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 relationships
Learn more
Mark Howard on Time
https://time.com/author/mark-howard
The Story Behind the TIME AI Agent
https://time.com/7332572/the-story-behind-the-time-ai-agent
Mark on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdhoward
Mark on X
https://x.com/markdhoward
This post was drafted with AI and then carefully edited by Media Copilot editors.
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Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0
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