The media industry is facing its most profound transformation since the invention of the printing press. Traditional content distribution models are crumbling as AI reshapes how people discover and consume information. In 2024, about 58.5% of U.S. searches and 59.7% of EU searches ended without any click to another site [¹], meaning users increasingly get their information directly from search results without ever visiting publisher websites.

But here's what most people miss: this disruption isn't just a threat. It's the clearest signal yet that the future belongs to publishers who understand they're not really in the content business anymore. They're in the community business.
 

The End of Content as King
 

For decades, media companies operated on a simple premise: create compelling content, attract eyeballs, sell those eyeballs to advertisers, or convert them to subscribers. That model is breaking down faster than expected.
The math is brutal. Zero-click searches now make up almost 60% of Google searches in 2024 [¹]. When people encounter paywalls, just 1% actually pay for access. Meanwhile, 53% look for the same information elsewhere for free [²] . Even for publishers with millions of monthly visitors, conversion rates hover around 0.5% to 2% at best [³] .

This is where most publishers panic and start frantically optimizing for featured snippets or fighting legal battles against AI companies. Both approaches miss the point entirely.
 

The Taylor Swift Blueprint
 

During a recent roundtable with media executives, one participant posed what initially seemed like an offhand comment: "How do we replicate the financial success of Taylor Swift?" Everyone chuckled, but that question contains the entire playbook for the media's future.
Swift didn't just become the world's biggest musical artist by making great songs. She became a billionaire by understanding something most media companies still don't: her real product isn't music, it's community.

The Eras Tour is projected to generate close to $5 billion in consumer spending in the United States alone [⁴]. The average secondary market ticket price for Swift's final U.S. show in Indianapolis was $1,273, more expensive than her first show in Glendale at less than $500 [⁵]. That's not inflation. That's cultural staying power built through community.

Consider what Swift actually built: an ecosystem where fans don't just consume content, they participate in a living, breathing community. They decode hidden messages in her lyrics, create elaborate theories about upcoming releases, exchange friendship bracelets at concerts (so many that businesses have reported bead and sequin shortages [⁶]), and treat each tour stop like a pilgrimage.

The lesson isn't that news publishers should start hosting concerts. It's that successful media companies must stop thinking like content factories and start thinking like community builders.
 

Event-Driven Community Building
 

The smartest publishers are already figuring this out. The Wall Street Journal has built thriving communities through its CEO Council, CMO Network, and CFO Network. These aren't just conferences. They're exclusive membership communities where business leaders convene regularly to share insights, build relationships, and shape industry conversations. The WSJ CEO Council Summit draws hundreds of C-suite executives annually, creating spaces where journalism facilitates business relationships.

The Atlantic has similarly transformed its approach. In 2025, The Atlantic Festival held its first event in New York City, bringing nearly 2,000 in-person attendees and over 10,000 virtual participants together. Year-over-year festival revenue grew 36% compared to 2024. Live events now comprise 25% of The Atlantic's business [⁷]. These gatherings feature three-day festivals with 30-plus events covering everything from AI's future to exclusive film screenings, creating experiences that can't be digitized, scraped, or replicated by AI.

Physical experiences create value that transcends content. Events solve multiple problems simultaneously: they generate direct revenue through ticket sales and sponsorships, create deeper engagement through face-to-face interaction, become content for multiple formats, and provide market research that no analytics dashboard can match.
 

Editorial Courage Builds Trust

Another critical element of community building that often goes unmentioned: standing up for what's right despite political pressures. The Washington Post's coverage of Watergate during Nixon's presidency demonstrated that unwavering journalistic integrity creates lasting community bonds. When Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein continued investigating the scandal despite White House denials and threats [⁸], they weren't just breaking news. They were demonstrating the kind of editorial courage that transforms casual readers into lifelong supporters.

More recently, publications that have maintained rigorous investigative standards on sensitive topics, from political scandals to corporate malfeasance, have found that their communities rally around them. People pay for journalism they trust, and trust is built when publishers demonstrate they'll pursue truth regardless of pressure.
This editorial backbone becomes a community rallying point. When members know their publication won't compromise on principles, they don't just subscribe. They defend it, promote it, and identify with it.
 

From Product to People: A Business Transformation Parallel

This transformation from product-centricity to community-centricity mirrors shifts happening across industries. Consider the evolution of customer experience operations. Traditional business process outsourcing focused on delivering services, managing transactions, handling calls. The product was the service itself.

Forward-thinking organizations have recognized that this approach misses what actually drives business outcomes. It's not about processing transactions efficiently. It's about understanding the complete customer journey, designing experiences around human needs, and building relationships that extend far beyond individual touchpoints.

Take Firstsource's approach with its Gigsourcing Platform. Rather than simply providing outsourced labor, the platform builds a community of skilled professionals, connecting businesses with on-demand global talent through an AI-powered ecosystem. The platform doesn't just match workers to jobs. It creates a community where freelancers can build reputations, develop their expertise, and grow their careers on their own terms while organizations access the exact talent they need when they need it.

This represents the same shift publishers are experiencing. The traditional model said: here's our product (service or content), take it or leave it. The community model says: we're building an ecosystem where members both contribute and benefit, where relationships matter more than transactions, where belonging creates value that transcends any single interaction.

The shift from viewing customers as transaction sources to viewing them as community members requiring holistic support represents the same fundamental change publishers face. Success comes not from optimizing isolated interactions but from creating ecosystems where every touchpoint reinforces belonging and value.

Media companies are making an identical pivot. The article is no longer the product. The community experience surrounding that journalism is what creates value. Publications that recognize this build platforms where readers don't just consume content but participate in conversations, attend events, influence coverage priorities, and form connections with other community members.
 

Beyond Subscriptions: The Membership Evolution

Traditional subscription models treat readers like customers buying a product. They pay money, they get access, and end of relationship. This transactional approach becomes increasingly difficult to justify when free alternatives exist for basic information.

Membership models flip this equation. Instead of selling access to content, you're selling belonging to a community. The content becomes a tool for community building rather than the end product itself.

Publishers like The Guardian have moved from short-term newsletter campaigns to always-on offerings. Their "Reclaim Your Brain" email course attracted 146,000 global subscribers, then converted them to their "Well Actually" weekly newsletter with 30,000 subscribers [⁹]. Axios launched its first paid membership tier for $1,000 annually, not because their content is worth $1,000, but because access to their community of communications professionals provides that value through networking and professional development [¹⁰].

Successful membership programs offer exclusive access not just to content, but to journalists, experts, and other members with shared interests. They provide educational resources, networking opportunities, and impact participation that involves members in the journalism process itself.
 

The Adjacent Business Problem

One of the most insightful comments from our media roundtable came from a participant who noted their company's expansion into automotive dealerships to fund their journalism mission. At first, this sounds absurd. But it's actually brilliant.

Movie theaters figured this out decades ago. They don't make money selling movie tickets. They make money selling overpriced popcorn and soda. The movies are loss leaders that get people in the door for higher-margin purchases.

Media companies need to think the same way. The journalism might not be profitable on its own, but it can be the foundation for adjacent businesses: educational services, consulting and advisory work, technology licensing, events and experiences, merchandise and publishing. The key is ensuring these adjacent businesses enhance rather than compromise editorial independence.
 

Why This Matters Now
 

With social referral traffic declining, third-party cookies being deprecated, and generative AI reshaping search, media organizations must reclaim their communities from third-party platforms. The window for building direct relationships with audiences is closing as AI intermediaries become more sophisticated.

But the real urgency comes from audience expectations. Younger, digitally native audiences skip over full articles and head straight to comment sections to gauge the conversation. For them, community interaction isn't a nice-to-have feature. It's the primary draw.

Publishers who continue treating their audience as passive consumers of content will find themselves competing with AI that can deliver information faster, cheaper, and often more comprehensively than human journalists. Publishers who build genuine communities around shared interests and values create something AI cannot replicate: belonging.
 

The Path Forward
 

The transformation from content producer to community platform isn't optional. It's inevitable. The publishers who survive and thrive will be those who recognize this shift early and adapt their entire operation around community building rather than just content creation.

This doesn't mean abandoning journalism. It means recognizing that journalism's highest purpose has always been creating informed communities capable of democratic participation. The tools and methods are changing, but the mission remains the same.

The average Eras Tour attendee spent approximately $1,300 on travel, hotels, food, and merchandise according to the U.S. Travel Association [¹¹]. That's the power of community. People will invest heavily for genuine belonging and shared experiences with people who understand them.

The media companies that figure out how to create that same sense of belonging around the issues and topics they cover won't just survive the AI disruption. They'll emerge stronger, more essential, and more profitable than they ever were in the old content-consumption model.
The future belongs to publishers who understand they're not in the information business. They're in the community business. The information is just the excuse people use to join.

 

References:

1. Fishkin, R., & MacDonald, M. (2024, July 1). 2024 zero-click search study: For every 1,000 US Google searches, only 374 clicks go to the open web. In the EU, it's 360. SparkToro. https://sparktoro.com/blog/2024-zero-click-search-study-for-every-1000-us-google-searches-only-374-clicks-go-to-the-open-web-in-the-eu-its-360/
2. Pew Research Center. (2025, June 24). Few Americans pay for news when they encounter paywalls. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/24/few-americans-pay-for-news-when-they-encounter-paywalls/
3. Speciall Media. (2022, April 20). Benchmarks for digital subscription paywalls. https://speciall.media/2022/04/20/benchmarks-for-digital-subscription-paywalls/
4. QuestionPro. (2023, June 8). Generating $5 billion, the Taylor Swift The Eras Tour has an economic impact more than the gross domestic product of 50 countries [Press release]. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/06/08/2684710/0/en/Generating-5-billion-the-Taylor-Swift-The-Eras-Tour-has-an-Economic-Impact-more-than-the-GDP-of-50-countries.htm
5. Victory Live. (2024, December 7). Where did Taylor Swift tickets cost the most? See which city cracked $3,000 per seat. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/12/07/where-taylor-swift-tickets-highest-cost/76829276007/
6. Blistein, J. (2023, August 22). The staggering economic impact of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. TIME. https://time.com/6307420/taylor-swift-eras-tour-money-economy/
7. Baczewski, G. (2025, September 17). For The Atlantic, a New York Festival delivers a record year. Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/media/atlantic-festival-events-new-york/
8. Washington Post (First Story): Shepard, M. (2022, June 13). The first Woodward and Bernstein story on the Watergate scandal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/13/first-woodward-bernstein-watergate-scandal/
9. Spangler, T. (2024, April 22). Publishers revamp their newsletter offerings to engage audiences amid threat of AI and declining referrals. Digiday. https://digiday.com/media/publishers-revamp-their-newsletter-offerings-to-engage-audiences-amid-threat-of-ai-and-declining-referrals/
10. Axios. (2025, October 7). Axios partners with Mixing Board to launch new community for modern communications and corporate affairs professionals. Axios. https://www.axios.com/2025/10/07/mixing-board-axios-communications-membership
11. U.S. Travel Association. (2023, September 18). The Taylor Swift impact – 5 months and $5+ billion. https://www.ustravel.org/news/taylor-swift-impact-5-months-and-5-billion