Paying Attention

Helen Philpot is Managing Editor of The Sun, one of the UK’s biggest news brands.

In FY26, The Sun generated 12.1 billion video views across its platforms, up 80% year on year. That growth sits inside a much bigger shift in how the newsroom reaches audiences across video, social, creators, subscriptions and AI.

In this episode of Paying Attention, Helen explains why “transformation” is a red herring, what it takes to change a newsroom without losing what already works, and why journalism remains fundamentally human in the age of AI.

We get into:

• how The Sun reached 12.1 billion video views
• why every story now needs to be treated differently across platforms
• treating every story like a mini business plan
• journalists becoming creators and the growth of Sun Club
• why relying on one revenue stream is no longer enough
• where AI can make a newsroom more efficient
• why AI still can’t replace the work of journalists

As Helen puts it: “AI can’t do a doorknock.”

A conversation about storytelling, technology and what it takes to keep changing without losing what matters.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:41 From broadcast journalism to Salesforce and back
01:58 Why transformation is a red herring
03:55 Being multi-channel: the CEO of a story
05:54 How video became a strategic priority
08:57 What the views actually do for the business
11:35 Sun Club and paid subscription
13:08 Journalists as creators
15:17 Monetisation, the holy grail
16:12 The experiments that didn’t land
17:30 Where AI helps, and where it never will
21:05 What AI can’t do
22:18 How AI is changing discovery
24:51 Advice for newsrooms starting the shift
26:41 What Helen is most excited about
28:01 Where to find Helen

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, technology and commerce are being reshaped by AI.

Wei Hsueh has spent over a decade in ad tech and publisher monetisation, and is now the founder of IntentBridges and LINC, helping publishers in Asia turn AI access into content licensing revenue.

In this episode of Paying Attention, we talk about what happens when AI answers the question, keeps the user, and sends no click back, and why content licensing could become the new value exchange between publishers and the machines reading their work.

We get into:

• why the old content-for-traffic exchange is breaking
• the two groups who will pay for publisher content
• the three pressures that will turn licensing into a real market
• why local and niche publishers still have value
• the first step every publisher should take now

A conversation about the end of the click economy, and who gets paid when machines become the internet's biggest readers.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:39 Why Wei started IntentBridges
02:59 How AI is changing publisher traffic
05:53 Who buys publisher content: consumer vs enterprise AI
08:13 Can smaller publishers benefit?
10:17 Three pressures that will create a licensing market
13:01 When will the market form?
14:42 LINC: map, package, commercialise
17:14 Asia vs the West: who's organising for AI
18:13 Publishing five years from now
20:00 The one thing to do now
21:03 Where to find Wei

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, technology and commerce are being reshaped by AI.

Brett Cohen is Group Vice President of ForbesLive, running the live events behind franchises like the Forbes Under 30 Summit. In 2012, he walked through Times Square pretending to be a celebrity, and the video that followed reached millions.

In this episode of Paying Attention, we talk about why that experiment worked, why it matters even more in the age of AI, and why getting attention is one thing, but earning credibility is another.

We get into:

• the Times Square stunt, and the TMZ insight behind it
• why credibility is getting easier to fake as AI floods every feed
• why in-person events are growing as the world goes more digital
• why a media publisher is really a legacy creator
• what brands are getting right on social

A conversation about attention, credibility, and what it takes to earn both.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:03 The Times Square experiment
04:53 Why it worked: the TMZ formula
09:04 Manufactured credibility in 2026
12:18 The thin line between attention and credibility
13:50 AI, fakes and who to trust
16:20 Attention is up for grabs, and IRL is rising
20:36 Designing for unexpected moments at Forbes Under 30
22:47 Why events matter more as traffic falls
25:17 Publishers as legacy creators, and Forbes' bets
30:13 What brands are getting right on social
32:27 Final advice: listen to your audience
33:22 Where to find Brett

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, technology and commerce are being reshaped by AI.

Nikos Nakos has spent over 16 years building IamExpat, one of the leading English-language platforms for internationals in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, through the social era, the SEO era, and now the AI era.

In this episode of Paying Attention, we talk about what survives when AI answers the question before anyone reaches your website, and why the future for publishers is creating original knowledge rather than repackaging what a machine now does faster.

We get into:

• why "becoming the source" is the only real defence against AI
• what content got hit hardest, and what barely moved
• how in-person events and community became IamExpat's strongest asset
• why direct traffic is the metric publishers should obsess over
• acquiring Dutch News, and betting on original journalism

A conversation about building a publishing business that lasts when the old traffic playbook stops working.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:04 Building IamExpat: the social, SEO and AI eras
04:07 Why they moved away from programmatic ads
06:05 What AI hit hardest, and what barely moved
07:43 In-person events as the defensible moat
09:51 Become the source, don't repackage what AI does better
14:01 Advice for less-diversified publishers
15:15 Why direct traffic is gold
16:10 The zero-click future
17:07 New metrics: measuring AI visibility
23:07 Keeping the editorial line, not chasing GEO
24:13 What's next: news, events, and Dutch News
28:26 Final advice for publishers

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, technology and commerce are being reshaped by AI.

Why AI Needs Advertising | Andrea Tortella

Andrea Tortella is the co-founder and CEO of Thrad, building advertising infrastructure inside AI, and previously worked on advertising at Perplexity.

In this episode of Paying Attention, we discuss why Andrea believes advertising can be a force for good, why AI may need advertising to remain broadly accessible, and what he calls “sponsored intelligence.”

We get into:

• why Andrea is obsessed with advertising
• what he learned working on ads at Perplexity
• why chat interfaces are becoming a new form of advertising inventory
• what “sponsored intelligence” means for the future of AI
• why fewer clicks could reshape the economics of publishing
• how publishers might capture value as distribution shifts towards AI agents
• the attribution problem facing AI-native advertising
• Anthropic’s anti-AI-ad campaign, and why Andrea loved the creative but disagreed with the argument
• why one of the most underrated advantages in marketing is speed

Andrea’s thesis is that advertising doesn’t have to be something users tolerate. Done well, it can fund access, drive discovery and become part of the value itself.

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:48 From Perplexity to Thrad
04:31 Why advertising can be a force for good
06:46 What is an “AI publisher”?
07:59 Sponsored intelligence
09:34 The death of the click and the zero-click economy
11:37 Publishers, AI and the broken value exchange
12:36 AI-agent advertising, Perplexity and attribution
14:32 Turning AI traffic into a new advertising channel
17:07 Why AI platforms still need publishers
19:13 What AI advertising needs to become mainstream
20:02 Conversational AI as a new advertising channel
21:43 The growth of advertising inside AI
22:42 Anthropic’s anti-AI-ad campaign
24:47 What marketers should be paying attention to
25:02 Why speed is underrated in marketing
26:17 Where to find Andrea

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, AI, adtech and commerce are changing the way attention is won, valued and monetised.

Mimmo Palmieri has spent over a decade on the revenue and monetisation side of publishing, including at Condé Nast and the Financial Times, the part of the business most people never see.

In this episode of Paying Attention, we discuss why publishers should stop trying to win back lost traffic and start building around value instead.

We get into:

• why the traffic era is ending
• where publishers should invest next
• how AI changes the economics of editorial
• the importance of owning the audience relationship
• what the shift from volume to value means for the P&L
• why the strongest media brands will become destinations people choose, not pages they stumble onto

A conversation about what publishing looks like when traffic is no longer the main measure of success.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:49 How Mimmo got into publishing
03:02 What revenue operations actually involves
06:35 The toughest time for publishers, inside the P&L
09:34 Adapting as page views decline
11:00 The three moats: IP, first-party data, relationships
13:32 Where the damage hits first
16:32 Affiliate revenue and the AI risk
18:00 The "AIdvertorial": advertising for bots
20:33 Using AI to multiply editorial
23:07 AI platforms as the interface to audiences
24:56 From volume to value, and proving value
28:16 Why media planning cycles collapsed
30:00 The shift to predictable revenue
32:08 What to stop and start investing in
34:13 Who's doing it well
36:40 What most people get wrong
38:23 Where to find Mimmo

Paying Attention is hosted by Choy Travers and explores how media, advertising, AI, adtech and commerce are changing the way attention is won, valued and monetised.