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AI slop will not save legacy newspapers
Earlier this month, McClatchy laid off more than 90 journalists across its newspapers. In the aftermath, former staffers pointed to the company’s prioritization of clickbait blog posts over local reporting as a major source of its problems. Now Straight Arrow News reports that as much as 20% of McClatchy’s content is AI-generated, much of it focused on “obscure health trends” and other non-local topics.
I’m pretty open-minded about how journalists can use AI to improve and speed up the reporting process, but this is another example of a legacy newspaper chain pursuing a failed audience-scale strategy. Instead of investing in differentiated local reporting, it’s flooding the internet with commodity content designed to generate clicks. That weakens the brand while making the business even more dependent on programmatic advertising, which continues to decline in value.
Executives at these chains still seem convinced that if they can publish enough content, they can eventually outrun the brutal internet economics that have gutted the newspaper industry over the past 18 years. That theory was largely disproven nearly a decade ago. Somehow, they still haven’t learned the lesson. As one observer told Straight Arrow News, “It feels like [McClatchy’s embrace of AI slop] is a harvesting of the remaining authority, to squeeze out a few years worth of traffic. They’re harvesting the goodwill that has been built up over years in return for short-term eyeballs.”
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Social video companies are starting to operate like TV networks
Creator Spotlight interviewed the editor in chief of NowThis, which got its start as a social-first newsroom and has since expanded into a full slate of shows distributed across vertical video platforms.
What struck me while reading the interview is how much social video companies like NowThis have begun to operate like traditional TV networks. They’re developing repeatable show formats that can run indefinitely.
For NowThis’s newest show, “a comedian performs at a standing desk in the middle of a NowThis office, and the employees sitting and working around them try not to laugh.” The format stays the same from episode to episode, but there’s nearly endless room for variation because every comedian brings a completely different set. [Creator Spotlight]
I found this part about how NowThis tests out new show concepts to be particularly interesting:
We consider “a pilot” as the first eight episodes. Within that window, we’re making all kinds of tweaks and adjustments to get it right. Usually within those eight we can see what the audience is responding to, and we either greenlight it to continue or pivot to something that’s hitting a little better.
We believe in our failures. We want to fail fast and fail big. Last year we did twenty shows, and the hits were bangers. This year we’re doing even more.
Is a fan backlash finally brewing against the NFL?
From Sports Media Watch:
Week 1 of the NFL season averaged 19.5 million viewers, down 13% from last year (22.3M), down 7% from 2024 (21.0M) and the least-watched opening week of the season since 2023 (18.7M). This year marks the first time since the COVID-altered season of 2020, when games faced unprecedented competition from the NBA and NHL playoffs, that viewership has declined in Week 1 of an NFL season.
Are we starting to see the early signs of a fan backlash against the NFL? For years, viewers have complained that game broadcast rights are being spread across more and more services, each of which seems to keep raising its prices. The assumption has been that the NFL’s grip on its audience is so strong that it can keep slicing its rights into ever more packages without much consequence.
But with Americans facing one of the worst affordability crunches in decades, this could be the year that assumption is finally tested.
Quick hits
The Cut profiled Quen Blackwell, a former Vine star who really blew up when she launched a celebrity cooking show on YouTube a few years back. Now she’s being courted by luxury brands and recently landed her first co-starring role in an HBO show. [The Cut]
Will The New York Times lose its top journalism talent?
The New York Times has become one of the few legacy media companies to successfully reinvent itself for the digital era, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to disruption. One of its emerging problems is that some of the journalists it helps turn into stars can eventually make far more money by leaving and building independent businesses. The latest example is the team behind its tech podcast Hard Fork, whose hosts reportedly attracted multimillion-dollar offers to strike out on their own. So does the Times need to rethink how it compensates its biggest personalities? And as more journalists build audiences that can travel with them, how much power does the institution still hold over the talent?
To talk through those questions, I brought back Jason Krebs, a media veteran who has held senior roles at Disney, The New York Times, and Google. We discussed why legacy publishers still tend to treat journalists like salaried employees rather than talent — and whether they need to start offering revenue sharing, bigger incentives, or other compensation structures to keep their biggest stars from walking out the door.
We also explored why national newspaper chains like McClatchy continue to struggle with local news, whether private equity hollowed out those businesses without investing enough in new models, and why locally focused publishers may be better positioned to survive. Then we debated the escalating cost of sports rights, why Amazon can justify spending so aggressively, and whether traditional media companies have allowed leagues like the NFL to gain too much leverage over their businesses.
You can check out the discussion on YouTube or subscribe to The Business of Content wherever you get your podcasts. [Apple] [Spotify]
ICYMI: Why a marketing consultant bought the largest real estate trade magazine in Canada
Andrew Fogliato never set out to be a marketing consultant. He was simply trying to succeed as a real estate agent and began creating local online content to promote his listings. His colleagues at RE/MAX quickly noticed that his marketing savvy gave him an edge, and soon he was training other agents across Canada. Eventually, he left RE/MAX to launch his own marketing agency, where he built a strong business helping agents run Facebook ads.
In 2022, Andrew saw an even bigger opportunity. He purchased Real Estate Magazine, Canada’s largest industry trade publication, and immediately began expanding its online presence. In a recent interview, he discussed why he bought the magazine, his approach to monetization, and why he isn’t in a hurry to expand into the U.S. market.