Why Yahoo Still Matters and What It Knows About the Future of News

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Jan 16, 2026

In this engaging conversation, Kat Downs Mulder, the General Manager of Yahoo News and former Washington Post editor, discusses the evolving landscape of news in an AI-driven era. She highlights Yahoo's efforts in enhancing aggregation and personalization while maintaining trust amid fragmented consumption. Kat emphasizes the significance of diverse content formats, such as audio and video, in driving audience engagement. She also explores the integration of AI's rapid advancements, balancing innovation with journalistic integrity, and the importance of user behavior in shaping news experiences.

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INSIGHT

Aggregator As Trusted Guide

Yahoo leverages its massive reach to aggregate diverse content and help users navigate a noisy news ecosystem.
Kat Downs Mulder sees Yahoo as a guide that can synthesize information and maintain trust at scale.

ADVICE

Personalize Formats Not Just Stories

Personalize both content and format to match user preferences across text, video, and audio.
Serve modalities users want in each moment instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all experience.

ADVICE

Use Audio To Build Habits

Use audio to create habit-forming, appointment-style moments like morning briefings and personalized digests.
Make content accessible during activities when users can’t read, such as driving or cooking.

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A candid look at how aggregation, personalization, and trust shape news discovery in an AI-driven internet.

Yahoo has been part of the internet’s front door for more than two decades. But what does it mean to guide audiences through news today, when consumption is fragmented, trust is fragile, and AI is reshaping how information is found, summarized, and shared?

In this Season 4 conversation of The Media Copilot, Pete Pachal sits down with Kat Downs Mulder, GM of Yahoo News, to unpack how one of the largest digital media platforms in the world is rethinking aggregation, personalization, and user habits in the age of AI.

From audio-first experiences and AI-powered summaries to the integration of Artifact’s technology into the Yahoo News app, Mulder explains how Yahoo is balancing innovation with responsibility while supporting original journalism across a noisy, algorithm-driven ecosystem.

Why This Matters

AI is no longer just a back-end optimization tool. It is actively shaping how audiences encounter news, how trust is maintained, and how publishers survive. This episode offers a rare inside look at how a major aggregator is navigating those shifts thoughtfully, without racing ahead of the facts or sacrificing credibility.

For media leaders, journalists, creators, and product teams, this conversation surfaces real-world lessons about where AI adds value, where human judgment remains essential, and why aggregation still plays a critical role in a healthy information ecosystem.

What We Cover in This Episode 👇

• Why Yahoo still matters as a major gateway to news
• How AI is reshaping content aggregation and personalization
• Why audio is becoming a powerful habit-building news format
• What Yahoo learned from integrating Artifact into its app
• How AI summaries drive deeper engagement rather than replace it
• Balancing speed, scale, and trust in AI-driven news products
• How publishers and creators coexist inside Yahoo’s ecosystem
• Why user behavior matters more than age or demographics
• What an agent-driven web means for the future of news discovery

👤 Guest

Kat Downs Mulder
General Manager, Yahoo News : https://news.yahoo.com/

🔗 LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katdowns

🔗 X (formerly Twitter):
https://x.com/katdowns

🔗 Yahoo Press Announcement:
https://www.yahooinc.com/press/yahoo-appoints-kat-downs-mulder-as-svp-amp-general-manager-of-yahoo-news

🔗 Speaker Bio (Digital Content Next Summit):
https://events.digitalcontentnext.org/next-summit-2023/speaker/636864/kat-downs-mulder

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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