Key takeaways
- Operational efficiency in media teams is a strategic necessity, especially in low-margin businesses competing against platforms with larger budgets and faster tooling cycles.
- Legacy systems and fragmented technology are major blockers; efficiency depends on integration, data flow, and reducing manual handoffs.
- AI should improve infrastructure before it replaces people. The strongest use cases are often in support workflows, automation, and data extraction, not core creative output.
- Simplification beats accumulation. Media teams create avoidable friction when they add processes and tools instead of removing low-value work.
- Experimentation should be intentional. An “always in beta” mindset works only if teams know what they are trying to learn and what they will stop doing.
Operational efficiency in media teams has become a strategic issue, not an operational detail. In a sector defined by thin margins, legacy technology, fragmented systems, and shifting audience expectations, product and commercial teams are under pressure to do more with less without flattening the creative value that makes media businesses competitive. Michał Mokrzycki in a conversation with Jessica Crouch Perry, Product Director at Condé Nast, Jonathan Jones, Director of Product, Commercial Tech & Change at ITV and Paul Wright, Board Advisor and Strategic Consultant, ex Uber Advertising, Amazon, Apple explored how publishers and broadcasters can rethink efficiency without reducing their products to a set of automated workflows.
Their credibility comes from operating inside large media organisations with long histories, complex technology stacks, and real commercial constraints. Jessica brought the perspective of digital product leadership in publishing; Jonathan and Paul spoke from the world of broadcast commercial technology and product transformation. Together, they made a clear point: efficiency is not about squeezing every process with AI. It is about removing friction, simplifying systems, and using automation where it improves outcomes for customers and internal teams.
What operational efficiency means in media teams today?
Operational efficiency in media is no longer a back-office concept – it affects product design, sales execution, customer experience, and the pace at which teams can adapt. The discussion panel participants described an industry where the old model of building everything in-house has become harder to justify, especially when media businesses face lower margins than technology companies and must still keep investing in digital experiences.
Jessica framed this tension directly: media companies are expected to maintain their own platforms while competing with platforms that have far greater budgets and scale. That makes efficiency a survival issue, not just a cost-control exercise. As she put it, “we don’t make as much as the tech companies, we don’t have as much to spend and we’re also competing with” platforms that shape customer expectations.
Jonathan added the structural challenge: many media organisations are trying to modernise while still carrying the weight of successful legacy models. In his view, the hardest part is not identifying the need for change, but changing a business that has done things the same way for decades. That is why operational efficiency in media teams increasingly means managing transformation without breaking what already works.
A useful takeaway for business leaders is that efficiency should be measured against the full operating model: product delivery speed, technology debt, team coordination, and customer friction. If a media company only optimises one department while leaving the rest untouched, the gains disappear into process bottlenecks elsewhere.
Why legacy systems and complexity hold media products back
The discussion repeatedly returned to one theme: media businesses often create operational pain by adding too much complexity. Product leaders in this space are not only designing customer journeys; they are also dealing with heritage technology, multiple teams, and years of accumulated decisions.
Jonathan described the reality of working at the intersection of “an industry going through massive change” and a “rich heritage of seventy years.” That heritage matters, but it also creates inertia. Teams can become attached to processes that were effective in the past but slow down change today. His comment that the business operates with an “always in beta” mindset captures the response required: controlled experimentation, not grand redesigns.
For technical leaders, the implication is clear: operational efficiency does not begin with more tools. It begins with better architecture and cleaner integration between systems. The conversation made this point in a practical way: sales processes often become “much convoluted” not because the work itself is inherently complex, but because “we have even multiple systems that don’t talk to each other effectively.” That fragmentation creates manual work, weak data visibility, and a poor experience for commercial teams.
Jessica’s perspective sharpened the same argument from the publishing side – the challenge is not simply the product itself, but how much resource needs to be dedicated to maintaining digital experiences when the business model is under margin pressure. If every change requires negotiation across legacy systems, efficiency is lost before the customer ever sees the new feature.
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Complexity is often self-inflicted
The panellists did not suggest that media operations are complex only because of the industry – they argued that teams often make things more complicated than necessary. That matters because complexity becomes expensive very quickly: it slows launches, increases testing overhead, and makes it harder for teams to know what is actually delivering value.
AI in media operations: booster, risk or distraction?
The strongest view in the conversation was that AI should not be treated as a universal solution. The guest panel drew a sharp distinction between using AI to improve infrastructure and using it to replace human judgment in creative or commercial work.
Jonathan argued that AI’s real value is not in transforming the sales team in isolation, but in making existing infrastructure and resources better. “AI’s not really about the sales team, it’s more about how it’s used to make existing infrastructure better and existing resources,” he said. That is an important distinction for decision-makers who are being sold AI as a way to “fix” underperforming teams. In practice, poor data flow, disconnected systems, and unclear workflows are usually the bigger constraint.
The discussion also highlighted a more mature view of automation – rather than chasing the most visible AI applications, the guests pointed to less flashy but effective solutions such as machine learning and search/automation tools like Elastic. In other words, the best efficiency gains may come from applied engineering, not from brand-name AI initiatives.
Jessica also drew a clear line around the organisation’s value proposition: “we don’t create content with AI, that’s a really hard rule.” That choice reflects a strategic boundary. If a media company’s differentiation lies in unique content, then automation should support production and distribution, not replace the editorial core. This is a crucial principle for media executives: not every high-efficiency use case is strategically appropriate.
When automation helps, and when it should stop
The panel’s answer to “what should never be automated?” was not to ban automation broadly, but to protect the elements that define customer trust and product value. In media, that means recognising where automation can help with data extraction, pitch preparation, operational routing, or personalization – and where it risks eroding the human judgment that shapes content and brand relevance.
The same logic applies to creativity. Over-optimising product flows can strip away the space teams need to test ideas, learn, and differentiate. A media business can become more efficient and less distinctive at the same time if it pursues automation without a clear strategic filter.
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The case for simplification: less friction, better decisions
If there was one practical recommendation that came through most clearly, it was simplification. The guests were blunt: media teams often overcomplicate processes, product offers, and internal decision-making, then try to compensate with tools. That approach hides inefficiency rather than removing it.
One of the most important lines in the discussion was: “I think in media we’ve got a real knack of making things more complicated than it needs to be.” That is more than a cultural observation. It is a product and operating model issue. When teams add layers instead of removing them, the customer feels the friction, and internal teams spend more time coordinating than delivering.
The panellists pointed toward a useful operating principle: stop doing something that is not delivering value. As Jonathan put it, the most effective move may be to “figure out one thing to stop doing and” then focus on the feature, process, or system that is actually contributing to outcomes. This is particularly relevant in media organisations where product roadmaps tend to accumulate initiatives faster than they are retired.
The panel also discussed frictionless buying and how large platform businesses win partly because they reduce effort for the customer. That lesson translates directly to media products. If a magazine subscription, retail offer, or advertiser journey is too hard to understand, the customer hesitates. Simplicity builds confidence; complexity creates doubt.
Conclusion
The discussion panel’s central message is straightforward: operational efficiency in media teams is not achieved by layering AI on top of complexity. It comes from making products simpler, systems cleaner, and decisions more deliberate. For media organisations facing legacy technology, margin pressure, and rapid market change, the goal is not to automate everything. It is to automate with discipline, preserve what makes the product valuable, and remove the friction that slows customers and teams alike.
The companies that get this right will not just move faster. They will be easier to work with, easier to buy from, and better positioned to protect creativity while improving performance. That is the kind of efficiency that lasts.
