06/05/2026
Trusted information has never been more valuable, or more vulnerable
An interesting morning at the INMA World Congress in Berlin, with the sessions cutting right to the heart of where news media now stands.
From Jimmy Wales reflecting on Wikipedia, trust, community and the power of open knowledge, through to the later discussion on AI, data, licensing and the future economics of information, the consistent theme was clear:
Trusted information has never been more valuable, or more vulnerable.
The morning challenged publishers to think much harder about what we truly own and what makes us different.
It is not just content in the narrow sense.
It is our journalism, our archives, our metadata, our local knowledge, our relationships, our brand trust and our role in helping communities understand themselves.
AI is changing the economics of publishing because it depends on three critical inputs:
Chips. Power. Information.
Publishers provide one of those essential inputs, yet the value exchange is still unresolved.
That makes licensing, IP protection and responsible use of content central issues for the future of journalism.
There was also a strong reminder that blocking AI crawlers may be part of the response, but it is not a complete answer.
Blocking can have consequences, including blocking useful search and discovery services that still matter to audience and revenue.
The most powerful line of the morning was this:
โThe only thing you have is who you are.โ
For publishers, that means we must be clear about our identity, our purpose and our value.
In an era of generative AI, synthetic content and collapsing trust in many parts of the information ecosystem, journalismโs strength lies in credibility, community connection, public purpose and the hard-earned trust of readers.
Publishers may be the canary in the coal mine, but this is much bigger than publishers.
We are simply among the first to feel the pressure of a new information economy that will affect every organisation built on knowledge, trust and intellectual property.
- By: Paul Thomas
