Why Media Brands Are Turning to Email in the Age of AI

Search used to be the front door to discovery. For years, media and entertainment marketing lived and died by Google rankings, SEO budgets, and the dependable drip of referral traffic, but that playbook is over.

George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, warns that the web is becoming like AM radio — still present, but largely irrelevant. The evidence is stark: SimilarWeb reports that since Google launched AI Overviews, the share of zero-click news searches has increased to nearly 69%. Meanwhile, Press Gazette found that 46 of the top 50 global media sites saw traffic decline in a single month.

That’s not a dip. It’s the rupture Colony calls AI’s “Seventh Wave.” Generative and agentic AI are stripping content to its bones, collapsing distribution, and making traditional metrics like rankings and paid clicks meaningless.

Here’s the paradox: content is cheapened, but information has never been more valuable. Colony predicts its worth doubles every year. The real game for media brands isn’t volume. It’s ownership. Own the audience. Deliver directly. Build loyalty in ways AI can’t imitate.

And the most underrated tool to do it? Email.

Leverage Email for Loyalty and Monetization Beyond Ads

In a zero-search era, the inbox is no longer an afterthought. It’s the only digital space where media brands can build true one-to-one relationships, free from algorithms and intermediaries. Here’s how leading publishers are already using email to deepen loyalty and drive revenue beyond ads:

• Subscription Promotions: Email is the sharpest lever for promoting premium offerings—exclusive investigations, ad-free access, and members-only perks—the kind of value AI summaries can’t strip down or flatten.
• Diversified Content Types: Audiences don’t just read; they watch, listen, and interact. Newsletters should drive traffic to podcasts, video series, deep-dive reports, and live events. Every send is a chance to showcase the full scope of your brand.

• Feedback Loops: Surveys and polls turn the inbox into a feedback engine. That first-party data shapes smarter editorial decisions and keeps content relevant, and that’s something AI will never replicate.

For media and entertainment marketers, email isn’t a relic. It’s a revenue engine and the backbone of loyalty strategies that extend far beyond advertising. And unlike ads, which are shrinking as a sustainable model, email creates monetization paths that endure through subscriptions, memberships, events, and offers that strengthen long-term revenue instead of chasing clicks.

Cultivate Direct Relationships That AI Can’t Replicate

When AI intermediates discovery, the most valuable asset a media brand can own is its email list. Think of your email like a product, not a distribution channel. What do subscribers get that they can’t find elsewhere? Establishing that clear value makes subscribing a no-brainer and turns your list into a durable asset.

 Here’s how media brands can turn the inbox into a moat AI can’t breach:

• Own the Audience, Don’t Rent It: Every subscriber is a relationship AI can’t intercept. But lists don’t grow on their own. Offer real incentives: early access, exclusive drops, and behind-the-scenes reporting. Make the value undeniable. In the inbox, publishers, not algorithms, set the rules.

• Hyper-personalize at Scale: We know by now that “Hi, [First Name]” doesn’t cut it. True personalization means stitching together reading history, topic preferences, and engagement patterns to deliver newsletters that feel curated, not churned out.

• Humanize Your Brand: AI can crunch the data, but the human editorial voice makes it matter. AI spits out summaries. Email gives room for personality, voice, and the credibility of your journalists. That humanity is what earns trust.

Most importantly, email is stable. When algorithms shift on search or social, visibility disappears overnight. In the inbox, you’re unmediated, direct, and durable. And in an AI-driven world, that resilience means survival.

Drive Deeper Engagement, Not Just Clicks

AI agents can spit out the what. Media brands have to own the why. That’s the difference between a disposable summary and a story worth reading.

• Tease the Why Behind the Story: Use email to tease the angles AI can’t replicate, like investigative scoops, hard-won interviews, or the context that changes how a story is understood. Curiosity is the click driver.
• Curate With Editorial Flair: Automated RSS dumps flatten your brand. A well-structured digest with context and flow builds authority, encourages deeper dives, and keeps readers coming back for more.
• Build Community: Polls, Q&As, and open feedback loops transform subscribers from passive consumers into a community. Algorithms can’t manufacture that loyalty. But engagement doesn’t stop there, as interactive features like live chats, AMA-style sessions, and subscriber-only forums deepen the relationship and make the audience feel like stakeholders, not just readers.
• Offer Exclusive Value: Early access, subscriber-only reports, private events — these are the perks that make your emails indispensable. If readers know they’ll miss out by skipping the inbox, you’ve already won.

Optimize for the Human Reading Experience

Even email isn’t safe, and AI tools are already summarizing newsletters before readers touch them. That means every send has to earn its place. Execution isn’t optional. It’s survival.

• Compelling subject lines and preview text. They’re the first (and maybe only) shot at attention. With AI potentially summarizing emails themselves, subject lines must be concise, intriguing, and clearly communicate value. A/B testing is crucial here.
• Clean, mobile-first design: Design for the scroll. Make content clean and scannable. A cluttered layout leads to higher bounce and disengagement.
• Clear CTAs. Every email should point subscribers straight to your owned platforms: articles, podcasts, and video. Remove friction and don’t leave them guessing on what action to take.
• Consistent cadence. Establish a predictable sending schedule. Consistency builds anticipation and makes your newsletter a trusted part of your audience’s routine.

The inbox has to feel like a publication, not a promo blast. It has to be polished, authoritative, and impossible to ignore.

Agents, Not Algorithms, Will Define Media’s Future

Generative AI is flooding the internet with content. Think of it as a modern-day Gutenberg press, unleashing a flood of content. But the real disruptor for media and entertainment marketing isn’t output — it’s action. Agentic AI doesn’t just generate, it makes decisions, rewires workflows, and runs loops on its own. Rankings, campaigns, and even channel planning have become commoditized. 

Here’s the risk: generative systems hallucinate. Agentic systems act on those hallucinations. Left unchecked, that’s chaos at scale. The brands that win won’t be the ones chasing faster automation. They’ll be the ones building trust, putting humans in the loop, and treating AI as a tool, not a substitute.

For media brands, the mandate is clear: stop chasing algorithms. Start owning the audience. In a future defined by agents, the most valuable asset will be credibility, and you don’t rent that from AI.

The Future of Media and Engagement Starts in the Inbox

AI is rewriting the rules of distribution. But it’s also proving what media brands should never forget: audiences matter more than algorithms.

The inbox is the one channel publishers still control. Executives who treat email as their strategic centerpiece will ride out AI disruption and come out stronger. Those clinging to search and social? They’re gambling their audiences on zero-click platforms and agent-driven intermediaries. That’s not a strategy. It’s surrender.

Done right, the inbox becomes the foundation for new revenue streams, lasting loyalty, and a sustainable future for journalism and entertainment.