La Razón – The Harsh New Reality for Digital Publishers

Recently, Mike Kudriavsky, CEO of Membrana Media, was invited as an industry expert for an interview with our long-time partner La Razón – one of Spain’s leading national media outlets.
The talk quickly turned into a deep dive on what’s next for digital publishing and how fast the rules are changing.

Let’s be honest: the glory days of SEO are dead. The open web is shrinking, algorithms have taken over, and AI is rewriting the playbook faster than anyone can follow.
For publishers, the question isn’t how to grow traffic anymore, it’s how to stay relevant at all.

During the interview, Mike didn’t sugarcoat it: “The era of passive traffic is over,” he said. “You either talk directly to your audience or you lose them to the next swipe.”

That means building actual relationships, not chasing likes, clicks, or the next viral post. The future belongs to media that feel alive, that sound like a human and not a search result.

AI: Frenemy Number One

AI is the best thing and the worst thing that’s ever happened to publishing.  It writes, edits, and optimizes faster than any newsroom could dream of. But it also steals attention, changes user behavior, and keeps the audience locked inside walled gardens built by tech giants. Mike sees a way forward using AI not just to create, but to measure.

“It’s not about automation. It’s about understanding what works, and why,” he says. “When you mix machine logic with human creativity – that’s when publishing gets interesting again.”

Publishers vs. Performance

Advertisers have changed the rules, too.  It’s not enough to have a big audience, because you need performance, engagement, proof that your users actually care. That’s where publishers are being squeezed the hardest.

Expert’s take? Stop fighting each other. Start teaming up. “When publishers build alliances, they create leverage,” he says. “That’s the only way to stand up to platforms that keep rewriting the terms of the game.”

The Quiet Revolution

In Spain, where Membrana Media works closely with local publishers, the shift is already happening – slowly, quietly, but undeniably. Teams are experimenting with short-form video, gamified content, and social-style storytelling that doesn’t feel like advertising. And guess what? Users actually stay.

The formula isn’t complicated: trust + creativity = loyalty. But it takes guts to try new formats when the old ones still sort of work.

The Bottom Line

Digital publishing isn’t dying, but it’s mutating.Those who adapt fast, experiment boldly, and build genuine connections will make it. The rest? They’ll be buried under the next algorithm update.

As Kudriavsky puts it, “The ones who win aren’t just the fastest — they’re the most flexible.”

Read the full interview with Mikhail Kudriavsky on La Razón.