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The Independent’s social-commerce revenue edged past its SEO-based commerce revenue for the first time in September, CEO Christian Broughton said at Digiday’s Media Strategies event in London this week. 

He described the gap as narrow, but said the trend was shifting toward social. 

The company doesn’t publicly break out the figures, so the milestone offers a directional signal rather than a measure of how far social commerce has pulled ahead. But it illustrates the broader shift Broughton argued publishers need to make: build revenue around trusted brands and audiences across platforms, rather than depend on search to bring readers to their websites. 

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Reach’s CEO Piers North is positioning the publisher’s Google AI content deal as a model for future LLM partnerships and says it has sent OpenAI a cease-and-desist letter as it steps up pressure on AI firms using its content without a deal.

The U.K.-based publisher, owner of newspaper titles the Daily Express and Daily Star and OK! Magazine, has agreed to deal with Google, which Digiday understands has a two-year time stamp. The deal gives Google paid access to expanded rights to use news content from Reach’s UK and Ireland portfolio for its news AI pilot. In return, Google can use that content in experimental AI features and ways of delivering news, while the companies explore whether those features help engage audiences.

Google has a multitude of different AI pilot programs, including a pay-per-value AI contribution pilot it’s running with smaller publishers. It says that more than 200 publications globally have now joined its news AI pilot program. It also has its Google News Showcase progam. 

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