Check into the WAN-IFRA designated Study Tour Hotel, the iconic Fairmont Hotel, atop Nob Hill in San Francisco from 16:00 onwards. Breakfast included every morning at hotel – participant’s can dine at their leisure.

Meet in Lobby at 18:30 and walk to group dinner.

Morning Meeting with KQED: San Francisco’s public television (PBS member television station), radio, digital media and educational services destination.
We’ll unpack how KQED is using AI to drive revenue and engagement.

Meeting at Pinterest (a first time visit for WAN-IFRA) discussing the secrets of a social media that’s not exploitative and their newly debuted controls allowing you to filter through the “AI Slop” affecting your feed.

Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage venture firm backed by Bloomberg L.P, is recognized as a leading investor in artificial intelligence, focusing on startups that leverage machine learning and AI technologies to improve business processes and the future of work. Bloomberg Beta aims to expand Bloomberg’s horizons by investing in innovative startups while maintaining an independent and transparent approach to venture capital. 

Afternoon Meeting with miso: How can AI assist publishers in accessing new audiences and opening new revenue streams?

TollBit aims to help publishers future-proof their content for the age of AI Agents.

Launched in 2024, ScalePost works with brands and publishers to maximize their revenue opportunities in AI. The CEO and co-founder, will share what the company has learned about visibility for publishers in AI, and why the value of appearing in AI search isn’t always what we think.

Dinner with special guest, Eric Ulken, Stanford University John S. Knight Journalism Fellow. Formerly VP of Product for The Baltimore Banner (non profit, local news media outfit) and former Product Director of Gannett / USA TODAY Co., Inc., as well as former Managing Editor, Digital Operations at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

How AI is transforming : human / machine Interface.

Symbolic.ai is a platform bringing generative artificial intelligence, workflow tools, and marketplace services to the global publishing industry. The first AI platform created for professional journalists, communicators, and publishers. Cuts production time in half and empower writers, editors and content teams.

Confirmed Meeting with Newsreel. Kick off the day with a deep dive into Fighting news fatigue with Gen-Z. The company’s own description reads, “Think of us as what would happen if the best parts of social media and legacy news had a baby.”

Confirmed meeting with AskNews – the organisation wants to help build a sustainable bridge between publishers and the AI ecosystem. It is an AI-powered news engine that lets you ask questions and get clear, source-linked answers from trusted journalism. It analyzes and organizes global news in real time so you can quickly understand events, trends, and context.

Confirmed Meeting with Microsoft on building a Marketplace and bringing publisher content into the Microsoft environment.

Confirmed Meeting with Edgee on the reflexes of intelligence: why the signals of AI live at the Edge (and why publishers should care).

Confirmed Panel & Presentations on the following topics with:
1) Particle: What is news aggregation in the age of AI? And can AI be hallucination-free? Particle News, launched over a year ago, will share updates on what they learned from their first year and how their product has evolved in real time so you can quickly understand events, trends, and context.

2) Ancher.ai: What is news and what is a news product in the age of AI? Their CEO says he is solving with Ancher the challenge of too much content, and helps users surface the content that matters to them. With AI, he says, personalization happens on the consumption level. 

Featuring: Really Simple Licensing and ProRata

Forum.ai: Former Meta executives Campbell Brown and Robbie Goldfarb have launched Forum AI, a new company that will evaluate how artificial intelligence models handle complex and nuanced topics such as politics, foreign affairs and mental health.

Timing TBC: Ensuing Panel Discussion on monetizing archives, licensing, what works and what doesn’t? with confirmed company: Coactive 

Confirmed Quiche & Conversation Dinner Invitation to Holtzbrinck House – Why does a legacy German publisher think the future of its innovation is in San Francisco? Unpack how to adopt new technologies and develop new strategies – and what exactly is a venture? And we’ll hear more on the publisher’s ambitions with AI.

Why should publishers think of themselves as data companies? Infactory works with The Atlantic, AP, and many other publishers to help them leverage the value of their archives and data.

Working Lunch with you.com 

During our meeting with  San Francisco Standard + Charter we’ll deep dive into what does AI mean as a business strategy for a news publisher? Additionally, we will discuss launching a new media in San Francisco in the 2020s.

Morning Meeting at San Francisco Chronicle and Hearst on AI initiatives with a focus on Hearst and the Dev Hub and how they are using AI to drive productivity, but also to engage their audience with new products. Discover how they think about product and editorial.

Launched 3 years ago, Perplexity offers a new search experience, and an agentic browser. The startup also has launched several partnerships with news publishers, including Le Monde, The Independent, Gannett, Conde Nast, CNN, and others. We’ll be deep diving here on the future of search.

Lunch with Special Guest, Burt Herman, Co-founder of Hacks/Hackers. Burt is a Media innovator and startup founder passionate about rebuilding trust in our information ecosystem and creating groundbreaking news products. He possesses two decades of experience spanning journalism’s digital transformation – from AP foreign correspondent to startup founder to nonprofit pioneer.