The C-Suite roundtable we at INMA hosted was an intense few days of presentations and hard conversations punctuated with incredible small group conversations in exceptional surroundings.

Today I want to share four themes that came across loud and clear with the implications for product and tech.  

1. We need to get our heads around AI

It’s still a big subject and one I think is too broad a term. Generally I like to think of this as three interrelated areas for news: business efficiencies, improving our own products, and relationships with LLMs. 

It seems that for the first of these, AI is being built into many existing tools, especially with CMS and related software. The second is still fairly limited to chatbots, which I believe limits us. We should be looking at the wider implications of tech ecosystem changes. And lastly, the relationship with LLMs comes down to: take the money, as there seem few strings attached; also, understand the wider implications and where our businesses intersect. 

All of this is oversimplified for the purposes of this e-mail, but I’ll dig into the latter of these two points over the coming weeks. If you have thoughts and opinions, I am always happy to discuss these topics. Please book time with me here.

2. We need to double down on brand across ALL platforms

We must fully understand what our brand truly means before we can convey this effectively to other people. As a brand marketeer once put it to me, “If you walked into a party, who are you? What does your brand say about you, what you stand for, and why people should care about it?” 

You need a personality and to be proud of it. Ultimately your brand is what other people think of you, so if you walk into that party thinking you look cool but are wearing a Hawaiian shirt, you’ll need to revisit to see if your brand is actually resonating in the way you think it is.   

3. At the core of our businesses is journalism

Sometimes we struggle to define exactly what that is. In fact, I don’t believe there is a single definition. But we do know that it is human-led, fact-checked, and at times personal. We need to double down on the core of what we do that no one else can — and explain it well so the value proposition is clear. 

4. Build and maintain community

We see the desire for this amongst our audience. And we know building and maintaining a direct relationship is a much better long-term plan than driving traffic and clicks.

Who is in your community? How do you truly deliver value to them? Can you help them connect? And is there a way to help the community leverage collective knowledge and insights?

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