How AI’s hit to publisher traffic is quietly rewiring media M&A
Publishers’ traffic has dipped since AI tools arrived — and the fallout isn’t limited to audience or ad revenue. It’s now weighing on the media mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, making deals harder to price during a time of disruption, according to investors and analysts.
Higher interest rates, economic tariffs, and a soft ad market haven’t helped, either.
“You can’t buy a business easily in this state of disruption, and you don’t know who’s going to be the winner versus the loser,” said Amir Malik, managing director of advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal.
Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.
Related Knowledge Center: Artificial intelligence
On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property