Navigating Media Evolution: Freedom vs. Edit

Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, led one of the first major content licensing deals with OpenAI in 2024. In this conversation, he joins Azeem to unpack how AI is transforming media – and what that means for every business navigating the shifting economics of attention, trust, and discovery. 

We cover: 

(01:49) Journalism’s four horsemen 

(5:33) The collapse of search 

(9:07) Cloudflare’s counterattack 

(13:56) Is this the search-traffic fix? 

(17:42) Rise of the sovereign creator 

(22:57) Do great writers need editors? 

(26:22) Why conservatives win new media 

(27:17) How Substack drives discovery 

(31:08) East Coast vs. West Coast ethics 

(35:11) How Nick uses AI in writing 

(42:13) Is AI friend or foe to journalism? 

(45:32) The Atlantic’s survival plan 

Nick's links: 

The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasxthompson/ 

Twitter/X: https://x.com/nxthompson 

Substack: https://nxthompson.substack.com 

Azeem's links: 

Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/ 

Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar 

Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem 

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