Association of Online Publishers

Truth, trust, and technology: Digital publishing’s most complex balancing act

Date: 26 Sept 2024 , 9:00 - 12:00
Charlotte Street Hotel, London

Our CRUNCH series continues to be supported by our TAB partner Google

In many ways, humans have always been living in a post-truth era; propaganda isn’t a 21^st century invention by any means. But the speed by which misinformation and disinformation can be disseminated has increased rapidly, whilst trust in media organisations has plummeted. As generative AI continues to muddy up these already murky waters, what can digital publishers do to rebuild trust with both audiences and advertisers?

AOP CRUNCH heard from industry experts who explored how premium digital publishers have re-established their brands as trusted sources of information.

Here are just a few of the topics that they explored:

With increasing fragmentation of the media landscape, how are audiences surfacing content and which sources are engendering trust?
What does it take to grow your audience in the midst of endemic misinformation?
As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into the search experience, how can we ensure effective attribution and acknowledgement of trusted publishing?
In the face of the 24/7 news grind, how can you ensure you’re not disseminating misinformation in the rush to cover breaking news?
How publishers can be more transparent around their editorial codes of conducts to build trust?
What is needed to re-establish brand safe environments in the eyes of advertisers?

Bitesize

There is no silver bullet. Misinformation and disinformation is a cross-demographic challenge, and so we need varied and targeted strategies to future proof journalism.
Trust in news is on a downwards trend. More transparency about how the news is made could help differentiate quality journalism from the rest of the internet.
Connection is key. Building a community who believe in your values helps you build trust in your journalism, but that will involve innovation. Video is on the rise, but since traditional media is typically less comfortable with the format, publishers are losing younger audiences to influencers and alternative media.
Trust in your publishing brand translates positively for advertisers, as they see 50% uplift in trust when their adverts are seen on a news brand when compared to a non-news brand and are more likely to be viewed as competent at what they do.
Will increased amounts of AI technologies lead to a greater value being placed on human content? Currently, Britons are highly uncomfortable with AI-created content with human oversight, although there is greater confidence in human-led journalism with AI as a support tool. Being human-centric could be a differentiator between quality digital publishing versus other online media sources.
There is a growing interest in developing and investing in responsible media from the buyside, but we need to build better relationships between the buyside and publishers to foster trust between partners and to define what a premium digital environment looks like.