Daily Mail tests AI access controls as it targets 1m digital subscribers

Daily Mail is trialling technical controls that let AI systems reach only selected parts of its content, as it tries to turn AI search from a threat into a revenue stream.

Carly Steven, the publisher’s director of SEO and editorial e-commerce, set out the approach in a conversation with Mark Challinor that also covered younger audiences and the Mail’s goal of 1m digital subscribers.

Much of Steven’s career has been spent helping news organisations win readers through search. With AI changing how people look for information, she is now helping the Mail reconsider what that relationship can deliver.

She started at the Mail over 15 years ago, working alongside editors to bring SEO into everyday newsroom practice. She then worked in Canada for Postmedia and Reshift Media before returning to the UK to head audience development at City AM.

A move to The Sun followed, where she led the expansion of the SEO team for the-sun.com in New York. She spent six and a half years in total at News UK before rejoining the Mail, first as its global head of SEO and then in her current post.

Making money from AI search

AI-generated answers, including Google’s AI Overviews, create an obvious difficulty for publishers: readers can get the information they want without clicking through.

Steven also sees a business opportunity. A publisher whose reporting is cited in AI answers could help advertisers reach shoppers who turn to those tools when researching what to buy.

The Mail’s trials are designed to control AI access more tightly while finding out what lifts visibility and citations, and Steven says early tests have delivered measurable improvements.

The open question is whether it can be packaged into something advertisers buy again and again, earning money to pay for journalism.

AI is changing internal processes too. During the switch from dailymail.co.uk to dailymail.com, Steven says, AI tools let teams check millions of archived URLs in a matter of days.

Journalists have also used AI to sift large document sets, such as the Epstein files, and to speed up visual storytelling.

Giving readers a reason to come

Steven believes publishers have to provide something that a synthesised AI summary cannot.

Basic explainers built on widely available facts are increasingly up against AI tools, whereas exclusives, original journalism and strong opinion give readers good cause to seek out a particular title.

She says the Mail already benefits from a strong direct relationship, with over 60% of its audience going straight to the homepage or app.

Protecting that means continued investment in journalism readers actively want, and giving them reasons to return whatever route first brought them to the brand.

Younger audiences

Many younger people will first come across a news brand on TikTok or Instagram rather than on its own site.

The group’s social publishing arm, DMG New Media, regards those platforms as destinations in themselves, producing recurring shows, franchises and original formats covering news, gaming, money and lifestyle.

Steven says the aim is recognisable content that viewers keep coming back to, so the connection outlasts any one video.

That requires editorial judgement over which stories work on which platform and how they should be told, keeping standards intact while meeting people in the formats they already use.

The subscription goal

The Mail wants 1m digital subscribers by October 2028.

Steven regards subscriptions and advertising as reinforcing each other. More known, logged-in readers help the publisher learn about its audience, refine its products and give advertisers better-targeted opportunities.

For that to work, readers need an obvious reason to sign up, subscribe and stay. Stronger journalism and products support the relationship, and the revenue from subscriptions and advertising pays for further investment.

Multiple revenue routes also reduce reliance on any one source.

Getting paid for journalism

Steven is optimistic about the future of journalism as AI increasingly stands between people and information.

She argues that trusted news brands make AI answers more credible. Publishers must therefore work out how that contribution is recognised and paid for, and decide which AI systems may use their content and under what conditions.

Those deals will be shaped by regulation, licensing talks and technical controls.

Challinor’s takeaways

Challinor says the conversation showed how tightly these issues are connected, with search, social reach, subscriptions and advertising all relying on valued work and an understanding of how people consume it.

He draws out four lessons for publishers:

• Trial commercial uses of AI, since controlled access and higher visibility could become services for brand partners, then prove what they deliver

• Put money into distinctive journalism, because exclusives, original reporting and opinion help a title stand out when basic facts are freely available

• Develop formats audiences recognise, using social platforms for recurring shows and franchises that deepen the relationship

• Link audience and revenue choices, as registration, subscriptions and advertising strengthen each other when readers get something clear in return

For news executives, he says, the real decision is what to fund first, and Steven’s answer puts quality journalism and a strong bond with readers at the heart of it.