Media Transformation Summit

Welcome, introduction to the programme and communication guidelines

Sebastian Mayeres
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), knk Software LP
Having studied Business Informatics (Dipl. Wirtschaftsinformatiker), it became clear to him early on that IT would always be a constant companion in his life. After completing his studies, he initially took on conceptual roles relating to the publishing software knkVerlag and later went on to lead national and international projects.
Today, as Head of Sales, he supports publishers with the implementation of new publishing software, the optimisation of operational processes and the associated change management.
With more than 14 years’ experience in the publishing industry and having contributed to various projects, he combines IT expertise with industry know-how, particularly in the areas of digital business models and CRM, and is currently overseeing the expansion of the Cognitive Services (AI) business unit at knk.

Amy Jones
As Chief Transformation Officer at Emerald Publishing, she focuses on aligning business processes, technology, and culture to drive the best real-world impact. Over the course of her career, she has led complex change initiatives ranging from process reengineering and technology implementations to cultural shifts. Before joining Emerald in 2021, she worked at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors across a range of business areas, including technology, international property standards, commercial delivery, content management, and online editorial and publishing.

Fred Zimmerman
Fred Zimmerman is a veteran publishing innovator and technologist who has spent over three decades at the intersection of books and digital evolution. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Fred is recognized as a true internet pioneer, having launched the Internet Book Information Center in March 1994—the first website specifically dedicated to books.

In 2006, he founded Nimble Books, where he experimented with agile publishing formats and „title-surfing“ meta-books. After publishing hundreds of titles across diverse genres, Fred pivoted in 2011 toward a radical vision: recreating the entire traditional publishing pipeline in silico.

Roundtable: Mohit Srivastava (Dashverse), Andrew Weinstein (Bookwire)

Mohit Srivastava is part of the CEO’s Office at Dashverse, where he leads strategic content partnerships and licensing initiatives. He works closely with global publishers, IP owners, and content platforms to expand premium storytelling across AI-powered formats, including microdramas. Prior to Dashverse, Mohit held strategy and operations roles at Google, Meesho, and Bain & Company, focusing on scaling products, operations, and digital ecosystems. He is passionate about the intersection of AI, entertainment, publishing, and the future of content monetization.

Andrew Weinstein, U.S. country manager  Bookwire
Andrew Weinstein is US Country Manager at Bookwire and is responsible for growing Bookwire’s business in the US. Prior to joining Bookwire, Andrew spent almost a dozen years at Scribd, Inc. as Vice President Content Acquisition and Strategy, helping Scribd acquire the most diverse library of digital audiobooks, ebooks and more via a single subscription. Prior to Scribd, Andrew spent over a decade at Ingram Content Group helping build their print on demand and digital distribution businesses. During his career, Andrew co-founded two digital publishing startups, the first, JNMedia, Inc., was acquired by Ingram’s Lightning Source in 2000. Andrew earned his MBA in Finance and Marketing from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and BA in Economics from Brandeis University.  

It is no longer enough to understand the needs of media users. In 2026, media companies will not fail because they lack insights. The problem lies elsewhere: formats are not aligned, systems are fragmented, and teams speak different languages. Dmitry Shishkin, who introduced the original User Needs Model at the BBC and has since adapted it for the news, travel, and sports sectors, demonstrates how a clean data architecture and shared taxonomies enable both the scaling and the use of AI in multimodal content strategies.

Dmitry Shishkin is an independent media advisor who works with senior leadership teams building audience-centered organisations without losing editorial ambition or commercial discipline. Since 2020, he has advised global media organisations including Condé Nast, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Yahoo, Globo, Ringier and others. He works with CEOs, editors-in-chief, product leaders, and boards at inflexion points: strategic reset, growth pressure, organisational misalignment, or uncertainty about how editorial, product, data, and AI should work together. His advisory focuses on newsroom transformation and multimodal content strategy. He also advises technology and AI companies serving the media sector, as  well as organisations outside the media that are building their own content capabilities. His background spans senior editorial leadership, executive management, including 18 months as CEO of Ringier Media International, and extensive work at the intersection of content, product, and data. Dmitry is best known for operationalising and spreading the User Needs Model globally after implementing it at BBC World Service. The framework has since evolved into vertical-specific models for sports, travel, fashion, and other sectors.

Roundtable: Arantza Larrauri (De Marque Iberia & LATAM), Adam Hyde (Pure Science Inc.)

Arantza Larrauri holds a degree in Business Administration from ESADE, where she also earned an MBA, and a Master in International Management (MIM) from Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona, USA). More recently, she completed a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence at Tech University, specializing in educational applications. With over two decades of experience in the book industry, she has worked at Círculo de Lectores and Random House. In 2010, she was appointed General Manager of Libranda, and since its integration into the Canadian company De Marque in 2018, she has been Market Director for Europe and Latin America. She is also a shareholder and board member of several companies focused on the application of artificial intelligence in education and culture. She combines her professional role with teaching at the UOC Master in Publishing and Artificial Intelligence training programs for book professionals at the PARIX school. She also contributes regularly to specialized media and is the author of poetry collections and short stories.

Adam Hyde is the founder of Pure Science Inc. and has spent over two decades reshaping the infrastructure of scholarly publishing. He founded Book Sprints in 2007 and the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (Coko) in 2015, where he led development of Kotahi and Paged.js — open-source publishing tools now used by NCBI, Europe PMC, eLife, HHMI, OEN, and major presses worldwide. A Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and three-time New Zealand Open Source Award winner, Adam has served on the advisory boards of the OA Switchboard, EIFL, and the African Coalition for Open Scholarship. He is the creator of PurePub.ai and a leading voice on the practical application of AI agent systems in academic publishing workflows

The way readers find books is changing. AI-powered platforms are increasingly the first place people turn for recommendations, and they don’t just crawl search engines. They pull from retailer listings, publisher websites, and reference sources like Wikipedia to decide what to surface and recommend. For publishers, that means metadata, SEO, and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) are no longer optional extras. They’re the foundation of getting found.

Sarah Arbuthnot is President of Supadu, the leading metadata, website eCommerce platform serving over 300 publishers worldwide. With a background in digital strategy and global eCommerce for major brands, she now helps publishers drive direct-to-consumer growth and enhance their digital presence and enable all books in any format to be accessible to all readers.

Thad McIlroy is a technology analyst and consultant for to the publishing and media industry. He has been observing is a long-time observer of developments in the publishing sector for decades and NOW focuses primarily intensively on the impact of AI on publishing. As the director of The Future of Publishing and contributing editor at Publishers Weekly, he reports on AI, innovation and startups in the publishing industry. McIlroy has published twelve books and more than 500 professional articles. He serves on the advisory board of Johns Hopkins University Press and is a guest lecturer visiting scholar at George Washington University.

Round-up and closing remarks