The Media Copilot

The Taboola CEO explains how USA Today’s DeeperDive changes news discovery, and why publishers might need “chat” after all.AI is rewriting the rules of digital media and few people have had a closer view of the shift than Adam Singolda. In this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal has a candid conversation with the Taboola founder about where the open web is headed and why the next era of audience discovery may look nothing like the search driven world we grew up in.Adam has been building Taboola since 2007 and continues to shape one of the largest advertising and recommendation platforms on the open web. He shares what publishers often miss about AI, how performance advertising is evolving, and why trusted media brands may hold more power than ever as chat based discovery becomes mainstream.Why This MattersMedia is in a moment of rapid transition. Search traffic is shifting, conversational queries are becoming a default behavior, and publishers are being pushed to rethink how they attract and retain audiences. Adam offers rare insight from inside a global platform that sits at the center of these changes. He explains how AI is reshaping revenue models, what publishers can do right now to stay competitive, and why this new interaction layer may redefine how journalism is discovered and consumed.What We Cover• Adam’s journey from founding Taboola in 2007 to running a global advertising and recommendation platform• How Taboola positions itself as the performance engine of the open web• What the company has learned about audience behavior across thousands of publishers• How AI is changing advertising performance, engagement, and publisher economics• The impact of declining search traffic and the rise of chat based discovery• The creation of Taboola’s Deeper Dive experience and how users actually interact with AI on news sites• Why publishers need to experiment with AI quickly or risk losing ground• How trust and brand identity give premium publishers an advantage in the AI era• What adoption looks like when you introduce AI directly into media workflows• The future of LLM monetization and why Adam sees a major opportunity for journalismMore…Learn about Taboola’s mission, how it started — https://www.taboola.com.     Taboola.com+1  LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamsingolda📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele MussoEdited by the Musso Media Team Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2025

In this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal talks with Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer at Time, about how a century-old newsroom is adapting to a world where readers increasingly turn to AI systems for information.Howard explains how Time approached AI not as a passing trend but as a shift in how journalism will be discovered and consumed. He walks through the decisions behind partnering with AI companies, the work required to safeguard Time’s archive, and how the Time AI Agent grew out of experiments with summaries, translations, and audio briefings.The conversation offers a clear look at the practical choices a legacy media brand faces when it tries to stay trusted in new formats without compromising the reporting that built its reputation.What we cover in this episode • How Time decided to negotiate with AI companies instead of taking an adversarial stance • The behind-the-scenes systems created to protect IP and track bot activity • The evolution from Person of the Year experiments to daily AI audio briefings to the Time AI Agent • Why the agent is grounded only in Time’s archive and what that means for accuracy and trust • How Time is approaching AI marketplaces, enterprise licensing, and the agent to agent web • What this shift means for the newsroom, editorial workflows, and audience relationshipsLearn more Mark Howard on Time https://time.com/author/mark-howardThe Story Behind the TIME AI Agent https://time.com/7332572/the-story-behind-the-time-ai-agentMark on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdhowardMark on X https://x.com/markdhoward This post was drafted with AI and then carefully edited by Media Copilot editors.📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele MussoEdited by the Musso Media Team Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2025

Michael Rubenstein on how “brand agents” are reshaping advertising, publishing, and the Internet itselfWe’ve spent decades trying to make digital advertising smarter. Cookies, pixels, and data exchanges promised personalization but delivered clutter, tracking fatigue, and declining returns. Then came AI, bringing the chance not just to improve ads, but to completely reimagine how brands and audiences interact.In this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Michael Rubenstein, Co CEO of Firsthand and one of the original architects of modern ad tech. After helping launch DoubleClick’s Ad Exchange (later acquired by Google), Rubenstein is now building something that feels like the opposite of programmatic advertising, a world where brand “agents” don’t just target you, they talk to you.Instead of static banners or pre-rolls, these AI-driven brand agents act like adaptive digital representatives that engage, inform, and even create content on the fly. They’re built to live anywhere, inside a publisher’s story, across a retailer’s site, or within a chat experience, meeting consumers wherever they are and responding in real time to what they actually want.This conversation explores how brand agents are transforming advertising into an intelligent, intent driven dialogue, and what that means for publishers, marketers, and the future of media.What We Cover: • How AI driven brand agents are changing advertising and media engagement • Why this new model removes invasive tracking and builds real consumer trust • How publishers can use adaptive experiences to grow audience value • Why AI represents not automation but communication • The cultural and ethical stakes of rebuilding advertising around AI conversationsIn Closing AI is taking down the old walls of the Internet. The question isn’t whether advertising and publishing will change, it’s whether they can adapt fast enough to stay relevant.The future, as Rubenstein says, isn’t programmatic, it’s personal.Connect with Michael Rubenstein: 🔗 Firsthand.ai 💼 LinkedIn – Michael RubensteinX (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/mrubenstein99Listen to the full episode of The Media Copilot with host Pete Pachal and guest Michael Rubenstein on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. 👉 Visit mediacopilot.ai for more on our classes, insights, and upcoming episodes.(AI-assisted)📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele MussoEdited by the Musso Media Team Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0

Inside how AI is actually being used inside media companies today— and what success looks like when it’s done right.In this episode of The Media Copilot podcast, Pete Pachal speaks with John Levitt, COO of Elvex, about how AI is actually being adopted inside newsrooms and media organizations today. Not the hype. Not the pitch deck version. The real workflows happening behind the scenes.Elvex works with major media companies to build internal AI environments that support reporting, fact-checking, content repurposing, sales operations, research, and product strategy. John has a rare view into the daily shift in how teams work, collaborate, and adapt.This conversation explores: • How editorial, business, and product teams are already using AI • Why culture and leadership framing determine whether AI succeeds • Where AI reduces repetitive work without replacing journalists • What "context engineering" means and why it matters more than prompts • How media companies can experiment with AI safely and responsibly • The next shift toward agent-to-agent workflows and personalized news experiencesIf you work in media, journalism, audience growth, newsroom operations, AI product development, or leadership strategy, this episode breaks down what is actually changing and what is coming next.GUEST: John Levitt https://www.elvex.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmlevitt/ 📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel.For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele MussoEdited by the Musso Media Team Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2025

What if AI could make us better writers instead of replacing us? The next chapter of the internet may do exactly that by using technology to strengthen creativity rather than erase it.Tony Stubblebine, CEO of Medium, joins The Media Copilot with Pete Pachal to talk about the new reality of writing in an AI world. As algorithms reshape how stories are created and shared, Stubblebine believes we are entering a writing renaissance where technology helps writers stay focused, authentic, and connected to their readers.They explore:The collapse of free-content economics and the rise of the post-Google internetWhy Medium is betting on smaller, more human writing communitiesHow AI can enhance creativity rather than erase itThe tools that will keep writers in flow and make the act of writing joyful againIf you care about creativity, technology, and the future of storytelling, this is a conversation you should not miss.📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© AnyWho Media 2025

What if AI could read your book, learn from it, summarize it, and remix it, all with your permission and a paycheck? Trip Adler is working to make that possible.Trip Adler co-founded Scribd, helped pioneer book subscriptions, and knows publishing inside and out. Now he’s back with a new mission: protect human creativity in the age of AI.In this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal talks with Trip about his latest venture, Created by Humans, a licensing platform that helps AI companies access creative works legally, starting with books. They dive into:How AI companies are scraping content without permissionWhat “AI rights” actually are and why creators need to define them nowWhy licensing for training, RAG (reference), and transformation should all be separateHow Trip’s “Fourth Law of Robotics” could reset the power dynamic between human and machineWhat the $3,000-per-book Anthropic case tells us about future settlementsAnd why this could be the next big revenue stream for authors and publishersIf you're a writer, publisher, AI builder, or just someone who wants creators to get credit and compensation in the AI era, this is the conversation to hear.What You'll LearnBooks are emerging as the front line in the battle between human creativity and artificial intelligence and understanding why is key to navigating what comes next. You'll learn how AI rights differ from traditional copyright law and why that distinction matters for anyone working in publishing, media, or technology. It also explains what AI companies can and should be paying to use creative works and how those payments change depending on whether the content is being used for training, reference, or transformation. You will come away with a clearer understanding of why these categories are not interchangeable and why defining each one is essential. Most importantly, the conversation highlights why authors deserve transparency, control, and compensation when their work helps power an AI product.GUEST:  Trip AdlerCo-Founder of Scribd Founder of Created by Humans   🔗 createdbyhumans.ai | LinkedIn 📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube?  Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© AnyWho Media 2025

As AI eats the internet, publishers are fighting to keep control. Raptive’s Chief Growth Officer, Marc McCollum, says it’s not the end of the open web, it’s a chance to rebuild it on creators’ terms.In this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Marc McCollum, Chief Growth Officer at Raptive, to talk about the future of media in the age of AI.Raptive powers over 6,000 creators and 200 enterprise publishers and Marc argues that the key to survival isn’t joining the platforms, it’s owning your audience.From the impact of AI Overviews on search traffic to the rise of Google Discover as a quiet growth engine, they break down what’s really happening behind the analytics. Marc also calls out Big Tech’s “free-content” problem, explains why licensing and pay-per-crawl models could reshape revenue, and shares why recipe sites might just be the unsung heroes of the AI era.If you care about the open web, creator independence, or where AI-powered media goes next—this conversation is essential.WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:Why AI summaries are crushing clicks—and what to do about itHow creators can stay profitable when SEO and affiliate models fall shortWhy owning your site and email list is still your best moveWhat Raptive’s data reveals about traffic winners and losers in 2025The quiet power of Google Discover and how to make it work for you GUEST:  Marc McCollum, Chief Growth Officer, Raptive 🔗 raptive.com | LinkedIn📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube? Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel 🔔For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© AnyWho Media 2025

 Local news without politics, crime, or chaos? Meet the startup making it happen.In this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Ryan Heafy, co-founder of 6AM City, about how his team is flipping the script on community journalism—using AI to scale responsibly while keeping human editorial judgment at the center.Discover how they’ve expanded from a few test cities to 410+ local markets with a “Seed-to-Profit” model, how their anti-scraping strategy builds trust from the ground up, and why they just acquired controversial AI startup Good Daily—not for the headlines, but for the infrastructure.Whether you're in media, tech, marketing, or just want smarter news in your inbox, this one's for you.WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:How 6AM City uses AI to launch, test, and scale new marketsWhy newsletters are the future of local media—and why most will failHow 6AM avoids outrage bait and click-driven newsWhat they really got from acquiring Good DailyHow to build content that survives Gmail filters, TikTok scrolls, and voice assistantsWhy their inbox model might outlast traditional journalism👥 GUEST: Ryan Heafy — Co-Founder & Chief Local Officer, 6AM City 🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 6amcity.com📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube? Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel 🔔For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© AnyWho Media 2025

Social feeds turned news into a rage machine. Cory Ondrejka says it’s time for a reset! Use AI to cut the noise, respect your time, and deliver journalism that actually matters.For years, the way we consume news has been warped by engagement algorithms that reward outrage and overwhelm. With attention hijacked and trust eroding, millions have simply tuned out. But what if AI could help fix what it broke?On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Cory Ondrejka, former Facebook and Google exec (and co-creator of Second Life), now at SmartNews, where he leads the development of NewsArc; an AI-powered app that curates the best single article on each major news event. No doomscrolling, no junk summaries, and no ragebait. Just clarity, curation, and a front page you can trust.Why this matters now:News avoidance is at record highs, and trust in media is cratering. NewsArc offers an alternative: a shared, AI-assisted “Daily Dozen” that highlights the most informative reads, respects journalistic integrity, and compensates publishers fairly. With LLMs used for claim-checking, not content theft, the app delivers a smarter, calmer news experience for readers who want to be informed, not inflamed.Key Topics:🔹 Why social feeds broke the news🔹 How NewsArc uses AI to elevate not replace journalism🔹 The problem with summaries and the power of “claim-level” analysis🔹 Why a shared front page matters in a polarized world🔹 How SmartNews compensates publishers in the LLM era🎙 Guest: Cory Ondrejka | EVP, SmartNews / Creator of NewsArc LinkedIn | smartnews.com 📩 Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.On YouTube? Tap the Like button and Subscribe to the channel 🔔For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit MediaCopilot.ai.🎧 Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso 🎬 Edited by the Musso Media Team © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.🎵 Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0© AnyWho Media 2025

 AI engines are siphoning off billions in value from publishers. Bill Gross says it’s time to flip the model: charge for crawls, share revenue on answers, and build the “conversation layer” that keeps audiences engaged.If the 2010s were about gaming Google with SEO, the 2020s are about surviving AI’s takeover of distribution. Global pageviews are down 25% in a year, roughly $100B in value shifted from websites to AI engines without compensation. Bots now outnumber human visitors by staggering ratios, and publishers are footing the bill.On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Bill Gross, founder of ProRata and creator of Gist AI, an ethical AI search platform backed by 750 publishers. Gross makes the case for a new deal: pay publishers when AI crawls their sites, share revenue when AI uses their work, and build experiences that move beyond “ten blue links” to true conversations with audiences.Why this matters now:Web traffic is plunging and is down 250 billion views a day, or about $100 billion a year in lost value. Bots now scrape far more than they give back, with Google at 12:1 and some AI engines hitting 1,200:1, leaving sites like Wikipedia footing huge server bills. Bill Gross’s solution is Gist AI, a publisher-backed search platform with 750 partners, 30 million documents, and a 50/50 revenue share model.Key Topics: 🔹 The economics of zero-click search 🔹 Why one-time licensing checks won’t sustain publishers 🔹 How “sponsored supplements” could reinvent ads in AI answers 🔹 Why publishers should stop chasing SEO tricks and focus on true value 🔹 What Gross calls the “conversation layer” and why it’s the next big battleground🎙 Guest: Bill Gross | Founder & CEO, ProRata | https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgrossidealab https://gist.ai/ https://prorata.ai/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

If the last decade was about platforms swallowing the press, the next one is about AI mediating everything…how we find news, what we trust, and who gets paid. On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Justin Hendrix, CEO and editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit dedicated to provoking debate at the intersection of technology and democracy. Hendrix’s path from The Economist to NYC Media Lab to founding a policy newsroom, shapes a rare perspective; he speaks policy, product, and press. Who sets the rules for AI and media—industry, government, or the public? Justin Hendrix argues the answer starts with competition policy and ends with better equilibria for democracy.Topics we cover🔹 Copyright and AI training: The battle between fair use and “giant theft,” why the U.S. path may be decided in court, and how commercialization complicates the ethics. 🔹 Power concentration: How antitrust and the Digital Markets Act could serve as tectonic levers to rebalance control between platforms and publishers. 🔹 Quality versus “good enough”: AI hallucinations, the shift to AI as the first stop for answers, and what’s at stake when accuracy is the product. 🔹 The “beat China” argument: Why urgency-driven narratives risk steamrolling communities, due process, and environmental review in the name of AI infrastructure. 🔹 Search, remedies, and AI distribution: What Google’s antitrust outcomes could mean for AI-driven search and publisher leverage. 🔹 Where media could go next: Licensing to AI agents, building owned agents, or a future where AI firms hire thousands of journalists themselves. 🔹 Policy capacity and trust: Why the government’s tech knowledge gap matters and how Tech Policy Press is helping close it for lawmakers and regulators. 🔹 Behavior shift: From NPR commutes to chatbot conversations, and the emerging risks of AI companionship and blurred lines between utility and dependency.Guest: Justin Hendrix — CEO/EditorTech Policy Press :https://www.techpolicy.press/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

 Publishers don’t need bigger walls—they need dials. Here’s how to see, price, and shape LLM and agent activity instead of getting steamrolled by it.If the last two years were about discovering that AI agents are vacuuming up the web, the next two will be about deciding what to do about it. Do you block, meter, license - or build your own agent and make the bots pay?On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Aurélie Guerrieri, Chief Growth Officer at DataDome, a Forrester-recognized leader in bot defense. Together, they dive into the new reality of AI-driven traffic: from LLM crawlers and real-time “prompt-time fetching” to the rising tide of agentic activity that acts on users’ behalf. Instead of framing the debate as simply good bots versus bad bots, the conversation explores a more practical lens: identity versus intent, and how publishers can reclaim control, revenue, and visibility in an internet increasingly shaped by AI distribution.Why this matters now🔹Scale & speed broke the old defenses. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs - servers that cache and deliver website content from locations closer to users) and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs - security systems that filter and monitor HTTP traffic between users and web applications) still matter, but they adapt in minutes. Attackers now act in seconds and from distributed IPs that look like everyday users.🔹AI changed the mix of traffic. DataDome sees enormous growth in prompt-time fetching - LLMs hitting your most valuable pages (latest articles, pricing, paywalled previews) 20:1 compared with traditional crawling in some cases.🔹The business model is shifting. “Open web” ≠ “open season.” Publishers need to decide who gets access, for what, and at what price - and they need tooling that can enforce those choices in real time.“AI is part of the problem—and part of the solution. We use AI to fight AI.”    -  Aurélie GuerrieriHow can publishers fight back against AI bots—and turn them into new revenue streams instead of lost traffic?Key topics:🔹Why the future of AI governance is about identity and intent, not just “good vs. bad bots” 🔹How prompt-time fetching targets publishers’ most valuable content in real time 🔹The rise of agentic activity and why it can be both powerful and dangerous 🔹Why static defenses like content delivery networks (CDNs) and web application firewalls (WAFs) are being outpaced 🔹How DataDome uses AI to fight AI, stopping more attacks and restoring visibility 🔹New monetization models: pay-per-fetch, APIs, and even building owned agents🔹Lessons from Cloudflare vs. Perplexity and what they mean for publisher control 🔹Guerrieri’s advice to media leaders: measure, control, and experimentHer bottom line: the future of publishing isn’t about keeping bots out, but about shaping how they come in—and making them pay for the privilege.🎙 Guest: Aurélie Guerrieri | CGO,  DataDome | LinkedIn 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

From “subscriber‐financed stalwart” to AI trailblazer—how The Atlantic built an AI task force, overhauled its search strategy, and struck bold licensing deals to future-proof quality journalism.This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, to unpack how one of America’s most storied publications is navigating the AI revolution. Under Nick’s leadership, The Atlantic has become a rare legacy‐media success story—profitable, subscriber-driven, and bold in its AI strategy. From launching an internal task force post-ChatGPT to pivoting away from Google-first traffic, to striking a licensing deal with OpenAI despite staff unease, The Atlantic’s journey offers a playbook in balancing journalistic integrity, business sustainability, and technological innovation. Nick brings both enthusiasm for AI’s potential and a clear-eyed realism about its impact on news discovery and trust.Pete and Nick dive into: 🔹 The AI Task Force’s findings on search traffic decline and what it meant for The Atlantic’s business model 🔹 Behind the scenes of The Atlantic’s licensing agreement with OpenAI—and why it ruffled editorial feathers 🔹 How “agents” and personalized AI tools will reshape how readers find and engage with journalism 🔹 The Atlantic’s ethics playbook for AI: rules, guardrails, and editorial oversight 🔹 Striking the balance between subscriber trust, profitability, and fearless experimentationWhether you’re a media professional, tech enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of news, this episode offers rare insight into how a leading publication is plotting its course through one of the most tumultuous eras in media history.🎙 Guest: Nicholas Thompson | CEO, The Atlantic | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasthompson📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

Cloudflare’s move to block AI bots by default could reshape how content is protected online—raising new questions about copyright, scraping, and the future of AI training data.This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer of Cloudflare, for a conversation that couldn’t be more timely.On July 1st, Cloudflare announced a game-changing move: any new domain hosted on its massive network will automatically block AI bots from scraping content. That’s a major escalation in the growing fight over who gets to access and use data on the internet—and how.Cloudflare is far from a minor player. It routes 20% of global internet traffic, and its decision to restrict bot access by default could redraw the boundaries of the AI economy. As generative AI companies train their models on vast amounts of publicly available content—often without consent—this kind of infrastructural pushback may mark a turning point.Pete and Stephanie dive deep into: 🔹 How Cloudflare identifies and blocks AI bots in real time 🔹 Why this decision matters more than individual publishers adding "robots.txt" 🔹 What enforcement looks like when AI companies try to sneak around restrictions 🔹 The potential ripple effect across the rest of the internet 🔹 Whether we’re heading toward an AI content economy—and what that might look likeIt’s a conversation that raises urgent questions about digital rights, platform responsibility, and the blurry future of content in the AI era.Whether you're a journalist, technologist, or just someone who cares about the future of the web, this episode is essential listening.🎙 Guest: Stephanie Cohen | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieecohen Chief Strategy Officer, Cloudflare | https://www.cloudflare.com/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

From “news wholesaler” to AI innovator—how the Associated Press is adapting to new audience habits, synthetic content, and search-native journalism.This week on The Media Copilot podcast, host Pete Pachal sits down with Troy Thibodeaux, Director of AI Products and Services at The Associated Press. A pioneer in AI-powered journalism, Troy has been ahead of the curve—long before ChatGPT made AI a household name.With AI search platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google’s AI Overviews reshaping how people access news, media companies are being forced to rethink their entire approach. But the AP occupies a unique space in the ecosystem: it’s a news wholesaler, serving thousands of outlets rather than individual readers. So when audiences demand instant summaries, auto-generated podcasts, and AI-written rundowns, the AP’s biggest challenge isn’t competition—it’s maintaining editorial integrity across every remix.Pete and Troy unpack: 🔹 How the AP defines “liquid content” and where AI fits in 🔹 The ethical boundaries and red lines around synthetic news 🔹 Why adapting to AI isn’t just a tech problem—it’s a newsroom culture shift 🔹 How the AP’s structure gives it an edge in the AI news arms raceIf you care about the future of journalism and how legacy institutions are rewriting their rulebooks for an AI-powered era, this episode is essential listening.🎙 Guest: Troy Thibodeaux Director of AI Products & Services, The Associated Press  |https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-thibodeaux/ And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

Inside Particle’s mission to fix the way we consume headlines—with AI summaries, source transparency, and more.This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Sara Beykpour, CEO of Particle, an AI-powered news app that’s rethinking what it means to aggregate information in 2025.Unlike traditional aggregators that simply pile stories into a feed, Particle uses artificial intelligence to assemble a comprehensive summary of any given topic—highlighting key facts, surfacing original sources like tweets or trailers, and analyzing bias across coverage. It’s curation with context, and it’s changing how people interact with the news.Pete and Sara dig into:🔹 What makes Particle different in a long line of aggregator apps 🔹 How “liquid content” turns a 30-minute article into an 8-minute podcast 🔹 The concept of personalized news agents powered by AI 🔹 Why AI is giving users more control than ever over how they consume mediaWhether you’re in the trenches of journalism, building tools for content creators, or just trying to stay informed in a smarter way, this episode is packed with insight.🎙 Guest: Sara Beykpour CEO of Particle | Follow on LinkedInAnd if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

Hugging Face’s media liaison talks trust, tech, and why the next great newsroom might look more like a dev team.This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Florent Daudens, longtime Canadian journalist and now Press Lead at Hugging Face, the open-source powerhouse behind many of the AI models driving today’s innovation.Florent’s unique position—right at the intersection of the developer world and the newsroom—makes him one of the most insightful voices on how AI is reshaping journalism from the inside out. Before joining Hugging Face, Florent led teams at the CBC, and now he's helping build real tools that actually work for journalists.Pete and Florent dig into: 🔹 How to overcome journalists' lingering skepticism about AI 🔹 Why the line between editorial and product teams is disappearing 🔹 The rise of the “product-minded reporter” 🔹 The future of AI discovery—and what the “Internet of Agents” might look like 🔹 And yes, they talk AIEO—the next evolution of SEO for an AI-driven media landscapeWhether you're experimenting with AI tools in your newsroom, navigating editorial strategy in a shifting ecosystem, or just trying to understand what’s next, this conversation is a must-listen.🎙 Guest: Florent Daudens :https://fdaudens.com/en/index.html Press Lead, Hugging Face Follow him on LinkedIn  : https://ca.linkedin.com/in/fdaudens And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

There's something in TollBit's latest State of the Bots report that really jumped out at me. The major AI companies—notably Meta, OpenAI, and Google—have essentially given themselves permission to ignore robots.txt for their user agents. In the big picture of AI scraping it might seem like a detail, but it feels to me like a turning point from liberally interpreting the mechanisms for protecting content to brazenly flouting them.I put this question directly to TollBit CEO Toshit Panigrahi when he joined me on this week’s Media Copilot podcast. A little background on TollBit: It’s a startup that specializes in helping publishers monetize their content when AI bots come calling. As everyone knows, the AI internet is rising fast—people are using chatbots to search the web, and those chatbots are giving them answers, not links. And if there was any doubt that this was a fad or not very impactful, Tollbit's most recent State of the Bots report for the first quarter 2025 puts that notion to rest. AI scraping is way up, and it's very quickly becoming comparable to scraping from search engines like Google or Bing.That's one of several eye-opening, and in some cases worrisome, data points in the report, and Toshit and I dive deep into the most important ones. Like I mentioned, AI companies are now starting to openly ignore long-standing internet standards, effectively letting them crawl any "publicly available" content with impunity. What happens if this trend is left unchecked, and what can publishers do about it? We get into all the details, and their implications.If you're stressed about what agents are going to mean for the media ecosystem, you definitely don't want to miss this one.This episode covers:Why AI bots are ignoring robots.txt and what it means for publishers right nowHow the rise of agent-based scraping is quietly reshaping the open webThe surprising data behind how much AI scrapers take vs. how little they give backWhat a “new value exchange” with AI looks like and how publishers might get paidWhere all this is headed if nothing changes — and what needs to happen next🎙 Guest: Toshit PanigrahiCEO of TollBitFollow him on LinkedInAnd if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License© AnyWho Media 2025

What does it take to get AI to notice your content? Scrunch AI’s Chris Andrew shares the secret sauce.On this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal welcomes Chris Andrew, CEO of Scrunch AI, to unravel the mysteries of AI-driven search. As AI platforms increasingly summarize news without driving traffic back to publishers, the game of visibility is changing. Chris explains how Scrunch AI is helping content creators understand and optimize for "AI SEO," a new frontier that goes beyond traditional search algorithms.Pete and Chris dive deep into the emerging concept of "SEO for Chatbots"—why AI-generated summaries are redefining content discovery, and how publishers can adapt to avoid getting buried in the noise. They also explore the uncomfortable truth: AI summaries are designed to be self-contained, reducing the need for users to click through to the original source.If you’re a media executive, content strategist, or just curious about the shifting landscape of digital publishing, this conversation is packed with practical insights and bold predictions.This episode covers:🔹 AI SEO: What it is and why it's the next content battleground🔹 The Clickless Future: How AI summaries are shifting audience behavior🔹 Publisher Panic: Why media outlets are scrambling to adapt🔹 AI’s Surface Area Problem: Fewer sources, fewer clicks, and what that means🔹 Scrunch AI’s Strategy: How Chris Andrew’s platform is re-engineering content for AI   visibility🔹 New Rules of Engagement: What publishers need to know to stay relevant🎙 Guest: Chris Andrew -CEO of Scrunch AI       Follow him on LinkedInAnd if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

AI risk and the tenacity required.In this special episode of The Media Copilot podcast, we're diving into the seismic shifts AI is causing in digital publishing. I recently hosted a webinar on AI Risk and Resilience for Publishers, where we unpacked how AI search engines are disrupting traditional traffic flows and what that means for content creators. The implications are significant: if audiences no longer need to visit publisher platforms to get information, how do publishers maintain visibility and revenue?To explore this challenge, I sat down with David Buttle, founder of DJB Strategies and former Director of Platform Strategy at the Financial Times. David has been at the forefront of analyzing how AI impacts media consumption, and he's developed a methodology to assess risk levels for publishers in an AI-driven world.Joining us is Will Barker of BluConnick, a company focused on enhancing audience engagement through first-party data. Together, we discussed how publishers can create AI-resilient content strategies and maintain their audience relationships in the age of AI-generated summaries.Key Topics Covered:The rise of AI-driven search and its impact on publisher trafficHow to identify content most at risk for AI substitutionStrategic approaches to maintain audience loyalty and engagementLeveraging first-party data to optimize reader experienceListen in as we uncover the roadmap for resilient content in an AI-first world. Whether you're a publisher, content strategist, or media executive, this episode will equip you with the insights needed to navigate this technological shift.And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔🎙️ Guests:David Buttle Founder of DJB StrategiesFormer Director of Platform Strategy at Financial TimesLinkedIn ProfileDJB Strategies WebsiteWill BarkerManager for Customer Success at BluConnickLinkedIn ProfileBluConnick WebsiteYou can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025