The recent Niche Leadership Summit turned out to be a great place for ideas. Media professionals thrive on good ideas, and our Fox Associates family is no different. One of the speakers at the event was the media consultant David Arkin, who gave a presentation on the importance of having a comprehensive AI policy. In addition to that timely topic, our subsequent Q&A with him covered lots of other ground. Here’s a transcript of our conversation.
Fox Tales: Bill Bell mentioned you gave a presentation on why media organizations need an AI Policy. Why is that and what should such a policy include?
David Arkin: An AI policy is critical because it sets the guardrails for how a media company uses AI in smart and ethical ways. A lot of companies jump into AI because they want efficiency—which is fine—but if you don’t have a framework, you end up with inconsistent practices, quality concerns, and even credibility issues.
David Arkin.
Your policy should establish two key things: First, the areas where human judgment and expertise must always stay at the center, like reporting, interviewing and community building. These are the places where AI can’t replicate the trust and authority your journalists bring. Second, it should outline where AI can play a support role. That could be in formatting stories for multiple platforms, creating prospect lists for the sales team, editing first drafts of stories, or even pulling insights from data to make storytelling stronger.
Policies also need to tackle transparency—when and how you disclose AI use—and security, to ensure your content and data aren’t being mishandled. The media companies that treat AI as a strategic tool are the ones setting themselves up for long-term success.
Simply put, you need to know how your organization is using AI and have the right tools in place to ensure you are protected and that your team is in lock step.
Fox Tales: Sticking with the AI topic, what do you see that media companies are doing with it? Efficiency? Revenue development? Where will these use cases be in 12–18 months?
Arkin: Right now, most media organizations are in the efficiency phase. They’re using AI to save time: To draft newsletters, summarize long reports, write basic copy, or pull sales leads. And that’s good, as it creates space for staff to focus on the high-value work that AI can’t do.
But what excites me is where this is headed. In the next 12 to 18 months, the use cases will get much more ambitious. We’ll see companies use AI to power entirely new products and re-imagine how some of their current products are being created through AI.
I really do believe that AI will help us create better work (if the tools are used in safe and smart ways) and more content than ever before. But great AI strategies will also help create new products and ideas that haven’t been thought of right now. The winners in all of this will be the companies willing to try.
I often tell clients: Every part of your operation should be asking, “Could AI help me do this better?” In sales, in editorial, in audience development, in product creation. If you can dream it, there’s a good chance AI can play a role in making it happen.
Fox Tales: I’m sure you know about “Google Zero,” where AI summaries replace search results, leading to substantial traffic losses in many cases. How do you see the industry mitigating that?
Arkin: There’s no question Google’s changes will impact traffic, and we’re already seeing it in some cases. But I’m not in the panic camp. I see this as a function that pushes publishers to focus on what really matters: Answering questions for your specific audience in ways that are useful to your readers, but also play well with what Google is asking for.
The strategy shift has to be toward GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which basically means you are creating content that’s answering reader questions. They have to be very specific questions, not huge takes on huge topics, but narrow. That’s how AI Overviews and ChatGPT are surfacing answers today.
At the same time though I really believe that building direct, owned audience channels like newsletters, text products, and events is so important. You really can’t just rely on search.
Fox Tales: On your LinkedIn profile, you say you solve media companies’ biggest challenges. If you had to rank the top three, based on your experiences with clients, what would they be?
Arkin: The three biggest challenges we see every day are:
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- New revenue streams. Media companies can’t rely on legacy advertising or subscriptions alone. They need branded content strategies, new sponsorship models, and niche products that meet the needs of both readers and advertisers.
- Audience building. It’s not just about bigger audiences; it’s about building loyal ones and the right ones. It’s not about the who, but the how many, to steal a line from an industry friend of mine. You need to be the authority in the areas that matter most to your community.
- Innovation. The ability to create, test, and scale new products quickly. Too many organizations get stuck in old ways of doing things. The ones that thrive are constantly experimenting with new newsletters, guides, events, new digital formats, and the best workflows to support that work.
If you grow the right audiences, and innovate with products built around their needs, new revenue streams naturally follow. That’s where we help clients connect the dots.
Fox Tales: Your services are broad: Content monetization, audience development, tech-stack optimization, serving as a fractional chief digital officer. Where is the need today?
Arkin: The biggest need we see is in execution. Media leaders know they need more revenue, more audience, more innovation. But they don’t always have the bandwidth, expertise, or structure to make it happen. That’s why our fractional services are in demand.
For some clients, we’re building out their branded content playbook and training their sales teams on how to sell it. For others, we’re reorganizing their editorial calendars around SEO and GEO strategies, or even running parts of their digital operation for them. With our executive and digital editor programs, we don’t just tell companies what to do, but we help them actually do it, with the right tools, strategies, and people in place.
At the end of the day, our job is to help media companies succeed where content and revenue connect. And that requires more than just advice. It requires rolling up our sleeves and working alongside our clients to get things done, and get them done well.