The Chief Executive Officer of the International News Media Association, Earl Wilkinson, has said that building a strong brand identity, maintaining a clear identity, and building relationships with specific audiences will determine the future survival of news organisations amid the rapid growth of artificial intelligence-generated news content.
According to Wilkinson, media organisations must focus on identity, trust and direct relationships with audiences rather than merely competing for reach and traffic.
Wilkinson spoke during a courtesy visit to PUNCH Place, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, on Wednesday, where he delivered a presentation on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the future of journalism, news consumption and media business models.
Wilkinson was accompanied on the visit by the Africa Division Manager of INMA, Doreen Mbaya.
He stressed that media organisations that establish a distinct identity and maintain editorial credibility would be best positioned to thrive in an increasingly AI-dominated information environment.
He said, “It’s now about the relationship. To build a relationship, you have to be a brand that people remember. You must have consistency and an emotional connection. Do people trust you? You have to figure out who you are. The decade ahead belongs to those who are unmistakably themselves.”
In building direct relationships with readers, he said more Nigerians might have to embrace the idea of digital subscriptions and paywalls.
He, however, acknowledged that many Nigerians might not be ready to pay or subscribe to access news stories.
He urged publishers to invest in data infrastructure and deepen their understanding of readers’ habits and preferences.
He pointed out that the battle for attention, trust and credibility in Nigeria was similar to that in the West.
“If you don’t know your people, if you don’t know who your readers are, you’re going to struggle,” he said.
Wilkinson also warned that news organisations face the risk of becoming trapped in what he described as a “swamp of sameness” as publishers increasingly rely on identical artificial intelligence tools and content-generation systems.
He acknowledged that the proliferation of AI-generated content would make it increasingly difficult for media organisations to stand out unless they invested in distinct editorial voices, original reporting and strong brand identities.
“AI is rising, and we are sinking into a swamp of sameness. Our objective is to differentiate, differentiate, differentiate from that swamp of sameness,” he said.
The INMA CEO noted that the rapid growth of AI-generated content was undeniable as it continued to reshape the information ecosystem, forcing news organisations to rethink their value proposition.
According to him, traditional competitive advantages hitherto enjoyed by news organisations, including exclusive control of distribution, advertising and audience attention, have largely disappeared in the digital age.
“Google took our advertising. Anyone with a phone can publish, and audience attention toward the bundle is virtually gone,” Wilkinson said.
He noted that the boundaries separating newspapers, television stations, radio broadcasters and digital media platforms were rapidly fading as all media organisations compete for the same audience.
“We are all moving into the liquid content business where you have text, video and audio,” he said.
He, however, noted that while Artificial Intelligence could generate vast amounts of text, summaries, images and videos, it could not replace journalists physically witnessing events, cultivating sources and exercising professional judgment.
“Someone went somewhere and saw something. An AI can’t do that,” he said.
Speaking further, Wilkinson noted that current trends indicate that human-written content could account for just 0.3 per cent of material published on the Internet by 2036.
He said, “In 2010, about 95 per cent of web content was written by human beings. Today, in 2026, only 26 per cent is written by human beings.
“By only 10 years from now, that is 2036, it is projected that only three-tenths of one per cent (0.3 per cent) of the content on the World Wide Web will be written by human beings.”
Over the course of the next decade, he noted that verified human journalism would become a premium product in the digital marketplace.
“What we know about the next 10 years is that the platforms will keep changing. We know that AI will keep accelerating. We know that the overwhelming percentage of content in the next 10 years will be produced by machines, and it will be synthetic.
“The current thing is to figure out who you are. No platform, no AI and no competitor can replace it if you build and invest in figuring out who you are,” he said.
Wilkinson argued that the overwhelming flood of AI-generated material would make authentic human journalism more valuable rather than less.
The INMA chief executive predicted that news organisations capable of proving the human origin of their content would be able to command greater value in the years ahead.
“Verified human journalism will become a premium category.
“I think if you can verify this is human-created by your team, there is a premium to be had for that at some point in the near future,” Wilkinson said.
He warned that the next decade would be marked by accelerating technological disruption and a surge in machine-generated content, making authenticity and credibility more valuable than ever.
He added, “The only things I know that are going to be scarce moving forward are verified human authorship, firsthand reporting, original reporting, source relationships and editorial judgment.”
He said audiences and commercial partners might increasingly seek content whose origins can be verified.
“We’re moving from a world in which the question every reader asks is, ‘Is this true?’ to maybe they’re asking, ‘Who made this and can I verify it was done by human beings?’”
The INMA chief executive, however, maintained that artificial intelligence should not be viewed solely as a threat, describing it as a technology with significant potential to improve newsroom efficiency and productivity.
“I think there’s more upside than downside to AI. I’m blown away by the things AI can do that there is no way human beings can do,” he said.
He added that while AI would continue to transform news production and distribution, trust, editorial judgment and brand identity would remain the defining assets of successful media organisations.
“I believe that brand identity is the last real advantage you’re going to have in this AI era. No platform, no AI and no competitor can replace it if you build and invest in figuring out who you are,” Wilkinson said.
Analysing the front pages of Nigerian newspapers, the INMA CEO described them as loud, dense and political, and at times sensational, but noted that they shared similarities with newspapers in India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya and Brazil.
He stressed that the Nigerian media must be open to change, including media genres colliding into hybrids.
Analysing the situation on the continent, Wilkinson noted that several African media houses rely heavily on government advertising and are not built to withstand political turmoil.
As media survival is threatened, Wilkinson said newspapers may continue to reduce their days of publication from seven to three to once a week.
The PUNCH team that received the INMA delegation included the Company Secretary/General Manager, Subsidiaries, Omolara Ogunleye; General Manager, Production, Olayinka Popoola; Editor, The PUNCH, Oyetunji Abioye; Editor, PUNCH Digital, Olalekan Adetayo; and Head, Corporate Services, Temitope Olusesan-Biala.
The hosts also included Deputy Editor, The PUNCH, Etanami Aiyejina; Deputy Editor, PUNCH Digital, Moshood Yusuff; Deputy Editor, Weekend Titles, Theresa Igomu; and Metro Editor, Joel Nwokeoma.
