Burda Media Poland’s CEO on rebuilding media mid-flight

Klepacki isn’t sugarcoating the task he has ahead. The news business is in an "arms race" driven by AI, demanding a complete and immediate overhaul of the traditional publishing model.

Facing a "significant decline in traffic from global platforms" that has hammered display, video, and affiliate revenues, Burda Media Poland has shifted gears, betting big on a strategy to drastically reduce dependency on Big Tech.

The result? 

Record performance in areas built around their own infrastructure and premium brands.

The New Revenue Reality: Content is King (and Cash)

Klepacki’s comments underscore a definitive move away from the volume-driven, page-view economy. Burda Media Poland’s revenue mix reveals exactly where the future value lies:

- Native & Branded Content (incl. Events): 46%

- Direct-to-Consumer (incl. subscriptions): 17%

- Display: 16%

- Video: 13%

- Other (incl. affiliate): 8%

For Klepacki, the strength is now in the blend. "72% of our revenues now come from digital channels,"but the real insight is that revenue is not built on commodity traffic; it's built on high-value, bespoke storytelling”.

This strategy is anchored by significant investment in production capability, including the launch of the Burda Content Studio and a Video Hub with a 300 square meter studio in Warsaw. The goal is simple: produce top-tier formats once, and distribute them efficiently across premium titles like ELLE, Glamour, and National Geographic.

The AI Reset: Productivity Over Replacement

AI isn't a future challenge for Burda Media Poland—it’s a present-day "arms race" that is "fundamentally redefining newsroom workflows.”

Klepacki warns that to maintain current traffic levels, publishers are forced to produce "25–40% more content than a year ago." With fixed staffing, this isn’t AI adoption is not mandatory for efficiency.

The impact is that AI is now “deeply embedded“ in the process, from research and briefing to editing and optimisation.

He sees his mandate based around its primary use as an “operational enabler, boosting efficiency” in content production and supporting text-to-video workflows whereas he sees the challenge as “an imperative to integrate AI in a way that supports journalists, not replaces them, ensuring the brand retains its quality, editorial judgement and human touch.”

Klepacki’s advice to media companies moving into the AI space is pragmatic: start with an honest assessment of internal processes and identify specific areas for improvement, then select tools that genuinely support those changes.

The Great Platform Divide: A Missed Moment

The CEO is blunt about the industry’s relationship with Big Tech: "We have undeniably missed the moment to define a balanced partnership.”

He believes publishers failed to act with "unity" or a "common agenda," allowing themselves to be "played one by one." The window for demanding a "fair value exchange"—where compensation follows the value content builds on platforms—has closed, and the industry is now seeing the consequences. This failure only reinforces Burda’s diversification strategy.

The Future of Media: Trust, Premium, and Attention

Klepacki sees the future of“media defined not by the medium, but by trust, credibility, and brand equity.

On Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) diversification he says, subscriptions aren't a "universal solution" for Burda’s lifestyle portfolio, but as a category is vital. This includes events, memberships, commerce, and paid access to unique experiences.

He believes “print” has shifted from a mass-reach medium to a "premium environment” that signals that quality and credibility aren’t particularly for luxury and high-end lifestyle brands. It finds its place; they are in the mix when presented as part of a coherent, multi-platform brand experience.

And on monetisation of attention (a key brand metric for many news media companies these days, he highlights Burda’s award-shortlisted work with QuestPass (questvertising), showing a fundamental shift in ad strategy: moving from disruptive display to an engagement-based model. This format requires users to answer a brief question about an ad before accessing an article, leading to a measurable increase in recall and engagement.

Klepacki concludes that the biggest challenge is the “ongoing reconstruction of the media business model, a process that feels like rebuilding an aircraft mid-flight.”

He finishes with his view that the winners in 2026 will be those who can "modernise their core business, focus on strong brands, diversify intelligently and build premium, trusted environments.”

Challinor’s summary

Maciej Klepacki asserts that the news business faces an "arms race" and a required "reconstruction" of its model, driven by AI and a decline in traffic from global platforms.

In my fascinating interview him, I took the following key takeaways:

Platform Disengagement is Key: The company’s core strategy is to aggressively reduce dependency on Big Tech platforms, “a necessary pivot” given the industry’s failure to secure a fair value exchange.

Revenue Shift to Premium Content: The future lies with high-value diversification. Native and branded content (46% of revenue) and Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) initiatives (17%) now dominate the mix, superseding reliance on volume-driven display advertising, a trend found in many other media companies today.

AI as an Operational Enabler: AI is viewed as an essential "operational enabler" for boosting productivity and creating more content efficiently, but must be integrated without compromising the brand's "editorial judgement and human touch.”

Monetising Attention: Innovation is moving beyond format to, as already mentioned, the value exchange. Burda’s award-shortlist “questvertising” with QuestPass demonstrates a commitment to monetising active, measured attention over passive brand impressions.

The overwhelming sentiment among major news publishers echoes Burda Media Poland's CEO that the era of relying on Big Tech for audience and ad revenue is over. Publishers are now aggressively pivoting to direct audience relationships and revenue diversification to regain control.

In short, the path to resilience is built on strong brands, premium production (as seen in Poland’s video), intelligent D2C models, and a rapid adoption of AI to secure efficiency in a landscape defined by speed.

Last week, Mark spoke to Owen Meredith, who has just been announced as dmg media’s managing director, public policy.