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The Media Copilot: Daily Summaries Delivered
by The Media Copilot
Hosted by journalist Pete Pachal, The Media Copilot is a weekly conversation with smart people on how AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.
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- 3 weeks ago51 min
How People Inc. Turned Bot Blocking Into a Business, With Jonathan Roberts
Blocking the bots is step one. People Inc.'s Jonathan Roberts on what comes next: the companies reselling publisher content, who sets the price, and why AI is spending its money in the wrong place.Pete Pachal talks with Jonathan Roberts, chief innovation officer at People Inc. (People, InStyle, Investopedia), about blocking every bot by default and allowing 38 through, the disguises blocked bots wear, why robots.txt is a chocolate teapot, the "picks and shovels" companies taking content for free and selling it for money, the 18 Napsters of content with no Spotify, serving AI companies Markdown instead of HTML, who gets to set the price, per crawl versus per use, why models without reference are fiction writers, why inputs now matter more than the model, TIME and Mobian's ads for bots, and why automating the chore should never mean automating the choice.Chapters0:00 Why the demand for information moved upstream2:30 Jonathan Roberts, welcome back to the Media Copilot2:36 Can smaller publishers really block bots?4:29 Yes, and the future is hungrier for content than ever6:47 Why robots.txt is a chocolate teapot8:17 The CDNs are the new front line9:48 Block everything, allow 3810:30 Blocked bots put on disguises12:11 Botnets, hijacked smart TVs and the FBI13:38 What a smaller publisher can do today17:02 Chips, power and information19:21 18 Napsters and no Spotify22:14 A better product for bots than HTML25:45 Who gets to set the price?28:40 Per use or per crawl?32:05 Information is a supply chain, not a mine34:54 Training, inference and fiction writers39:41 TIME, Mobian and ads for bots42:49 Automate the chore, not the choice43:24 Search is humble, chatbots are arrogant47:03 People Inc.'s LLM visibility program48:12 Two futures for publishers50:39 OutroGuestJonathan Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer, People Inc.People Inc.MentionedPublishers are fighting the wrong battle against AI (Pete's column)Publishers finally have AI buyers but no say in the priceWhat TIME learned from a month of selling ads to bots, with Mark HowardJonathan's first episode, April 2025Watch on YouTube | Full post and transcript | Subscribe on SubstackProduced by The Media Copilot.Music: "Favorite" by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0
- Oct 1, 202644 min
What Publishers Should Get From AI Besides Money, With Bombora's Jaime Schultheis
When AI answers the question, publishers lose more than the click. Bombora's Jaime Schultheis on why AI referrals convert, why Google is a shaky foundation, and what AI companies should give publishers besides a check.Pete Pachal talks with Jaime Schultheis, head of global data partnerships at Bombora, about what Bombora's publisher data shows (steeper referral declines, more bots, niche B2B titles holding up), why AI referral traffic is small but converts far better than search, Google's new option to opt out of AI features, events and communities as "AI proof" experiences, measuring the halo effect for sponsors, sorting good bots from bad, TIME and Mobian's ads-for-bots model and Perplexity's pushback, and why she's optimistic that publishers will come out of this with more leverage.Chapters0:00 What a website visit is really worth1:59 Jaime Schultheis, welcome to the Media Copilot2:04 From newspapers to Bombora3:39 "I probably was not worried enough"4:53 What Bombora's publisher data is showing6:17 Why specialty publishers are holding up9:42 What's the reward for GEO?12:10 Charging more for AI referral traffic14:11 Don't build your business on Google15:25 Google's new AI opt-out16:59 Events, communities and "AI proof" experiences20:37 The first step for a small publisher23:13 Measuring the halo effect for sponsors26:09 Getting into events without the pitfalls28:58 Good bots, bad bots32:35 What a fair AI deal should give back37:05 TIME, Mobian and Perplexity's pushback41:34 What worries her, and why she's optimistic43:52 OutroGuestJaime Schultheis, Head of Global Data Partnerships, BomboraLinkedIn | BomboraMentionedThe Atlantic's AI Gamble with Nicholas ThompsonWhat TIME learned selling ads to bots, with Mark HowardWatch on YouTube | Full post and transcript | Subscribe on SubstackProduced by The Media Copilot.Music: "Favorite" by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0
- Sep 24, 202643 min
What 99 AI Licensing Deals Reveal About the Future of Publishing, With Rob Kelly
Rob Kelly tracks 99 AI licensing deals. What publishers are really selling now, and why OpenAI may settle with the Times.Kelly, the creator and host of Media & the Machine, keeps a spreadsheet of 99 AI content licensing deals, from The New York Times' little-discussed $100 million Google arrangement to Yelp's new deal with OpenAI. He ran the content licensing business at CMP Media, so he knows how profitable a licensing feed can be. Pete Pachal and Kelly cover the two early playbooks (the Times sues OpenAI, News Corp signs with it), why training is fading from the deals as inference and retrieval catch up, what Kelly calls licensing content to commerce, the squeeze on mid-tier publishers, and his prediction that OpenAI settles with the Times before its IPO.In this episodeKelly's path from Wall Street and tech journalism to running content licensing at CMP MediaThe two early playbooks: the Times sues OpenAI, News Corp signs a $250 million dealThe Times' little-discussed $100 million licensing deal with GoogleWhy licensing revenue is close to pure profit for publishersHow deals have shifted from training toward inference and RAG, and why the models haven't run out of training dataWhether AI companies pay mainly to avoid lawsuitsLicensing content to commerce: Yelp's request-a-quote button and a subscribe button inside the answerGoogle Zero and taking a beginner's mind to AI trafficHow the AI answer is being renegotiated, from ads for bots to brand linksThe mid-tier squeeze, ProRata, and the RSL collective licensing protocolWhether Google or Apple could import the YouTube revenue-share modelThe backlash against AI among younger people, and an 8.7x productivity gain measured in a spreadsheetTwo futures for media, and why Kelly expects OpenAI to settle with the Times before its IPOGuest: Rob Kelly, Creator and Host, Media & the Machine: LinkedIn | Media & the MachineWatch the video version: YouTubeFull post and transcript: mediacopilot.aiAbout the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what's new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You'll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI.Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube? Like and subscribe: youtube.com/@themediacopilotProduced by The Media Copilot.Music: "Favorite" by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2026
- Sep 17, 202637 min
Can Publishers Sell Ads to Bots? Oasy's Choy Travers Is Betting On It
Bot traffic has already passed human traffic on the web. Oasy co-founder Choy Travers thinks publishers should stop blocking the bots and start selling them ads.Pete Pachal talks with Choy Travers, co-founder of Amsterdam-based Oasy, about a new kind of advertising: sponsored content served to AI crawlers on a publisher's site, on the bet that the AI will use it when answering a user's question. They cover why blocking bots backfires, how Oasy's free-for-publishers, CPM-for-advertisers model works, disclosure that has to survive a crawl and a summary, Perplexity's cloaking objection, why licensing deals leave most publishers behind, and the billboard problem in AI attribution. This is part two of a two-part look at ads for bots; part one is Mark Howard, COO of TIME.Disclosure: Pete has been running Oasy on mediacopilot.ai for several months.In this episodeWhy blocking AI crawlers means removing yourself from the fastest-growing search channelHow Oasy's model works: free for publishers, CPM for advertisers, one placement per pageWhat an advertiser is actually buying when there's no guaranteed placementDisclosure that has to survive a crawl, a chunk, and a summaryPerplexity's cloaking objection, and what it gets right and wrongWhy licensing deals will pay the top players and leave the rest scrapedWho is responsible when an AI platform strips the labelPay-per-crawl versus pay-per-use, and the billboard problem in attributionThe utopian and dystopian versions of the ads-for-bots futureGuest: Choy Travers, Co-Founder, Oasy: LinkedIn | oasy.aiWatch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU43Zhz3esAFull post and transcript: mediacopilot.aiAbout the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what's new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You'll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI.Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube? Like and subscribe: youtube.com/@themediacopilotProduced by The Media Copilot.Music: "Favorite" by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2026
- Sep 10, 202652 min
What TIME Learned From a Month of Selling Ads to Bots, With COO Mark Howard
Bot traffic passed human traffic on the web this year. TIME decided to sell the bots ads. One month in, COO Mark Howard explains what advertisers are buying, why the AI seems to remember what it scrapes, and what Perplexity got wrong.Pete Pachal talks with Mark Howard, chief operating officer of TIME, about agent ads: brand-verified facts, labeled as sponsored, placed on the machine-readable versions of TIME pages for the AI crawlers it allows in. They cover the infrastructure TIME built first (TollBit, ScalePost, a 70-agent allow list), the Mobian brand-gap method behind each campaign, the two measurement studies, the referrals-versus-citations puzzle, what an advertiser actually buys, whether the models can read the disclosure, the Perplexity dispute, what counts as a legitimate crawler, and why pay-per-crawl is both Howard's biggest worry and biggest hope. This is part one of a two-part look at ads for bots; part two is Oasy co-founder Choy Travers.In this episodeWhy TIME chose to learn by doing instead of waiting for the market to settleThe infrastructure underneath agent ads: TollBit, ScalePost, and a 70-agent allow listThe markdown page built for machines, and what an agent ad actually isWhich bots show up, and what they're there forThe TIME100 Creators moment that made the case for the productMobian's method: visibility, favorability, and accuracy across the major modelsWhy TIME believes the agents remember what they scrapeOne month of data: causal lift and model impact over timeWhat the advertiser is buying when there's no guaranteed placementWhether the models can read the sponsored label, and what they do with itThe Perplexity dispute, and what OpenAI thinksWhat counts as a legitimate crawlerPay-per-crawl as both the biggest worry and the biggest hopeGuest: Mark Howard, Chief Operating Officer, TIME: LinkedIn | time.comWatch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjz-GEaibbIFull post and transcript: mediacopilot.aiAbout the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what's new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You'll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI.Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. On YouTube? Like and subscribe: youtube.com/@themediacopilotProduced by The Media Copilot.Music: "Favorite" by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2026
- Aug 27, 202637 min
Who Owns Your Expertise in the Age of AI? Onix Wants to Give It Back to You
On this episode of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal sits down with Onix co-founders David Bennahum and Nicholas Nadeau to explore a very different model for AI: one where experts own specialized AI systems built around their knowledge, voice, judgment and point of view.They discuss why smaller, domain-specific models may sometimes outperform general-purpose AI, how Onix incorporates knowledge that has never appeared online, and why authorship, privacy and data sovereignty could become increasingly important as AI evolves.The conversation also tackles the business side of expert-owned AI: Can creators turn their expertise into an AI product? Can journalists do it? What happens when an AI becomes an authorized extension of a person’s knowledge? And can experts actually participate economically in the value AI creates?Plus, Pete challenges the Onix founders on hallucinations, model accuracy, scalability and what happens when expert-owned AI moves beyond health and wellness.Key topics include: AI and intellectual property Expert-owned AI Small language models vs. frontier models Data privacy and sovereignty AI hallucinations Creator monetization The future of journalism and knowledge work The emerging “author economy”Try Onix: Onix.life | Media Copilot early-access code: COPILOT🔗 About the 👤 GuestsDavid S. Bennahum | Co-Founder & CEO, Onix. | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbennahum Nicholas Nadeau, Ph.D., P.Eng. | Co-Founder & CTO, Onix.| https://ca.linkedin.com/in/engnadeau _____About the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what’s new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You’ll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI. It’s the home base for everything Media Copilot and it’s just getting started.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 YouTube 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 4.0All rights reserved. © AnyWho Media 2026
- Aug 13, 202645 min
The future of AI content licensing, featuring Michael Ellis
As AI reshapes the internet, the future of journalism may depend on how publishers license, distribute, and protect their content.On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Michael Ellis, President of Newstex, to explore one of the most important and least understood battlegrounds in artificial intelligence: content licensing.As AI companies race to build smarter models and answer engines, publishers are grappling with a fundamental question: How should their work be used, and how should they be compensated?For more than two decades, Newstex has helped publishers distribute licensed content to research platforms, financial information services, and now AI-powered products. Ellis explains why licensing is no longer simply about granting access to content. Instead, it's about defining purpose, preserving context, and ensuring publishers retain both value and visibility in an AI-driven ecosystem.The conversation explores why high-quality, licensed content is becoming increasingly valuable as AI systems struggle with misinformation and low-quality "AI slop." Ellis discusses the growing importance of attribution, provenance, machine-readable metadata, and usage-based compensation models that reward publishers based on how their content is actually used.Pete and Michael also examine how smaller and independent publishers can compete in a marketplace increasingly dominated by large technology companies, why collective licensing models may offer a path forward, and how platforms like ProRata and AskNews are building new approaches to attribution and publisher compensation.Finally, Ellis shares both his optimism and his concerns for the future of journalism in the AI era, explaining why the industry must move quickly to build sustainable business models before the economics of publishing are permanently reshaped.Why This MattersThe battle over AI and journalism isn't just about copyright. It's about who gets rewarded for creating trusted information. As AI becomes the primary interface for discovering knowledge, publishers face a defining moment. This conversation explores how licensing, attribution, and new business models could determine whether quality journalism thrives or struggles in the age of generative AI.Key TopicsWhy AI content licensing is about purpose, not simply permissionHow Newstex connects publishers with AI platforms and research servicesWhy provenance and context matter as much as content itselfThe economics of usage-based compensation for publishersHow smaller publishers can compete in an AI-first information economyThe role of metadata, attribution, and machine-readable contentAI-generated content versus trusted editorial contentThe future of paywalls and premium journalismHow companies like ProRata and AskNews are changing content licensingWhat publishers must do now to prepare for an AI-mediated future🔗 About the 👤 GuestMichael Ellis - President, Newstex🌐 Author Page: https://www.newstex.com/author/michael-ellis 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/msellis/ About the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what’s new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You’ll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI. It’s the home base for everything Media Copilot and it’s just getting started.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 YouTube channel. For more AI tools and resources built for media professionals, visit m
- Aug 8, 202640 min
AI won't replace Creators. It will replace the work they hate.
What if the future of AI in media isn't replacing storytellers, but giving them better tools to tell better stories?This episode is sponsored by Descript.com In this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal sits down with Laura Burkhauser, CEO of Descript, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping media production without sacrificing creativity, editorial judgment, or human storytelling.Laura explains why Descript's vision has never been about replacing editors, but about eliminating the repetitive, time consuming tasks that slow production. From text based video editing and AI assisted collaboration to intelligent clipping and personalized workflows, she shares how AI is becoming a creative partner rather than an automated replacement.The conversation also examines why memory, personalization, and collaboration may become AI's greatest strengths, how media organizations are adapting to an increasingly creator driven landscape, and why the next generation of production tools will focus less on software features and more on helping teams create great content.Finally, Laura offers a refreshing perspective on the future of AI, arguing that the industry has spent too much time selling fear instead of showing creators how these tools can unlock more original storytelling, more creative freedom, and entirely new ways of producing media.The conversation explores:Why AI should replace repetitive labor, not human creativityHow Descript evolved from a text based editor into an AI powered production platformWhy collaboration remains the most valuable feature in modern media workflowsHow AI memory is creating more personalized creative assistantsWhy editorial judgment, taste, and storytelling still belong to humansHow newsrooms and media companies are producing more content with smaller teamsWhy the future of media production is conversational, collaborative, and AI assistedHow creators can use AI to spend less time on tools and more time telling better storiesWhy this mattersArtificial intelligence is transforming every stage of media production, but the biggest opportunity isn't replacing creative professionals. It's removing the friction that keeps them from creating. As newsrooms, marketing teams, and independent creators face growing pressure to produce more content across more platforms, AI has the potential to become an intelligent collaborator that accelerates production while preserving human judgment, creativity, and authenticity. This conversation offers valuable insight for journalists, marketers, content creators, media executives, and anyone navigating the future of AI powered storytelling.🔗 About the 👤 GuestLaura Burkhauser is the CEO of Descript, the AI powered audio and video editing platform used by creators, media organizations, podcasters, and enterprise teams around the world. Under her leadership, Descript continues to pioneer AI assisted media production, helping storytellers simplify complex workflows while keeping human creativity at the center of the creative process.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burkhauser/ Descript: https://www.descript.comThis episode is brought to you by Descript.Descript makes editing podcasts and video as easy as editing a document. Record, transcribe, clean up audio, remove filler words, create clips, and more with powerful AI tools built right into your workflow.Spend less time editing and more time creating with Descript.Visit Descript to learn more.—About the show: To explore more conversations like this and see what’s new, visit the Media Copilot website at mediacopilot.ai. You’ll find new episodes, expanded resources, and tools designed for journalists, communicators, and media leaders navigating the fast-changing world of AI. It’s the home base for everything Media Copilot and it’s just getting started.Enjoyed this episode?Subscribe to The Media Copilot on Substack, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-media-co
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