Local news, AI, and the fight for accountability
How veteran editor Rick Hirsch sees AI helping journalists do more with less, while protecting the trust that investigative reporting depends on.
AI media analysis
The click is dying but the citation just got more valuable
Google's new AI ad formats could weaken publisher traffic further. But advertisers need credible answers, and that gives media new leverage.
The Scraper Economy is already here. Publishers just aren’t getting paid.
As AI systems increasingly rely on publisher content to answer questions, a new marketplace for information has quietly emerged. The problem? Publishers are barely part of it.
How AI search is rewriting the rules of discovery
Early data on what AI search actually cites suggests a better incentive system for media, if you know how to feed the bots.
YouTube is now the No. 2 most-cited social platform in AI answers
As AI search reshapes how people find information, research shows that well-structured videos have become a dominant reference source.
Inside the AI scraping economy nobody wants to talk about
A shadow market of data middlemen is converting publisher work into fuel for AI agents, and the legal system is doing little to stop them.
AI won’t save local news. But it might reinvent it.
Local journalism is collapsing under old business models. The next version may be more dependent on AI than most newsrooms are ready to admit.
Why AI content labels keep failing the people who need them most
The Emily Hart case reveals a gap between what platforms promise on AI transparency and what users encounter in their feeds.
Inside AI traffic’s 796% growth, and why it converts more ready-to-buy visitors
WebFX reports a 796% growth in AI traffic from 2024 to 2025, with higher conversion rates, suggesting AI users are more decisive buyers.
Why liquid content is harder than it looks
AI can pour any story into any format. The hard parts come after the pour.