Model 1: The Intelligence Service Provider
Publishers transform from media companies into intelligence services. The Financial Times becomes a real-time financial intelligence API. The New York Times becomes a current events verification service. The brand value shifts from “trusted source” to “verified intelligence.”
This model requires publishers to:
- Develop structured data formats optimized for machine consumption
- Create tiered access levels based on freshness, depth, and exclusivity
- Build direct relationships with AI platforms rather than hoping for referral traffic
- Price based on intelligence value, not advertising potential
The key insight: in the agentic web, publishers don’t need millions of readers—they need dozens of AI platforms paying thousands of times per second.
Model 2: The Hybrid Bridge
Not all traffic will shift to agents immediately.
The report shows Google still drives 85% of referral traffic, though declining from 90.75% just three quarters ago.
Smart publishers will maintain dual infrastructure: human-optimized experiences for traditional traffic, machine-optimized endpoints for the agentic web.
This creates unique opportunities:
- Agent-exclusive content that never appears on the human web
- Premium human experiences subsidized by machine revenue
- Cross-pollination where human insights improve machine intelligence and vice versa
- New content formats designed for human-AI collaboration
The bridge model isn’t permanent, but it provides crucial revenue during the transition and learning opportunities for the full transformation.
Model 3: The Coalition Economy
Individual publishers lack leverage against AI platforms.
But the report’s data showing publishers blocking 4x more bots than a year ago suggests a growing awareness that collective action is necessary.
Publisher coalitions could:
- Negotiate industry-standard rates for intelligence access
- Share infrastructure costs for AI-specific systems
- Develop common standards for structured data and verification
- Create publisher-owned AI systems that compete with Big Tech
The irony is delicious: publishers who competed viciously for human attention must collaborate to survive the age of machine consumption.
