By Ariel Burkett, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Mather
Here’s a truth that many of us haven’t fully absorbed: the world will never be slower than it is right now. Tomorrow will move faster. So will next week. This is the slowest moment you’ll ever get.
At the INMA World Congress in New York this March, CEOs were asked what they would do differently if they could rewind a year. Their answer? They wished they’d moved faster on AI.
And yet, many in our industry are still hesitating to embrace AI. According to WAN-IFRA’s AI in Newsrooms Report, 50% of publishers are still in the exploratory phase, leaving untapped potential on the table. Technology is not waiting.
Every day brings smarter AI, faster processors, and tighter feedback loops between creators and consumers. If you’re not adapting, you’re falling behind.
The Clock’s Beating Your Roadmap
Over the past few years, publishers have debated whether to build or buy. Many have chosen to build—launching smart, focused, cross-functional AI teams. These teams understand the business. They know the pain points. But too often, they get stuck trying to map out perfect conditions, aiming to get everything just right before making a move.
It’s natural to want full control. But in today’s environment, that instinct can become a liability. Time, resources, and complexity still create bottlenecks—and that slows progress when speed matters most.
You can’t wait 12 months to launch a product that’s outdated in six. You can’t afford to build something in-house if your competitor integrates it tomorrow. The clock isn’t ticking—it’s racing.
Build Where You’re Strong. Buy Where You’re Not.
Trying to build the whole stack yourself? That’s a trap. Publishers that try to do everything often end up doing nothing well.
Great companies don’t try to do everything—they focus on what they do best. For publishers, that means doubling down on editorial excellence, trusted journalism, and a deep, evolving understanding of their audience. Build tools that amplify those strengths—like smart editorial workflows or AI that enhances the reader experience through personalization and summarization.
Buying isn’t a shortcut—it’s a strategy. The most advanced publishers recognize that partnering with best-in-class partners enables them to move faster, test more, and stay competitive. You don’t need to reinvent every tool. You need to orchestrate—bringing together the right components and designing them to work in sync.
The New Mindset
The future won’t reward the biggest or the oldest. It will reward the fastest learners. The boldest testers. The ones who know when to build and when to plug in what’s already working.
This is no longer about tech adoption. It’s about evolution. The pace of change is exponential. What used to take five years now takes five months, or less. AI isn’t a side project or an experiment—it’s the next platform shift, and it needs to be part of every publisher’s toolkit.
Darwin’s theory of evolution applies to publishers, too: those that adapt swiftly and strategically to AI are best positioned to thrive in today’s fast-moving media landscape. The world won’t slow down for you. And if you're not reinventing, you're already falling behind.
🔑 Key Takeaways
1. Time is Running Out
- The pace of technological change is accelerating—waiting is not an option.
2. AI Adoption is a Business Imperative
- Media leaders already regret not moving faster on AI. The cost of inaction is real: audience, revenue, and relevance are all at stake.
3. Build Where You Differentiate
- Focus on building AI tools that amplify your unique strengths.
4. Don’t Try to Build Everything
- Trying to develop every tool in-house wastes time and resources. Not everything is worth building from scratch.
5. Buy to Accelerate
- Buying proven external solutions will enable you to move faster, test more, and stay competitive.
6. Think Like an Orchestrator, Not an Owner
- Combine best-in-class platforms with in-house innovation to deliver strong outcomes quickly and efficiently.
7. Inaction Is the Biggest Risk
- The market doesn’t wait. Late adopters lose ground fast in a landscape that rewards speed and adaptability.
