Michael Kudriavsky is the CEO of Membrana Media, a company specialized in advertising and media technology. On a recent visit to Spain, he spoke with La Razón about the future of the media, advertising and the Internet
How would you describe the state of advertising and publishing?
Advertisers are looking to accelerate and find new distribution channels, focusing on performance. Publishers must understand that they have fed social networks with their content and now lack their own audience. They need to change and offer similar experiences, with diverse content and participation.
Are publishers ready for this transformation?
Before they focused only on traffic, not on the relationship with the user. The largest ones have subscriptions and offer added value, but the medium-sized and local ones relied on SEO, which is no longer enough. They must learn to communicate directly with the audience.
Should the media become social platforms?
Not only that, they must offer social experiences in a mobile ecosystem, adapting to digital media and various formats, not just text.
What problem does Media Membrane solve?
Our challenge is to create direct communication with the audience. You must offer to request basic data, diversify sources or monetization alternatives to increase income.
How does AI affect search and web traffic?
The open web is losing ground. Google, OpenAI and Perplexity compete for audiences. Google has the greatest impact and retains users through its descriptive AI, which has absorbed up to 30% of traffic.
Is generative AI an opportunity or a threat?
Opportunity for some, threat for others. If they fail to adapt they will lose their business. AI helps structure, but creativity is still human. When the queries are incorrect, the result provided by AI is poor.
How are you integrating AI into Membrana Media?
We use it as an agent to optimize processes, generate content and facilitate reviews. But it is not enough to use it, you have to measure the impact and provide real value.
What challenges does integrating AI pose for journalists and developers?
Lack of vision is the main challenge. Journalists use it to organize texts and extract summaries. Developers optimize processes such as code deletion, but it takes experience. Now, more senior staff are in demand and the dilemma arises of how to train new profiles.
Let’s talk about the advertisers’ side.
They seize the moment, focusing on performance and scaling results with social media channels. For publishers, this change presents a challenge, especially to obtain brand campaigns or direct budgets, complicating their position in the market.
Can Membrana close the gap between advertisers and publishers?
Not at a global level, greater collaboration on the open web would be necessary. Publishers must stop seeing themselves as competition and create alliances to survive against other channels.
Do the media have valuable data?
It depends on the size. Large operators can cross-reference data, take advantage of subscriber lists and create their own ecosystems. The small ones, if they do not have a very defined niche, have little value to large advertisers. In today’s market, the big ones are getting bigger and the small ones are stagnating.
Can little ones be more agile?
Yes, if they are profitable. They can innovate, but the development of big ideas is sometimes limited by lack of resources.
Could you cite a medium that is succeeding?
The New York Times. Reinvented the subscription. Today, 60% of its subscribers come for entertainment products such as games, not for news. They bought Wordle, Sudoku and other services, and with that they expanded their value proposition. In Spain it is still early, although large groups are already thinking about how to combine their digital assets.
Is the key to diversify media and formats?
Exactly. Audio, video, image; Examples such as vertical dramas are a trend and respond to mobile consumption. Large groups must cover these spaces of brief, quality entertainment.
How would you describe the situation in Spain?
It is a conservative market, with slow processes due to business inheritances. Transformation advances when there is personal trust; Spain looks for internal examples before adopting technological change.