execute against those strategies as effectively as possible.
Listen to Sean Cornwell’s interview above or by searching for ‘The Publisher Podcast’ on your podcast app of choice. He will be speaking, alongside more than 25 other industry leaders, at The Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information & Events, on November 25 in London – see here for more information and tickets.
