The 2026 journalism layoff wave is already worse than last year — and it’s only March
From the Washington Post to Nexstar to the New York Daily News, newsrooms are cutting at a pace that suggests a structural shift, not a cyclical correction.
AI content
What critics get wrong about Cleveland.com’s AI rewrite experiment
The Cleveland Plain Dealer isn’t “replacing reporters with AI” so much as separating reporting from writing. That still raises hard questions.
A columnist asked Gemini to write his column. The result was good, and that’s the problem
Neil Steinberg’s annual AI column experiment found Gemini 3.0 nailing his voice while casually inventing a scene that never happened.
Videogame media takes another hit as Clickout fires human staff to pivot to AI editors
The marketing firm behind several gaming sites has laid off its human writers in favor of a skeleton crew managing AI-generated content.
Cleveland editor defends AI-written stories, sparks debate about reporting vs. writing
A Cleveland newsroom's decision to have AI write story drafts while reporters focus solely on gathering information has reignited the debate over AI's role in journalism.
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McClatchy reporters’ union pushes back on AI-generated content
The company has been using AI to create listicle-style roundups of existing stories without reporter input.
Google to UK lawmakers: If it’s free on the web, it’s free for us to train
Google exec says training isn't about copying content but is instead about producing "wholly new content."
AI-generated Venezuela videos reveal a darker truth about disinformation
The problem isn't that people were fooled. It's that they didn't care.
Grok’s deepfake crisis shows why 2026 is the year of ‘breaking verification’
As Musk's AI generates fake explicit images on demand, newsrooms face a new imperative: proving what's real.
A new chapter for The Media Copilot
Announcing the next chapter of how we're covering the intersection of AI and media.