Anna Quinn, Director of Sales, Are Media
In an AI-fuelled world where options are endless, trusted media is becoming more important, not less. And the reason is simple: discovery has never been easier, but converting that discovery into consumer confidence has never been harder.
We spend a lot of time talking about attention, but the bigger shift right now is what happens after someone finds something. AI has made discovery frictionless. You can ask a question and instantly get recommendations, comparisons and a long list of possibilities, as behaviour moves from “search” to simply asking what’s out there.
The paradox is that more options don’t necessarily create clarity. If anything, they create hesitation. Most of us know the feeling of scrolling endlessly through Netflix, only to close the app without choosing anything. When everything feels possible, it becomes harder to know what actually feels right.
What we are seeing is a move from an attention economy to a consideration economy. Visibility alone is no longer enough. What matters is whether a brand feels credible in the moments that shape confidence. AI is already influencing that journey by helping people discover, compare and shortlist, and in many ways, it has become the front door to consideration. But being considered is not the same as being chosen.
AI can scale content, but it cannot scale trust. It does not carry cultural instinct, lived experience or editorial accountability. It cannot replicate the human judgment that signals what is genuinely worth someone’s time, money or attention. That final moment of confidence still comes from people and trusted sources, which is why I believe trusted media will hold relevance, not lose it.
Large language models favour information that appears consistently in credible environments. Brands that show up repeatedly within trusted publisher ecosystems are more likely to be referenced and recommended. Trusted media helps shape the information layer AI learns from, placing brands into the flow of consideration.
It also does something equally important: it provides reassurance. Editorial context, expertise and curation create a sense that someone has already done the filtering. Trusted media is influencing the machines that influence people, and then helping audiences feel confident enough to move forward. We see this time and again across our own network, particularly in the homes and lifestyle sector.
Only this week, the latest Roy Morgan data told a compelling story, as consumers’ appetite for credibility and trust saw a significant uplift of brands like Belle, Gourmet Traveller and Country Style, all growing print readership beyond 30 per cent.
The importance of this data point underscores the role this media experience and these brands still play in helping consumers, particularly Australian women, feel reassured they are making the right choices, not to mention the halo effect they can provide brands to accelerate credibility.
When Strand Bags set out to reposition from a luggage retailer to a fashion destination, awareness was not the challenge; credibility was. By partnering with trusted fashion environments like ELLE and marie claire, the brand was able to borrow cultural authority and trust and signal relevance through content in a way traditional advertising or social-only campaigns could not achieve. The result was a meaningful shift in perception, demonstrating how credibility built through trusted media can accelerate consideration.
A similar dynamic delivered results for Arnott’s through The Australian Women’s Weekly. Instead of a campaign focused solely on promotion, the brand invested in a curated cookbook and video series shaped by the Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen, an environment already trusted by generations of Australian consumers. That credibility helped readers navigate choice, sparked creativity and ultimately drove a 30 per cent uplift in biscuit sales for Arnotts, doing nothing else. The commercial outcome wasn’t driven by reach alone, but by trust transferred through context.
These examples illustrate a broader truth: when consumers feel uncertain, credibility borrowed from trusted environments can move people from consideration to action far more effectively than exposure alone.
In an AI-fuelled content economy, discovery alone will never be enough. Trusted media connects machine-driven discovery with human confidence by applying judgment, context and accountability in ways algorithms cannot.
As content becomes limitless, true influence will come from those who bring judgment, taste and trust to the moments that shape what we choose next.