The Media Copilot

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 audien...

When chatbots summarize your reporting instead of sending audiences to your website, who really wins—and how can creators fight back? Ahmed Malik , CEO of ScalePost, joins The Media Copilot to unpack the act of AI disintermediation. It’s a term that’s thrown around a lot, but it’s just a fancy word for when an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Perplexity writes a summary based on a topic instead of direc...

Jane Barrett, Head of AI Strategy at Reuters, joins The Media Copilot to share how one of the world’s largest news agencies is actively shaping the future of AI in journalism—without crossing the line on trust. AI is rewriting the rules of content, but who’s writing the rules for AI in newsrooms? At Reuters, Jane Barrett is making sure they’re not written for them. As Head of AI Strategy, Barrett...

Jonathan Roberts of Dotdash Meredith unpacks how one of the largest digital publishers is adapting to AI and the changing nature of online audiences. The media business is no stranger to disruption—but AI is changing the rules of engagement faster than most companies can respond. At Dotdash Meredith , Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Jonathan Roberts is trying to stay not just afloat, but ahead. This...

A revealing conversation with NewsGuard’s Steven Brill on trust, truth, and the battle for clean data in the AI age.  The AI era is rewriting the rules of media — but what happens when disinformation sneaks into the algorithms shaping what we see and believe? This week on The Media Copilot , I sat down with Steven Brill , a legend in the journalism world and co-founder of NewsGuard , the company w...

By using AI, hyperlocal news platform Patch expanded from 1,100 to over 30,000 communities in a matter of months. How they did it without creating slop. This week on The Media Copilot , I sat down with Warren St. John , CEO of Patch , to explore how AI is driving this exponential growth. Patch’s AI-powered newsletters can now spin up hyperlocal updates for virtually any ZIP code in the U.S., offer...

We're slashing the price of our AI course for PR and media professionals for one day only. The results from the first cohort of AI for PR & Media Professionals are in. The six-week AI training course closed on Tuesday with two dozen students showing capstone projects that incorporated advanced AI techniques like automations and custom tooling, often pairing them with popular tools like Perplex...

When Dow Jones’ business intelligence service went down the path of AI, it was determined to avoid stepping on any copyright mines. This week on The Media Copilot , I sat down with Traci Mabrey, General Manager of Factiva, the business intelligence platform from Dow Jones. Unlike many AI companies that scrape publicly available data without permission, Factiva has secured licensing agreements with...

For decades, local journalism has been in decline—shrinking budgets, newsroom closures, and disappearing community coverage have left behind what experts call "news deserts." But could AI change that? Could it actually help rebuild local news, making it more accessible, efficient, and sustainable? This week on The Media Copilot , I sat down with Mark Riley , former Senior VP of Innovation at Dow J...

AI is rewriting the rules of media, but not all change is for the better. As AI slop floods the internet, the battle over quality, ethics, and authenticity has never been more urgent. This week on The Media Copilot , I sat down with Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired , to dissect the murky world of AI-powered content farms. Her investigative reporting on how SEO masterminds are snapping up legacy...

AI is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape, but who ensures that publishers get fairly compensated for their content? As AI companies build massive language models, they often rely on vast amounts of content—much of it scraped from publishers without proper attribution or payment. This week on The Media Copilot, I sat down with Annelies Jansen, Chief Business Officer of ProRata AI, a compan...

AI is changing the way people tell stories — both PR professionals and journalists. Is it possible both might lose the most important part: authenticity? The media and communications industry is undergoing a seismic shift, and AI is at the center of it. From content creation to media relations, artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how PR professionals, journalists, and storytellers op...

AI is transforming the newsroom, redefining how journalists gather and analyze information, and pushing the boundaries of efficiency and storytelling. This week on The Media Copilot , I’m joined by Francesco Marconi—AI pioneer, former Associated Press executive, and founder of AppliedXL, a company revolutionizing how we extract actionable insights from real-time data. Francesco’s career spans over...

AI is redefining how PR professionals and journalists collaborate, bringing new efficiencies while challenging the balance of authenticity and connection. This week on The Media Copilot, I’m joined by Michelle Songy—founder and CEO of Press Hook, serial entrepreneur, and one of the most innovative minds at the intersection of AI and media. From her start in finance in London to founding a fintech...

AI tools are becoming essential partners for writers and creators, opening new possibilities for research, storytelling, and bringing ideas to life. This week on The Media Copilot , I’m joined by Alexandra Samuel — author, data journalist, keynote speaker, and one of the most forward-thinking voices on the intersection of creativity and AI. Alexandra doesn’t just use AI as a tool; she’s embraced i...

From custom news summaries to uncovering biases, AI can do a lot more than follow trends. This week, I’m excited to talk to Robert Caulk, Founder of Emergent Methods and the creator of AskNews . Rob has spent years exploring the intersection of AI, machine learning, and media, and his latest project brings a fresh perspective on how we consume news. AskNews isn’t just another chatbot—it’s a tool d...

How Clare Spencer is leveraging AI to redefine journalism, revolutionize content creation, and address the ethical complexities of modern media. In this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal sits down with Clare Spencer, a journalist and producer whose innovative work with AI is reshaping the future of media. At the BBC, Clare was part of a pioneering team experimenting with GPT-3, exploring i...

The Race to Monetize AI's Content Appetite and Build the Bridge Between Publishers and AI This episode is sponsored by Adobe Stock . I'm excited to share this week's episode of The Media Copilot, where I had a fascinating conversation with Dan Goikhman, the innovative force behind Dappier. As we dive into the evolving landscape of AI and publishing, we tackle one of the most pressing questions fac...

Can AI Avatars Build Trust in the Newsroom? This episode is sponsored by Adobe Stock . This week on The Media Copilot , I’m thrilled to welcome Adam Mosam to the show. Adam is the founder of Channel 1, the groundbreaking news platform where AI avatars serve as anchors, delivering real news that’s entirely scripted, produced, and distributed by AI. Since Channel 1’s teaser video went mega-viral in...

 The Media Copilot is partnering with The Upgrade for a comprehensive six-week AI course tailored for PR and media professionals. Explore the course here. As you may know, in addition to hosting a podcast, I also teach media professionals — newsrooms, PR firms, and more — on how to apply AI to their work. I've taken all kinds of AI courses and constantly try out new tools, and I've distilled all t...

Business Insider's CEO on the Legal Challenges Reshaping the Media Industry This week, I’m thrilled to welcome Jakob Wais to the podcast. Jakob is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider Germany , a key player within Axel Springer’s media empire. Axel Springer was one of the first major media companies to embrace generative AI, striking a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI in late 2023, which...

This week I'm thrilled to welcome Liam Andrew to the podcast. Liam's been working with machine learning and AI for a lot longer than most of us. He worked on the product team at the Texas Tribune for more than eight years before making the jump earlier this year to the American Journalism Project , where he serves as Technology Lead for its Product & AI Studio, which obviously has a huge focus...

If you follow AI at all, you’ve probably heard of Google NotebookLM . The Gemini-powered feature got a huge popularity boost recently when it introduced the ability to create a totally synthetic podcast around any material you gave it. The idea of a “podcast this” button on any article, video, or set of PowerPoints is a powerful one, and it underscores the transformative power of AI and large lang...

When should we use AI and when shouldn't we? That's a question that comes up often when I consult with media companies and PR firms on integrating AI into their editorial teams. You have to balance a number of factors — chief among them goals, ethics, and cost. You also need to consider the long-term picture and what it looks like when AI begins to take on tasks that were previously human-driven....

This week on The Media Copilot podcast, I'm thrilled to talk to Joanna Stern , Senior Personal Technology Columnist at the Wall Street Journal. Joanna and I used to see each other quite often at various tech events when I was the Tech Editor at Mashable. She's known for her clever tech videos and deep reporting on how the titans of Silicon Valley are altering our lives in big and small ways. Latel...