Integrating AI Into A 100-year-old Media Company

Salah Zalatimo, former Chief Digital Officer at Forbes, discusses the history of magazines and today’s digital transformations.

A Short History of the Magazine Industry

Magazines have been around for a while, with many well-known brands being founded around 100 years ago - and not by coincidence. Some technological innovations create new businesses, while others disrupt existing ones. For magazines, a breakthrough in printing costs made high-frequency, disposable publications financially feasible. One hundred years later, another technology innovation made those same paper magazines obsolete - the internet. And the companies that were built on those paper magazines were faced with an existential choice: embark on a digital transformation or die a slow death.