Silje Fylling
Head of Product and Yield
Aller Media
Norway

About Silje: 

Silje Fylling began her career on the agency side, developing a strong analytical foundation at IUM/UM/MediaBrands before deepening her technical expertise as a programmatic specialist at Dentsu Media Services. In 2023, she shifted to the publisher world, joining Aller Media as yield manager, and within two years rose to head of product and yield, overseeing strategy across four Nordic markets. Silje has been instrumental in Aller Media’s commercial transformation, helping unify previously siloed markets under a shared product and yield framework. Her work has produced a high‑performing, “noise‑free” advertising environment that consistently beats market benchmarks and has earned multiple nominations for industry awards. She also played a central role in Norway’s unprecedented cross‑publisher format‑standardisation initiative alongside Schibsted, TV2, and Amedia, strengthening editor‑controlled media against global platforms. Known for her strategic clarity, technical depth, and rare ability to align stakeholders across organisations — even competitors — Silje is well placed to help define how editor-controlled media compete and win in the platform era.

Junaid Khan
Product Manager
News UK
United Kingdom

About Junaid: 

Junaid Khan entered News UK through its project management apprenticeship programme with no industry connections, and in just four years has become a trusted lead on national, multi‑platform campaigns across The Times, The Sun, talkSPORT and Virgin Radio. Sitting at the intersection of commercial ambition and editorial integrity, he manages complex projects that deliver for clients without compromising the trust audiences place in News UK’s brands. Junaid has already helped secure more than £200,000 in new business through successful pitches, including major wins with Tourism Ireland and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. He has delivered high‑profile campaigns for IBM, DAZN, Unilever, Snapchat, William Hill, and multiple UK government bodies, earning his APM PMQ qualification along the way. His leadership is also evident beyond the office walls, as he is an active voice in the Muslim Network and Next Gen groups, shaping how diverse talent enters and thrives in media. Selected as one of 50 global professionals for the 2024 INMA Elevate Scholarship, Junaid stands out among his peers for his clarity, empathy, and ability to unite teams around meaningful work. His trajectory shows the impact of a leader who brings both commercial excellence and cultural insight to the future of media.

Markus Pettersen
Key Account Manager
Amedia
Norway

About Markus: Markus Pettersen is part of a new wave of commercial media talent redefining how publishers create value for advertisers. With a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from BI Norwegian Business School and early experience at Clear Channel Scandinavia, he quickly rose from account manager to key account manager before joining Amedia in 2025. Today he manages major national and international advertisers across Norway’s largest publisher‑owned media group, reaching millions through more than 120 local news brands. Markus is known for transforming underperforming accounts into long‑term strategic partnerships, repeatedly identifying untapped commercial potential, and converting it into sustained growth. His standout achievement came in 2026, when he played a central role in securing and developing a nationwide partnership with the Norwegian Directorate of Health — a campaign built on authentic local stories that showcased Amedia’s deep connection to local communities. A true digital native, Markus operates at the forefront of AI adoption, training colleagues and translating new technology into creative commercial solutions. His combination of strategic thinking, digital expertise, and collaborative leadership has made him one of Amedia’s most promising young commercial leaders — someone already shaping how trusted, editor‑controlled media compete and thrive in a global advertising landscape. 

Shubhang Sharma
Integrated Solutions Strategist
Hindustan Times
India

About Shubhang: 

Shubhang Sharma represents a rare blend of analytical depth, creative thinking, and commercial impact — qualities that have made him one of Hindustan Times’ most trusted young strategists. After completing an engineering degree in information and communication technology, he pursued marketing at MICA, building a strong foundation in consumer insight, brand strategy, and communication planning. He began his career at Publicis Groupe, where he worked across positioning and strategic development for major clients, sharpening his ability to connect audience understanding with business outcomes. At HT Media, Shubhang has rapidly become a central strategic force. In just four years, he has led the development of more than 350 integrated marketing solutions across categories including BFSI, FMCG, auto, healthcare, technology, and real estate, contributing over INR 53 crore in business impact. His work consistently creates value for both brands and audiences — from AMFI’s financial literacy programme reaching 2.5 lakh students, to UltraTech’s rural leadership platform engaging thousands of village influencers. He has also shaped revenue‑driving media properties around national moments such as the Union Budget, IPL, and elections, earning industry recognition including a Gold Abby at Goafest 2026. Curious, collaborative, and strategically mature beyond his years, Shubhang is already recognised as a promising young leader in India’s media ecosystem.

Tahmid Zarif
Executive/Advertisement & Business Development
Prothom Alo
Bangladesh

About Tahmid: Tahmid Zarif has rapidly established himself as a key commercial innovator within Bangladesh’s leading news media house. After completing his BBA in marketing, he entered the sector through an internship at Bashundhara Group before joining Prothom Alo in 2024 as a junior executive in advertisement. His rapid rise — from entry‑level to executive, business development and advertisement within just 18 months — reflects both his strategic clarity and an instinct for building high‑value media ecosystems. Tahmid has distinguished himself by identifying underserved sectors and transforming them into premium revenue engines. He launched Bornil Berano, a luxury travel magazine that filled a “prestige gap” for five‑star hotels and airlines, generating 1.1 million BDT in advertising revenue. He followed with a nationwide special aviation supplement and Check In, a hospitality tabloid capturing value from Bangladesh’s booming tourism market. His most groundbreaking initiative, Unnayan Shongi, became the country’s first NGO‑focused media publication, securing major partners such as BRAC and Shakti Foundation and driving 17.16 million BDT in NGO‑sector revenue in 2025. Tahmid’s ability to merge data‑driven insight with sector‑specific product innovation has positioned him as a future leader capable of reshaping how Bangladeshi media builds sustainable, high‑impact commercial growth.

Varsha Chaudhary
Deputy Manager/Data Insights & Analytics
MMI Online Ltd. (Jagran New Media)
India

About Varsha: Varsha Chaudhary is helping redefine how data intelligence powers decision‑making inside one of India’s largest digital news organisations. Since joining Jagran New Media in 2023, she has become a central force behind the company’s shift toward insight‑led strategy, building frameworks that give editorial, product, SEO, technology, and leadership teams a unified, real‑time view of performance. Her most transformative contribution is CoreAxis, a centralised analytics platform that integrates data from GA4, Search Console, YouTube, CMS systems, and internal tools into a single interface. The initiative reduced manual reporting by more than 95%, freeing teams to focus on optimisation and growth rather than data compilation. Varsha also developed competitive intelligence systems using Comscore and SEMrush, enabling stakeholders to understand market share, audience overlap, and category‑level opportunities that were previously invisible. Her work has strengthened audience strategy across Jagran.com, JagranJosh.com, and other properties, identifying high‑growth categories such as astrology and education through deep audience behaviour analysis. Before Jagran, Varsha contributed to analytics and audience development at Amar Ujala and The Indian Express, building on early experience with BARC and TAM datasets. Across every role, she has demonstrated a rare ability to turn complex data into clear, actionable intelligence — making her a promising emerging leader in India’s data‑driven media landscape. 

Marianne Gélinas
Director/Subscription Strategy, Marketing & Data
Le Devoir
Canada

About Marianne: Marianne Gélinas is shaping the future of data‑driven audience growth at one of Canada’s most respected independent news organisations. As director of subscription strategy, marketing, and data at Le Devoir, she oversees several of the company’s most critical growth engines — subscription revenue, audience development, marketing performance, and data strategy — while reporting directly to the CEO and contributing to board‑level discussions on digital transformation and long‑term sustainability. Her career began at La Presse, where she built a strong reader‑first foundation in marketing research and audience insights. She joined Le Devoir in 2023 and rose rapidly, first to director of marketing and business intelligence, then to her current role leading a subscription business that now generates approximately 40% of the organisation’s annual revenue. Her work has driven record digital subscriber growth, historically low churn, and a more insight‑driven culture across editorial and business teams. Marianne has also strengthened collaboration between the newsroom and business functions by embedding audience intelligence into editorial decision‑making. Beyond her organisation, she actively shares best practices at industry events including Piano Academy Live, INMA master classes, and the INMA Subscription Summit. Although just 28, Marianne is already influencing strategic decisions that support the long‑term sustainability of independent journalism. 

Tina Günther‑Gommlich
Data Analyst
Der Spiegel
Germany

About Tina: Tina Günther‑Gommlich has rapidly become one of the most influential data voices inside Der Spiegel. She joined the organisation as a parental‑leave cover in UX research and within months proved she was far more than a temporary stand‑in. Tina quickly took on leadership responsibilities, representing UX research in cross‑functional discussions with product and the newsroom, and leading pivotal projects such as the print edition’s cover test. She also co‑developed a user‑needs model that gives editors a clearer understanding of what readers truly value, embedding audience‑centric thinking directly into editorial workflows. Building on this momentum, Tina made a deliberate pivot into a newly created role as Der Spiegel’s sole UX and analytics manager. Today she is the central point of contact for Adobe Analytics across both the newsroom and publishing house, designing dashboards tailored to editorial needs and helping build lasting data competence across teams. Her work has already transformed how editors access, interpret, and act on data, turning analytics from a specialist silo into an everyday decision‑making tool. In a remarkably short time, Tina has become an indispensable bridge between data, product, and editorial — shaping how one of Europe’s most respected news organisations makes smarter, audience‑informed decisions.

Camila Hernández Ruiz
Advertising Analytics Coordinator
El Tiempo Casa Editorial
Colombia

About Camila: Camila Hernández Ruiz is part of the new generation of data strategists reshaping how Latin American publishers compete in a rapidly evolving advertising ecosystem. An economist by training, she has built her entire career at El Tiempo Casa Editorial, where she has spent nearly five years advancing from senior marketing intelligence analyst to advertising analytics coordinator. In this role, she leads digital analytics strategy for advertising and online marketing, campaign optimisation, automation, and the integration of data insights into commercial decision‑making. Camila’s impact is most visible in her contribution to El Tiempo Ads, Colombia’s first publisher‑led first‑party data, adtech, and retail media unit. Serving more than 40 million monthly unique users and nearly 22 million identified users, the initiative has repositioned El Tiempo as a regional pioneer in data‑driven advertising. Her leadership in the DMP strategy through Permutive enabled real‑time, cookieless audience activation — a critical advantage as the third‑party cookie ecosystem collapses. Alongside her professional achievements, Camila has invested deeply in her own development, earning a postgraduate specialisation in strategic marketing and multiple certifications in AI, retail media, and digital marketing. Recognised internally with the Espíritu Innovador award, she is already shaping the future of data‑powered media in Colombia.

Sanjay Jain Rajkumar Jain
Machine Learning Engineer
The Atlanta Journal‑Constitution (Cox Enterprises)
United States

About Sanjay: Sanjay Jain is one of the rare machine learning engineers whose entire career has been built around a single mission: helping news publishers grow and retain digital subscribers through causal inference and reinforcement learning. Over six years, he has delivered subscription‑economics infrastructure at three levels of the news ecosystem — vendor, global league, and metropolitan publisher — giving him an unusually comprehensive view of where revenue is created and how the operating model is shifting. At Mather Economics, he was the technical architect of the premium content engine, a real‑time paywall‑decisioning system deployed at The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Chicago Tribune. Its impact is documented in INMA’s published record: 20% and 27% lifts in subscription starts, plus significant revenue gains. At the NBA, he built retention and lifetime‑value systems that reduced cancellations by about 10%, safeguarding more than US$1 million in recurring revenue. Since 2024, Sanjay has led the AJC Intelligent Paywall, a reinforcement‑learning system that adapts paywall decisions per user and per visit. Live since April 2026, it delivers an approximately 24% relative lift on AJC’s headline conversion metric. A full paper on the methodology has been submitted to RecSys, underscoring the academic rigor behind his work. Despite his youth, Sanjay is already shaping the future of AI‑powered subscription strategy in U.S. news media.

Felix Imoh
Global PR Manager
Legit
Nigeria

About Felix: Felix Imoh is one of the emerging communications leaders shaping how African digital media builds reputation, trust, and continental influence. As global PR manager at Legit, he oversees communications strategy for four of Africa’s most widely read newsrooms: Legit.ng (Nigeria), TUKO (Kenya), Briefly News (South Africa), and YEN News (Ghana). His career began in 2016 while still a university student, freelancing in brand partnerships and media outreach, learning how to create visibility with limited resources — a discipline that continues to define his strategic approach. Before joining Legit, Felix managed PR accounts at The YD Company, delivering campaign activations, media pitching, and events for diverse clients, while also shaping international communications for London‑based sports tech company Street Tag. He joined Legit.ng in 2024 as public relations manager and was promoted to global PR manager in 2026, reflecting both his impact and his ability to operate across markets. Felix has led communications for major milestones, including Legit.ng’s WAN‑IFRA 2025 award for Best Use of AI in the Newsroom, and designed the Legit.ng Media Literacy Campaign, which reached over 3 million young Africans in just three weeks. Recognised internally with multiple awards of excellence, Felix is already helping define how African media earns credibility, builds trust, and competes on a global stage.

Smilla Schwörer
New Business Development Manager
Funke Mediengruppe
Germany

About Smilla: Smilla Schwörer is part of a new generation of media leaders who combine strategic clarity, creative ambition, and a deep sense of purpose. She began her career far from news media — in Porsche’s EV strategy team — where she learned to navigate transformation inside a legacy industry. That experience, followed by roles in sustainability consulting at Capgemini, consumer strategy at Henkel, business development at an AI startup, and an internship at McKinsey, shaped her ability to lead in complex, fast‑changing environments. During her Master’s studies in Cologne and São Paulo, she served as president of the CEMS Club Cologne, developing an alumni mentorship programme that won a CEMS Award and supported more than 1,700 students. Purpose has been a constant through her career, and in 2023 she chose to join Funke Mediengruppe to help build the future of journalism at a moment when democratic institutions are under pressure. At Funke, Smilla works in new business development, focusing on digital revenue growth. She pitched and cofounded the Future Audiences Lab, Funke’s strategic initiative to reach and monetise audiences under 35. As project lead, she built and now leads Hauptsache Hamburg, a social‑first news brand that reached 1 million views within six months of launch. Smilla is a visionary and creative young talent who is already changing the way Funke connects with the next generation.

Alice Signell
Head of Marketing, Pro
The Economist
United Kingdom

About Alice: Alice Signell is one of the rising strategic leaders shaping how premium journalism reaches professional audiences. She joined The Economist in 2020 as a marketing executive in Economist Education and, through consistently high‑quality work, rapid learning, and sharp strategic instincts, rose to become head of marketing for Economist Pro in 2025. Today she leads marketing strategy, brand development and demand generation for Pro — The Economist’s US$13.5 million corporate subscriptions business — helping organisations access trusted analysis in an increasingly noisy information landscape. In Economist Education, Alice built the foundations of the B2B proposition, bringing paid marketing and CRM activity in‑house, sharpening segmentation, and launching new courses. Her work more than doubled revenues year on year. Since moving to Pro, she has transformed the function from tactical campaign delivery into a strategic growth engine. She separated Pro from the wider B2B model to build a distinct brand, rebuilt the Web site, reframed the value proposition around The Economist’s ability to separate signals from noise, and redesigned demand generation around higher‑quality intent rather than MQL volume. Alice’s work has strengthened editorial collaboration, improved lead quality, and produced a flagship event that attracted senior leaders from FTSE 100 companies. She is already operating as a strategic force inside The Economist, elevating how the organisation thinks about growth, brand, and audience value.

Jhalak Srivastava
Regional Marketing Manager, APAC
Agence France‑Presse (AFP)
Hong Kong

About Jhalak: Jhalak Srivastava is driving a new phase of brand strategy for AFP in Asia-Pacific, optimising how the organisation positions itself and competes in the region. As regional marketing manager for APAC at Agence France Presse (AFP), she operates at the intersection of performance marketing, regional brand strategy, and lead automation — a combination that has helped drive AFP’s commercial operations over the past four years. Jhalak recognised early on that automation, already gaining traction in adjacent industries, could accelerate AFP’s commercial reach. She introduced a cloud-based automation framework, embedded it into global workflows, and proved its value step by step. What once took months now takes hours. The initiatives have opened up new market verticals and helped AFP reach hundreds of qualified prospects per cycle. The result: strong, sustained year-on-year revenue growth from marketing activities over the past two years. Alongside this, Jhalak has strengthened AFP’s brand presence across Asia through strategic participation in INMA, WAN-Ifra, and major regional media events, ensuring AFP shows up where its future customers are. Her work has expanded AFP’s visibility, modernised its lead generation capabilities, and helped position the agency for growth in one of its most important regions.

Johanna Stibi
Member of the Executive Team
Lensing Media
Germany

About Johanna: Johanna Stibi has established herself as an emerging strategic leader driving the digital transformation of regional news media. She joined Lensing Media as project manager to the CEO, quickly becoming a trusted advisor to senior leadership and a central force in aligning editorial, product, and commercial priorities. Today, as a member of the executive team, she operates at the core of the organisation’s shift toward a more integrated, data‑driven operating model. Johanna plays a key role in steering Lensing’s cross‑functional “squads,” helping define priorities, structure workflows, and ensure measurable progress against subscription, engagement, and revenue KPIs. Her work focuses on strengthening organisational design — identifying structural tensions, clarifying responsibilities and improving decision‑making speed across teams. She has been instrumental in moving the company away from siloed optimisation toward a unified model where editorial, product and commercial functions work toward shared North Star goals. What most distinguishes Johanna, however, is her combination of analytical depth, systemic thinking, and collaborative leadership. She benchmarks against international best practices, translates insights into concrete organisational improvements, and builds trust across functions. Her ability to connect strategy with execution is already shaping how Lensing Media evolves — and positioning her as a future leader in the next generation of digital‑first regional publishers.

Chloe Barr
Off-Platform Editor
The Australian (News Corp Australia)
Australia

About Chloe: Chloe Barr is a dynamic, emerging leader in Australian news media, driving audience growth, platform innovation, and newsroom transformation at The Australian. She began her career in News Corp’s regional and community division, where she helped transition more than 120 mastheads from print to digital and built a social strategy responsible for 40% of audience acquisition across the network. She later worked nationally across brands including news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, Vogue Australia, CODE Sports, and The Australian, gaining a deep understanding of cross‑newsroom workflows and platform behaviour. For the past two and a half years, Chloe has led The Australian’s off‑platform strategy as off‑platform editor, overseeing a team of four producers. Under her leadership, the brand has achieved exceptional growth: +99% subscription acquisition via social, +115% impressions, +574% social video views, +345% video output, and +19% Apple News revenue. In February 2026, The Australian reached 1 million TikTok followers, matching global publishers with teams many times larger. Chloe’s work blends editorial judgement, platform expertise, and newsroom leadership. She has upskilled more than 30 staff in social production, Apple News, and Canva, breaking down legacy silos and embedding off‑platform thinking into daily editorial workflows. She is already shaping the future of audience‑first newsroom leadership in Australia.

Ruhan Friedrichs
Journalist
Media24/Rapport
South Africa

About Ruhan: Ruhan Friedrichs represents the next generation of South African newsroom leadership — a journalist whose impact is already measurable, strategic, and far beyond what is typical for someone so early in their career. After completing his BA in communication and honours in media and journalism, he joined Netwerk24 as an intern in 2024 and was appointed full‑time within months. By May 2025, he had earned a place in the Rapport newsroom, where his output and influence have been exceptional. In his first year at Rapport, Ruhan published 158 articles under his byline, generating 5.9 million page views — an average of 37,000 views per story — with five pieces surpassing 100,000 views. His journalism directly converted 810 new subscribers, demonstrating his ability to produce stories that not only attract audiences but drive tangible business value. Beyond reporting, Ruhan has shown leadership in newsroom transformation. Despite being the most junior team member, he spearheaded the migration to the new editorial platform, Swing; he trained colleagues, provided troubleshooting on issues, and ensured a smooth, successful rollout. Ruhan combines instinctive news judgement, ethical clarity, technological fluency, and a deep connection to audiences. He is quietly but unmistakably becoming one of the newsroom’s most influential young voices.

Nompilo Gwala
Mamaging Editor
MambaOnline
South Africa

About Nompilo: Nompilo Gwala is leading one of Southern Africa’s most important LGBTQ+ media platforms at a pivotal moment for queer visibility and rights across the continent. Her career spans digital, broadcast, and community‑centred journalism — from breaking major entertainment exclusives at Drum to producing high‑impact health reporting at Health‑e News to shaping national television content at the SABC. She has worked across formats and audiences, including producing Snapchat stories that reached more than 100 million views, and presenting youth‑driven journalism on Bona Retsang 2.0. In 2025, Nompilo became managing editor of MambaOnline, where she has already strengthened the organisation’s financial sustainability and strategic direction. She has secured two grants, launched a fundraising campaign that raised approximately US$7,019 in four months, and obtained matching‑fund support of up to US$12,600 from a major foundation. She also led the creation of the MambaOnline Foundation, a non‑profit vehicle designed to unlock new funding streams and support public‑interest LGBTQ+ journalism. Nompilo’s leadership blends editorial excellence, community impact, and organisational innovation. She is modernising a legacy publication while expanding its reach, revenue, and relevance — and positioning MambaOnline for its next 25 years as a cornerstone of African LGBTQ+ storytelling.

Lena Leibetseder
Head of Digital Publishing
Russmedia
Austria

About Lena: Lena Leibetseder is amongst Europe’s most forward‑looking young newsroom leaders, combining editorial credibility with deep technological fluency. She began her career with internships at ZDF, ORF, and Profil, later joining Profil’s digital newsroom full‑time. Her talent and drive quickly set her apart: In her early 20s, she became deputy head of online at one of Austria’s most respected investigative magazines — an unusually senior role for someone at her stage. She led award‑winning reporting on asylum policy, climate activism, and transparency legislation, and helped steer Profil’s digital relaunch during a critical leadership transition. Today, as head of digital publishing at Russmedia, Lena leads AI adoption across multiple newsrooms, trains senior executives, and manages strategic transformation projects. She has introduced new workflows, automation systems, and planning tools that significantly improve newsroom efficiency and collaboration. In 2026, she was selected for the WAN‑IFRA/Google News Initiative NextGen AI Leaders Programme, recognising her as part of the next generation of media innovators. Lena will soon lead Russmedia’s new data desk, building capabilities in data journalism, interactive storytelling, and AI‑supported reporting. She is not simply adapting to the future of journalism — she is actively shaping it.

José Fernando Orellana
Editorial Director
República Media Group
Guatemala

About José Fernando: José Fernando Orellana is a distinctive young editorial leader in Latin America — a newsroom director who blends legal expertise, political analysis, and editorial vision into a single, unusually powerful leadership profile. As chief content officer of República Media Group, he leads a multidisciplinary team of more than 45 journalists, analysts, editors, and video specialists, overseeing a newsroom that spans political reporting, business intelligence, documentary filmmaking, and strategic communications. His career before journalism — advising the private sector on public policy, directing the Observatory of Property Rights, and serving as executive director of the Guatemalan Chamber of Construction — provided him with a rare, systems‑level understanding of how institutions work. At República, he has transformed editorial leadership into an engine for both impact and sustainability. He oversees documentary productions exceeding US$300,000, including award‑winning films viewed by millions, and has led investigations such as La Casa de los Chocobananos, which exposed state corruption and placed him at personal risk. José Fernando also founded República Intelligence, a political risk and business consultancy serving eight corporate clients at US$5,000+ per month, creating a major new revenue pillar for the organisation. His combination of courage, analytical depth and business acumen is already reshaping what independent journalism can look like in Central America.

Kaito Majima
Software Engineer
Nikkei Inc.
Japan

About Kaito: Kaito Majima is a software engineer whose work sits at the intersection of AI innovation, product development, and trusted journalism. At Nikkei Inc., he focuses on improving the user experience of the Nikkei Online Edition — a platform with more than 1 million paid subscribers — by integrating advanced AI technologies into core product features. He led the conception, development, and continuous improvement of Ask! Nikkei, a generative‑AI‑powered question‑answering feature that cites only Nikkei articles to ensure accuracy and trust. The product earned over 85% positive user ratings, received the Newspaper Technology Award from the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association (with Kaito named as one of the representatives), and earned an INMA Honourable Mention for Best Use of Generative AI. Kaito’s background in mathematical optimisation and machine learning informs his engineering approach. His research on automatically generating crosswords from news articles was accepted at CIKM 2023, demonstrating his ability to merge editorial content with computational methods. Since joining Nikkei, he has improved recommendation ordering through a fix that increased click‑through rates 5.7% in an A/B test he designed. Across AI‑powered features, backend development, and internal tools, Kaito consistently builds products that enhance the value, reliability, and accessibility of news in the AI era. 

Delaney McCaffrey
Senior Product Manager
Business Insider
United States

About Delaney: Delaney McCaffrey is part of a new generation of product leaders putting a new spin on how news organisations build loyalty, habit, and long‑term reader value. She began her career in local journalism at The Montgomery News, where — as the only product manager — she introduced analytics and launched a weekly newsletter that helped a small, print‑focused newsroom understand and grow its digital audience. That experience shaped her core philosophy: Data only matters when a newsroom’s culture is willing to act on it. She deepened her technical and analytical skills at G2M Insights, building propensity models and dashboards for enterprise clients before returning to journalism through Business Insider. After leading a CMS migration that streamlined workflows and improved publishing efficiency, she moved into engagement product, where her work now focuses on turning one‑time visitors into loyal readers. Delaney has redesigned Business Insider’s homepage, launched author‑follow alerts, built an automated newsletter‑creation system, and improved content discovery across the site. She also played a central role in Business Insider’s 2024 brand relaunch, delivering measurable improvements including a 5% increase in homepage click‑through rate and faster page performance. Her strength lies in cross‑functional leadership — aligning engineering, editorial, design, and revenue teams around shared goals. Delaney is already changing the way modern newsrooms think about engagement, habit, and product strategy.

Sofia Mikhailova
Product Manager
Ippen Digital
Germany

About Sofia: Sofia Mikhailova is a product manager with a rare ability to work across editorial, technical, and strategic domains — using analytical clarity and thoughtful execution to drive meaningful improvements at Ippen Digital. She began her career as an economist in Russia before moving to Germany and joining Ippen Digital’s editorial division, where she quickly developed deep expertise in newsroom workflows and content systems. Within two years, she transitioned into the newly formed product team and has since become one of its most impactful contributors. Sofia has led Ippen Digital’s registration strategy across more than 80 regional portals, introducing gated features such as print tools, newsletters, and commenting. These initiatives directly generated 217,000 new registrations in 24 months, contributing to the company’s milestone of 1 million registered users and 100% year‑over‑year growth. She also launched Conversario, a community platform now producing 15,000 comments per month and 20 million comment views, supported by AI moderation that removes over 1,000 harmful comments monthly. Her most groundbreaking work is the AI‑driven transformation of Ippen Digital’s product development process: reducing requirement creation time from 60 minutes to 10, increasing idea tickets by 337%, and improving delivery rates by 323%. Sofia is already making a name for herself in product thinking — and she is only 27.

Sangeetha Lakshmikanthan
Product Manager
The Hindu Group
India

About Sangeetha: As product manager at The Hindu Group, Sangeetha Lakshmikanthan approaches product development with a balance of evidence‑based decision‑making and respect for editorial integrity. Her adaptive content initiative has introduced AI‑supported formats that improve reader engagement without compromising the organisation’s standards. She leads a portfolio of app products and is the architect behind the organisation’s generative AI–powered Adaptive Content programme — a strategy that transforms a single piece of journalism into multiple formats for readers without compromising editorial standards. Her work has delivered a measurable impact. AI‑generated summaries and explainers — built with prompts engineered to retain The Hindu’s voice — drove a 30% increase in premium article consumption and lifted premium readers from 20% to 30% of monthly active users. The Hindu Editcast, a 10‑minute AI‑generated, human‑verified audio format, increased subscriber dwell time by 20% and helped win back audiences drifting toward video platforms. Sangeetha’s approach is grounded in evidence. She segments readers into behavioural groups — Deep Divers, Prep Scholars, Real‑time Trackers, Headline Hoppers — and designs products around their needs rather than assumptions. Her conviction that AI must augment journalism, not dilute it, guides every feature she ships. She is already playing a key role in how a trusted, legacy news brand enters the AI era — with clarity, discipline, and a deep respect for the journalism at its centre.

Suzana Souza
Project and Engagement Lead
Capital Reset
Brazil

About Suzana: Suzana Souza brings together editorial experience, product thinking, and community‑focused strategy in a way that strengthens both journalism and the systems that support it. She began her career as a reporter and editor, shaped by her experience growing up as a Black woman in northeastern Brazil — a perspective that informs her commitment to representation and audience‑centered storytelling. Her transition into product roles emerged through independent digital news organisations, where she expanded her work into audience engagement and innovation. At Nexo, she co‑created and narrated Foi Assim, a TikTok explainer series on Brazil’s elections that earned an honourable mention at the 2023 INMA Global Media Awards. She also led the development of an AI‑powered audience insights dashboard, funded by the Google News Initiative, which unified fragmented analytics and turned data into actionable editorial recommendations. In 2026, Suzana joined Capital Reset as product and engagement lead. She launched Reset Conecta, a community‑driven event series that deepens audience relationships and diversifies revenue — now scaling to five editions with an average 60% profit margin. Across her roles, Suzana focuses on building products and experiences that connect journalism with the communities it serves, while strengthening long‑term sustainability for independent media. 

Robyn Brady
Senior Manager/Consumer Revenue
Condé Nast
United Kingdom

About Robyn: Robyn Brady is a commercial leader who has played a central role in strengthening reader‑revenue performance across Vogue and Vogue Business. Over five years at Condé Nast, she has progressed through customer success, marketing, and membership roles into her current position as senior manager, consumer revenue — a trajectory that reflects her ability to deliver results, expand scope, and lead complex cross‑functional initiatives. Robyn oversees the Vogue Business membership business and key growth initiatives across the broader Vogue ecosystem, including the Vogue App. She led the global migration of Vogue Business to Vogue.com, coordinating 12 cross‑functional teams across product, editorial, technology, data, marketing, commercial, and customer service. The five‑month project improved member experience, streamlined account access, enhanced content discoverability, and unlocked new growth opportunities across a unified domain. Under her leadership, Vogue Business membership revenue is pacing +19% ahead of budget and +9% year‑over‑year, while new member acquisition is pacing +30% ahead of budget and +49% year‑over‑year. Robyn has also expanded her remit to drive growth for the Vogue App and manage offline membership partnerships with brands including Jimmy Choo, Prada, and Luxottica. She combines commercial judgement, data‑driven decision‑making, and strong stakeholder alignment — making her one of Condé Nast’s most impactful emerging leaders in reader revenue.

Aston Mammone
Senior Manager/Planning & Campaigns – Subscriptions Growth
News Corp Australia
Australia

About Aston: Aston Mammone leads subscription growth strategy for The Australian and 12 state and community mastheads, bringing together marketing, product, pricing, and editorial distribution to drive measurable reader‑revenue outcomes. His career spans agency, marketing, and media roles, giving him a strong foundation in go‑to‑market execution, data‑driven decision‑making, and cross‑functional leadership. At News Corp Australia, Aston owns the full subscription acquisition proposition. He led the launch of new digital shopfronts that delivered an 11% uplift in conversion rates and played a key role in major registration and subscription initiatives, including Newspass, which registered 100,000+ users, and The Australian’s Times of London bundle, which has delivered 1,400+ subscriptions. He also orchestrated acquisition strategies for flagship audio journalism, including Bronwyn and Dear Rachelle, the latter reaching 2.34 million global listeners and earning national and international awards. Aston has strengthened app subscriptions as a core growth channel, increasing the subscriber base 13% through App Store optimisation, Apple Podcast Linking, content‑led campaigns, and pricing experiments. His ability to bridge product and marketing teams has turned complex initiatives into sustainable revenue drivers. Across all of his work, Aston demonstrates strategic clarity, commercial fluency, and a consistent ability to convert audience interest into long‑term subscriber value.

Madison Messics
Associate Manager/Revenue Generation – Consumer Marketing
The Philadelphia Inquirer
United States

About Madison: Madison Messics is a key contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s subscription and e‑commerce revenue growth, known for pairing thoughtful marketing strategy with disciplined execution. Since joining the organisation in 2022, she has become central to initiatives that strengthen acquisition performance, optimise conversion funnels, and expand revenue opportunities across owned channels. One of Madison’s most impactful achievements is the development of a comprehensive cart‑abandonment strategy. Through retargeting modals, improved e-mail journeys, and refined lifecycle touchpoints, her work drove 14,000+ subscription starts and US$2.6 million in projected revenue in 2025. She also leads The Inquirer’s quarterly “Big One Day Sale,” a high‑performing acquisition campaign that consistently generates US$72,000-US$91,000 in projected subscription revenue per launch. Madison manages approximately six on‑site sales and 50 e-mail campaigns annually, continuously testing landing pages, creative, CTAs, segmentation, and workflows to improve results. Her paid search optimisations increased subscription starts 24% year‑over‑year while reducing CPA 8%. She also oversees The Inquirer Store, which generated US$1 million+ in revenue and sold 34,000 units following the Eagles’ 2025 Super Bowl win. Across all of her work, Madison demonstrates strategic thinking, operational rigor, and a consistent ability to turn insights into measurable revenue growth.

Zakhar Protsiuk
Chief Operating Officer
The Kyiv Independent
Ukraine

About Zakhar: Zakhar Protsiuk oversees reader revenue, product, marketing, and communications at the Kyiv Independent, where he has built one of the most resilient membership models in independent media. His background spans editorial leadership, consultancy, and audience strategy: he co-founded the news industry publication The Fix Media, advised more than 20 publishers as a partner at Jnomics, and now runs the operational and commercial engine of a newsroom reporting from an active war zone. In a bit over four years at the Kyiv Independent, Zakhar has grown the paying membership from 6,000 to more than 35,000 members, with reader revenue now covering around 70% of the organisation’s budget. He built and led the team that introduced multi-currency support; launched an e-store generating direct, attributable revenue; and designed geo-targeted membership campaigns in Germany and Sweden that hit their goals in half the projected time. The outlet’s acquisition campaigns consistently outperform industry benchmarks, while monthly churn holds at about 2% — well below sector averages. That work contributed to the Kyiv Independent winning the Online Journalism Award for Innovation in Revenue Strategy. Beyond his operational role, he is an active voice in global conversations on media sustainability, speaking at international events and connecting publishers working toward reader-funded models.

Taryn Twohig
Acquisition Specialist
The Washington Post
United States

About Taryn: Taryn Twohig brings analytical rigour and strategic judgement to one of The Washington Post’s most complex revenue engines: onsite acquisition. She began her career as an analyst at CNBC, developing a data‑first approach to understanding audience behaviour in a fast‑moving financial newsroom. Since joining The Post a year and a half ago, she has become a key contributor across paywall strategy, smart metering, A/B testing, and pricing for Flexible Access, Core, and Premium subscriptions — systems where small adjustments carry direct revenue consequences. Taryn consistently steps beyond her formal scope to drive high‑impact work. She led the research and analysis behind the relaunch of the Post’s Premium subscription, shaping pricing, targeting, and positioning. The results were substantial: Premium now drives 66% higher ARPU than Core, and its share of circulation grew from 3.5% to 18% between 2025 and Q1 2026. She also designed The Post’s first paywall test positioning Core and Premium side by side, extracting forward‑looking insights from nuanced results rather than treating it as a binary win or loss. Most recently, she has pushed the team to treat Google Discover traffic as a distinct cohort, recognising that platform‑driven discovery requires tailored acquisition logic. Across all her work, 

Taryn demonstrates analytical depth, cross‑functional collaboration, and a consistent instinct to take on the highest‑leverage challenges.