Ask Nursing Times: Robin Booth on how they’re creating premium experiences with AI

The industry is buzzing with talk of AI, but few speakers cut through the noise with as much clarity and practical insight as Robin Booth, Managing Director at Nursing Times.

Taking to the stage at The Audiencers’ Festival in London this June 24th, Robin didn’t just present a theoretical roadmap; he delivered a candid, ‘this is what we actually did’ account of how his team is not just surviving, but thriving in the emerging AI landscape.

Robin’s TL;DR: if publishers want to own the customer relationship in the AI era, it’s time to offer premium content coupled with premium experiences.

Key takeaways to copy & share

> Nursing Times replaced poor site search with ASK, an LLM answering only from its own journalism with links back. Over 200,000 answers so far, 5 to 6% click-through, and 100+ subscribers acquired directly

> The conversion mechanic is elegant. Anonymous visitors get answers to AI-generated questions, subscribers get to ask their own, and trialists get a quota. The right to ask is the paid feature

> They bought rather than built, and kept it a walled garden so answers come from one trusted source and the content never trains an external model

> Two findings worth stealing: 80 to 90% of usage comes from suggested questions inside articles, and audiences are far more forgiving of AI imperfection than editorial teams are

> AI cut the cost of building a premium data product to roughly a tenth. Construction News Intelligence has brought in over £100,000, priced 50% above basic, with more than half of new business choosing it

AI battlegrounds

Setting the scene for Nursing Times’ strategy with AI, Robin opened with some of the battlegrounds that he sees emerging, and the questions he hopes to answer:

How much of the value generated by good content will go to publishers vs the AI developers?
Where will audiences spend more time, on AI platforms or publishers?
As AI mediates content discovery, how can publishers ensure their brand remains visible and trusted?
What’s happening / coming isn’t a technology change, this is behaviour change. What will that behaviour change mean for content creators and content consumers?

“There will be a shift in the creation, finding, consumption and understanding of content.

We need to ask; where is our business going? What kind of publisher do we want to be in two- or three-years time? What relationship do we want with potential and existing subscribers? What services and experiences will subscribers expect? Once we’ve answered those questions, with the big caveat everything could change quickly, you can work backwards to a strategy.” – Robin Booth

His North Star for Nursing Times: To be a publisher driving subscription growth from a deeper, more direct, and more engaged relationship with customers, offering compelling content and services they can’t find elsewhere.