The Media Copilot

 AI engines are siphoning off billions in value from publishers. Bill Gross says it’s time to flip the model: charge for crawls, share revenue on answers, and build the “conversation layer” that keeps audiences engaged.If the 2010s were about gaming Google with SEO, the 2020s are about surviving AI’s takeover of distribution. Global pageviews are down 25% in a year, roughly $100B in value shifted from websites to AI engines without compensation. Bots now outnumber human visitors by staggering ratios, and publishers are footing the bill.On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal talks with Bill Gross, founder of ProRata and creator of Gist AI, an ethical AI search platform backed by 750 publishers. Gross makes the case for a new deal: pay publishers when AI crawls their sites, share revenue when AI uses their work, and build experiences that move beyond “ten blue links” to true conversations with audiences.Why this matters now:Web traffic is plunging and is down 250 billion views a day, or about $100 billion a year in lost value. Bots now scrape far more than they give back, with Google at 12:1 and some AI engines hitting 1,200:1, leaving sites like Wikipedia footing huge server bills. Bill Gross’s solution is Gist AI, a publisher-backed search platform with 750 partners, 30 million documents, and a 50/50 revenue share model.Key Topics: 🔹 The economics of zero-click search 🔹 Why one-time licensing checks won’t sustain publishers 🔹 How “sponsored supplements” could reinvent ads in AI answers 🔹 Why publishers should stop chasing SEO tricks and focus on true value 🔹 What Gross calls the “conversation layer” and why it’s the next big battleground🎙 Guest: Bill Gross | Founder & CEO, ProRata | https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgrossidealab https://gist.ai/ https://prorata.ai/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

If the last decade was about platforms swallowing the press, the next one is about AI mediating everything…how we find news, what we trust, and who gets paid. On this episode of The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Justin Hendrix, CEO and editor of Tech Policy Press, a nonprofit dedicated to provoking debate at the intersection of technology and democracy. Hendrix’s path from The Economist to NYC Media Lab to founding a policy newsroom, shapes a rare perspective; he speaks policy, product, and press. Who sets the rules for AI and media—industry, government, or the public? Justin Hendrix argues the answer starts with competition policy and ends with better equilibria for democracy.Topics we cover🔹 Copyright and AI training: The battle between fair use and “giant theft,” why the U.S. path may be decided in court, and how commercialization complicates the ethics. 🔹 Power concentration: How antitrust and the Digital Markets Act could serve as tectonic levers to rebalance control between platforms and publishers. 🔹 Quality versus “good enough”: AI hallucinations, the shift to AI as the first stop for answers, and what’s at stake when accuracy is the product. 🔹 The “beat China” argument: Why urgency-driven narratives risk steamrolling communities, due process, and environmental review in the name of AI infrastructure. 🔹 Search, remedies, and AI distribution: What Google’s antitrust outcomes could mean for AI-driven search and publisher leverage. 🔹 Where media could go next: Licensing to AI agents, building owned agents, or a future where AI firms hire thousands of journalists themselves. 🔹 Policy capacity and trust: Why the government’s tech knowledge gap matters and how Tech Policy Press is helping close it for lawmakers and regulators. 🔹 Behavior shift: From NPR commutes to chatbot conversations, and the emerging risks of AI companionship and blurred lines between utility and dependency.Guest: Justin Hendrix — CEO/EditorTech Policy Press :https://www.techpolicy.press/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter  and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

Aurélie Guerrieri, Chief Growth Officer at DataDome, is a powerhouse in bot defense and AI traffic. She reveals how AI is reshaping bot sophistication and the urgency for publishers to adapt their defenses. Aurélie discusses the challenges of block versus allow strategies and emphasizes the importance of intent over identity in bot detection. She introduces the concept of prompt-time fetching and argues for nuanced controls to harness beneficial bot activity for revenue. Lastly, she encourages publishers to rethink their access and monetization strategies in this AI-driven landscape.

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and a veteran of Wired and The New Yorker, shares insights into the publication's AI revolution. He discusses the creation of an AI task force aimed at adapting to declining search traffic and explores bold licensing agreements, including one with OpenAI that stirred editorial concerns. Thompson emphasizes the ethical considerations of AI in journalism and the balance between maintaining subscriber trust and innovative experimentation. Their conversation reveals how personalized AI tools could redefine reader engagement with news.

Cloudflare’s move to block AI bots by default could reshape how content is protected online—raising new questions about copyright, scraping, and the future of AI training data.This week on The Media Copilot, host Pete Pachal welcomes Stephanie Cohen, Chief Strategy Officer of Cloudflare, for a conversation that couldn’t be more timely.On July 1st, Cloudflare announced a game-changing move: any new domain hosted on its massive network will automatically block AI bots from scraping content. That’s a major escalation in the growing fight over who gets to access and use data on the internet—and how.Cloudflare is far from a minor player. It routes 20% of global internet traffic, and its decision to restrict bot access by default could redraw the boundaries of the AI economy. As generative AI companies train their models on vast amounts of publicly available content—often without consent—this kind of infrastructural pushback may mark a turning point.Pete and Stephanie dive deep into: 🔹 How Cloudflare identifies and blocks AI bots in real time 🔹 Why this decision matters more than individual publishers adding "robots.txt" 🔹 What enforcement looks like when AI companies try to sneak around restrictions 🔹 The potential ripple effect across the rest of the internet 🔹 Whether we’re heading toward an AI content economy—and what that might look likeIt’s a conversation that raises urgent questions about digital rights, platform responsibility, and the blurry future of content in the AI era.Whether you're a journalist, technologist, or just someone who cares about the future of the web, this episode is essential listening.🎙 Guest: Stephanie Cohen | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieecohen Chief Strategy Officer, Cloudflare | https://www.cloudflare.com/ 📩 And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

From “news wholesaler” to AI innovator—how the Associated Press is adapting to new audience habits, synthetic content, and search-native journalism.This week on The Media Copilot podcast, host Pete Pachal sits down with Troy Thibodeaux, Director of AI Products and Services at The Associated Press. A pioneer in AI-powered journalism, Troy has been ahead of the curve—long before ChatGPT made AI a household name.With AI search platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google’s AI Overviews reshaping how people access news, media companies are being forced to rethink their entire approach. But the AP occupies a unique space in the ecosystem: it’s a news wholesaler, serving thousands of outlets rather than individual readers. So when audiences demand instant summaries, auto-generated podcasts, and AI-written rundowns, the AP’s biggest challenge isn’t competition—it’s maintaining editorial integrity across every remix.Pete and Troy unpack: 🔹 How the AP defines “liquid content” and where AI fits in 🔹 The ethical boundaries and red lines around synthetic news 🔹 Why adapting to AI isn’t just a tech problem—it’s a newsroom culture shift 🔹 How the AP’s structure gives it an edge in the AI news arms raceIf you care about the future of journalism and how legacy institutions are rewriting their rulebooks for an AI-powered era, this episode is essential listening.🎙 Guest: Troy Thibodeaux Director of AI Products & Services, The Associated Press  |https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-thibodeaux/ And if you enjoyed this conversation, I’d encourage you to follow the show on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app that you want. Also, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a rating or review — it really does help the show. And if you’re on YouTube, don’t forget to “like” the video and subscribe to the channel 🔔You can also subscribe to The Media Copilot newsletter (link in show notes) and visit mediacopilot.ai for exclusive resources, tools, and AI training courses built specifically for media professionals.This episode of The Media CoPilot was produced by Pete Pachal, Executive Producer Michele Musso, and with video/audio editing by the Musso Media team. Produced by Musso Media. © 2025 Musso Media. All rights reserved.Music: Favorite by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License © AnyWho Media 2025

Sara Beykpour, CEO of Particle and former Twitter executive, discusses revolutionizing news consumption through AI. She shares how Particle goes beyond traditional aggregators by creating comprehensive summaries that highlight key facts and source transparency. The concept of 'liquid content' is examined, transforming lengthy articles into concise formats. Beykpour also explains the importance of personalized news agents powered by AI, empowering users with more control over their media consumption while battling misinformation and bias.

Florent Daudens, Press Lead at Hugging Face and former CBC journalist, dives into the fascinating interplay of AI and journalism. He discusses overcoming skepticism about AI in newsrooms and the blurring lines between editorial and product teams. Learn how the rise of 'product-minded reporters' is changing the landscape. Florent also explores the future of AI discovery and the concept of the 'Internet of Agents,' while introducing AIEO, the next evolution of SEO tailored for AI-driven media. A must-listen for anyone curious about the future of journalism!

Toshit Panigrahi, CEO of TollBit, discusses the alarming rise of AI scraping and its implications for media publishers. With major AI companies ignoring robots.txt, the integrity of content protection is at stake. Toshit reveals eye-opening data from TollBit's State of the Bots report, which highlights the need for publishers to rethink their strategies in this new landscape. The conversation delves into ethical concerns, the changing dynamics of AI search, and how innovative solutions are essential for the future of journalism.

In this engaging discussion, Chris Andrew, CEO of Scrunch AI, shares insights into the world of AI search engine optimization. He reveals the secrets of 'AI SEO' and how content creators can adapt to the evolving landscape where AI-generated summaries are becoming commonplace. Chris emphasizes the impact of these changes on traditional content discovery and traffic, the challenges of integrating ads with AI experiences, and the need for structured content to cater to both human users and AI agents. A must-listen for anyone navigating the digital publishing world!