Market View
From archives to assets: Exploring media monetisation in the age of AI
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McKinley Muir Hyden
Director of Data Value & Strategy at the Financial Times
About McKinley Muir Hyden
McKinley Hyden serves as Director of Data Value & Strategy at the Financial Times. With over 11 years at the FT, she has progressed through several senior positions, including Director of Analytics Business Impact, Head of Insights, and Analytics Manager. Her expertise spans data analytics, audience engagement, and digital transformation.
What key challenges do media organisations face in maintaining control over their content archives?
The primary challenge lies in maintaining control before major technology companies dictate the terms. When you search online now, you often see AI-generated summaries instead of traditional search results. While these summaries can be useful, they highlight a critical issue for media organisations: protecting our content from unauthorised use while exploring new opportunities for monetisation.
We need to find the right balance between experimentation and maintaining control. Media organisations should test new models and explore licensing agreements, but with a clear focus on both commercial benefits and customer value. This requires careful consideration and the willingness to stop initiatives that aren't working.
The risk of inaction is significant. If media organisations don't move quickly enough, their content might become freely available for others to use. Once that happens, it's nearly impossible to regain control. The challenge is protecting these assets while making them accessible in ways that benefit both the organisation and its audience.
We need to find the right balance between experimentation and maintaining control. Media organisations should test new models and explore licensing agreements, but with a clear focus on both commercial benefits and customer value.
How is the Financial Times approaching content distribution across different platforms while maintaining its value proposition?
We maintain a careful balance with our platform strategy. While we have a presence on various social media platforms and YouTube, we must be strategic about our content distribution due to our subscription model. Our paywall strategy means we can't share too much content off-platform as this would diminish our commercial offering.
We're particularly interested in interactive journalism and visual formats, which certain platforms excel at delivering. However, we need to ensure that these experiments in new formats and platforms ultimately guide people back to our ecosystem. The goal is to attract new customers, particularly younger readers, while maintaining the value of our subscription offering.
This approach reflects our understanding that while our current readership has a median age of 49, we need to think about future readers and expand our base. The challenge is finding ways to experiment with new formats and platforms without compromising our core value proposition.
How is AI technology reshaping content discovery and monetisation in the media industry?
We're already seeing practical applications through products like AskFT, which we've launched for our FT Professional customers after transforming our previously limited search capabilities. This tool allows users to ask questions in natural language and receive answers drawn exclusively from FT content. We've also developed an internal custom AI tool that ensures all content adheres to our style guides, enabling us to create features like bullet-point summaries for busy executives who need quick access to key information. These applications are particularly valuable because they provide our clients with confidence that they're accessing trusted information from a reliable source while maintaining our distinctive voice.
The technology opens up possibilities for new business models and products. We're exploring ways to analyse trends in how stories evolve and how readers interact with different types of content. This kind of analysis could be valuable to organisations, consultancies, and policy groups. The ability to draw correlations between information and provide sophisticated analysis creates opportunities for new revenue streams.
For traditional media brands like the FT, the Economist, or the BBC, our trusted reputation becomes increasingly valuable in a low-trust environment. Our content, when licensed or used in AI applications, carries more weight because it comes from a verified, reliable source.
For traditional media brands like the FT, the Economist, or the BBC, our trusted reputation becomes increasingly valuable in a low-trust environment. Our content, when licensed or used in AI applications, carries more weight because it comes from a verified, reliable source.
The ability to experiment with different formats is one of the exciting possibilities AI brings. For instance, we're exploring the creation of bullet-point summaries and 'taxi packs' for busy professionals who need quick access to critical information between meetings.
What considerations should guide media organisations in implementing new technologies for content management?
The media industry's approach to technological change varies significantly based on organisational culture and business models. Our CEO has made it clear that we must engage with these technologies proactively rather than having changes imposed upon us. We've already seen notable successes, such as achieving a 600% reduction in time spent on B2B prospecting through AI implementation. However, traditional news organisations with strong editorial voices face different challenges compared to digital-native platforms. While we recognise the need to evolve our access models and value proposition, we must balance this with maintaining our commitment to quality journalism.
The ability to experiment with different formats is one of the exciting possibilities AI brings. For instance, we're exploring the creation of bullet-point summaries and "taxi packs" for busy professionals who need quick access to critical information between meetings. We're also looking at ways to foster more active audience engagement, moving beyond passive consumption to create community and discourse.
However, implementation needs to be guided by clear principles. First, any new technology must fulfill a genuine commercial or customer need rather than being adopted for its own sake. Second, we need to consider both short-term returns and long-term implications for our business model. Finally, ethical considerations must be central to our decision-making, particularly when working with generative AI.
The relationship between technology and media continues to evolve, blurring traditional boundaries. This creates new challenges in determining decision-making authority - whether it lies with editors, CTOs, or others - and requires leadership structures adapted to this new reality.
About Financial Times
The Financial Times is a leading global business news organisation founded in 1888. Known for its authoritative journalism and salmon-pink newspaper, the FT delivers comprehensive coverage of business, finance, and economic news across print and digital platforms. Since 2015, under Nikkei Inc.'s ownership, it has successfully transitioned to a digital-first model while maintaining its reputation for quality reporting.
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