With generative AI tech companies spending millions of dollars to license content and Google back-and-forth over its plans to phase out third-party cookies, publishers have a lot to sort out.
When asked which is his bigger concern, Future CEO Jon Steinberg replied, “The cookie issue keeps me up at night more than the AI issue. The AI issue used to keep me up at night, but now I'm more optimistic… about the cookie issue. Every conversation about cookies begins and ends with, 'Well, there's so much uncertainty.'”
In the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, Steinberg discusses these two topics and why Future has not yet struck a content licensing deal with an AI technology company.
Below are highlights from the conversation, lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Don't be bothered by the uncertainty surrounding Google's decision to phase out cookies
I think the change is small. If 30% of Chrome users have cookies, that might be a useful signal. Either way, I think things will be the same or a little better, but not significantly different than they were before the announcement.
We've made great strides in terms of driving people to more branded content and first-party transactions. So we need to continue on this mission. At the end of the day, for us, first-party revenue is 4x more than open auction, so there's an economic incentive. And I believe it's good for advertisers and agencies too. If you can get someone who's looking to buy a phone, or someone who's looking to buy an air fryer, there's a big upside to doing first-party buying. It could be a period of disruption, but on the other hand, I don't think people want to buy just a portion of their audience that has a cookie.
His philosophy on the relationship between publishers and AI technology companies
I have a philosophy about what should happen. It's a very simple philosophy, and it has two pillars. The first is, we want traffic from these platforms. And I think it's a very positive sign that OpenAI announced SearchGPT. I just saw the image that they put on their website, which is going to prominently display publisher content and links. They can't scrape our content; they have to send traffic back. This is the reciprocal relationship that has always existed with Google, and it's something that needs to continue in this new world.
And number two, you need to get paid. You need to get paid for your content, but number one is much more important.
The price is right, but the content license agreement
Ultimately, if you're talking millions and millions of dollars on the back catalogue, and continuing millions, you know, the £391m half year revenue that we reported in May, is not going to come close. I mean, legally and ethically, we want all the money we can get… but traffic is the more important piece of the puzzle.
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