How Can News Publishers Compete with AI Digests? We See Two Ways.

A programming note: We’re now releasing Product Fridays on Mondays. We know, we know, Friday is right there in the name. But Friday is the vibe, you see. And Monday turns out to be a better day to release podcasts.OpenAI’s latest product, ChatGPT Pulse, automatically compiles a personal news digest from your email, calendar, and across the web. It’s convenient, addictive — and a little terrifying if you work in media. Because in this world, the reporter still digs up the facts, but the reader never actually reads their words. The AI does the writing instead.This week on Product Fridays, we ask: What happens when the machines become the primary consumers of journalism?We draw a distinction between “bespoke” media — the creators and publications you seek out for their voices (The Atlantic, Substack, the McElroys) — and “commodity” news, where the value lies in facts, not style. The former might survive as personality-driven brands. The latter risks becoming raw material for AI.Or is there a third way? Consider a new model that lets publishers feed high-quality reporting directly to LLMs and get paid for it. Enter MCP, a universal protocol that allows language models to securely talk to other systems. Imagine paying a few dollars to add CNBC, The Economist, or the AP directly to your personalized feed.It’s a hopeful idea: reconnecting readers, machines, and journalists in a way that rewards everyone. But unless news organizations adapt fast, ChatGPT could do to media what Apple News, Google, and Facebook already did, only faster.And hey, we’ve got a request. We’re asking our readers/viewers/listeners to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. As thanks, we will write a personalized limerick for every review — and read it on the next episode. Win-win-win-win-win-win-win!Mentioned in this episode:* Introducing ChatGPT Pulse* Model Context Protocol (MCP)* The McElroy Family This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit productfridays.substack.com