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I I'm proud of my association with Talking Biz News as its former editor and publisher. We did loads of aggregation, used a few freelancers, got our editing hands dirty as scribes, and tapped overseas assistants to write some stories--but write them we did, without  AI. 

Now comes word from TBN founder Chris Roush that Business Insider will begin publishing AI-authored stories. He links to this BI page so you can check it out for yourself, straight from the artificially intelligent horse's mouth: "The Business Insider AI byline uses generative AI tools to draft news stories so we can bring readers more information, more quickly."

Had this been two years ago, it would’ve raised hackles. As it stands, this serves as the latest signpost pointing to journalism’s future. 

Which, in fact, may prove to be good news. 

As a cub at the Philadelphia Inquirer, I dreaded writing briefs for the neighborhood news sections.  I recapped sewer and school board meetings. (Imagine getting the two confused). I proofed summer camp listings and collected police blotter reports. In Pitman, N.J. I saw the complaint “barking dog” so many times that more than three decades later, I can still see the squiggly print signature of the reporting officer: James Visalli.

If this was meant to build character and sharpen skills, the effects wore off after a month. And if we take our cues from the legal profession, we’ll instantly grasp the advantages of letting AI tackle the grunt work we as stringers did back in the day. 

When JPMorgan Chase trained natural language processing and machine learning to manage a paperwork nightmare, the resulting tech cranked out 360,000 hours of legal review in seconds. Did I mention this effort began in 2016?  

The bottom line is this: Many waves of automation have come and gone and will come again. (Wait until 2030 when quantum computing is forecast to hit big.) Every time, workers have retrained and upskilled. Yes, some will get left behind. But as the bank's CIO said at the time: “People always talk about this stuff as displacement. I talk about it as freeing people to work on higher-value things."

I think about how my career would’ve changed if a bot had handled the Barking Dog Roundup while I trained to take on investigative work or sharpen my writing. While I wouldn’t take nothin’ for my journey now, I also wouldn’t take nothin’ for another sewer board meeting. The only saving grace was the $55 pay per meeting: My co-worker Scott called it “trash for cash.”

If BI is determined to relegate such work to AI, more power to them. Let’s just hope that somewhere along the line, a human will exercise sound professional judgment to spot any crap the computer spits out. Did the machine start with junk info? It can’t tell.

Only a human can—and hopefully, a human freed from dull drudgery disguised as a sacred rite of passage. Now there’s a hallucination for ya. 

Lou Carlozo is the Editor in Chief of Qwoted, the world's most widely used platform that unites journalists, PRs, sources and podcasters. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Polk Award Winner (both for team reporting) and the host of the Bankadelic podcast, ranked Number 3 for its coverage of AI and finance as ranked by Million Podcasts. Connect with him on LinkedIn.  

What's ahead for reporters, editors, content creators and PR pros in 2026? I could ask a large language model—but what a shame it lacks the self-consciousness to declare itself the Future of All Media. Indeed, whatever AI is in 2025, factor that times ten in 2026. Maybe more. 

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's turn our attention to the rest of the communications world. Here's what's showing up in my Psychic Friends Network Crystal Ball--a mix of damnable darkness and beckoning light.

Ultra-rich conservatives (see: Larry Ellison and CBS News), along with private equity firms, will continue to influence and buy major media outlets. Their goals will run the gamut from bleeding out profits through draconian cuts (as Alden Capital did with the Chicago Tribune) to turning once non-partisan platforms into ideological mouthpieces (think Twitter after Elon Musk purchased it).

Ultra-rich liberals will replicate The Guardian's model of trust funding to create self-sustaining outlets that counter Breitbart and far-right outlets that deal in agenda and deception. If they're serious and smart, they’ll follow the Guardian's example of reporting integrity and not create a liberal version of OAN.  

For the rest of us, the non-profit news org model will expand on the local level. It rescued the Chicago Sun-Times and will increasingly become how concerned citizens vote with their wallets for continued press independence.

One deep fake will fool the mainstream media. It will ooze out from the world of wing-nut conspiracy theorists to social media and then the media in general. Think it can’t happen? Remember, major media largely missed the story of Russian bots meddling with the 2016 election until after the polls closed. 

Some visionary PRs will emerge as "reporter concierges," working far beyond the pitch. They’ll serve stretched-thin journalists to help identify sources, locate key research and act as helpers without abandoning their primary responsibility to clients. The ethics here could get tricky—but a few comms wizards will crack the code without breaking the rules. 

Whether I hit or miss, I promise to gather more intelligence by reading well-reported stories instead of tea leaves.

-Lou Carlozo

As a rule, I find the best day to pitch a reporter is Monday and the worst day to pitch is Friday. 

That said, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are all good days for pitching. I feel Monday is the best day for pitching because a journalist is still planning their week and which stories will run. And hopefully, on Monday they’re still on top of their inboxes.

As the days wear on and stories pile up on their plate, the keeping up with the inbox can become untenable. As Tuesday and Wednesday are still at the front end of the week, a journalist likely has more flexibility in their schedule to take on a story. By Thursday, in my experience, a journalist’s schedule for the rest of the week is usually pretty tight with Thursday and Friday deadlines. 

I also prefer more lead time on an embargo, so the sooner you send a pitch out the better, even if that means on Thursday or Friday. 

This may sound obvious but the absolute worst weekday to send out a pitch is the Friday before a holiday. Also please don’t pitch on holidays or the weekend.

-Elena Cavendar

A CEO’s job is to build wealth and power through inspired, visionary leadership. Gross, right? But we live in America, Jack, and that’s what CEOs do. The problem is, PR language anchored by that truth doesn’t play well in a PR blurb. Any journalist worth their weight in matcha lattes and deadline panic will smell it from a mile away and flee the scene on a rented e-scooter. Forget luring a writer past your subject line; talk like that will only get you a rage-click on the delete button.

The world doesn’t need another puff piece about a fat-cat, narcissist CEO who’s doing a bang-up job building an empire, even if that’s exactly who they are and what they’re doing. The world isn’t stupid. People know that’s what the vast majority of CEOs are all about. What the world needs and wants to believe is that a CEO is fueled by honorable intentions—and writers know it.

Want to get a journalist to pen a piece about your CEO client? Don’t lead with quarterly profits; lead with purpose. Craft a message that highlights how your client enriches lives or otherwise makes the world a better place. Don’t announce they’re about to trample Q4 profit records—share a story about how they want to bring education to underserved communities or lower grocery prices for hungry families. Even if they run a company that trades business assets on the blockchain, there’s a way to make them seem human. Bonus points if it’s actually true. 

-Caleb Denison

In a recent Forbes article, Bryanne DeGoede, Managing Partner at boutique comms agency BLND, outlines six holiday PR mistakes that hamper brands year after year. Her insights come at an important time—consumers are expected to spend the second-highest amount on record this holiday season.

DeGoede’s first point – starting too late – is particularly relevant. While early fall is ideal for holiday PR planning, she notes that brands only getting started in early November still have options via short-lead digital outlets, influencers and local press. I can vouch for this; as a trainee reporter, I always scrambled for holiday roundups in November. But as Christmas draws closer, the tidal wave of pitches can become overwhelming, so businesses need to move fast.

The “cute packaging trap” is another good observation. DeGoede cautions that limited-edition packaging alone won’t break through the noise when editors are inundated with brand partnerships. Instead, she advocates for deeper storytelling—sharing the inspiration behind products and creating thoughtful, personalized media gifts.

Brand storytelling shouldn’t stop there. The constant barrage of discounts leads to fatigue and can alienate loyal customers, so balance salesy content with more engaging narratives, DeGoede says. I couldn't agree more: Journalists have an aversion to overly promotional pitches. Give us authentic stories with real people and you’ll earn coverage.

Building on this authenticity theme, the article highlights frequently missed opportunities in local and niche media. While companies chase national headlines, DeGoede points out that local features and micro-influencers often drive more tangible results, especially for businesses with regional presence. These voices can also provide what DeGoede calls “social proof”—testimonials, endorsements, and organic mentions that build real credibility with audiences.

-Alasdair Lane

😎 Lite, Brite, Tight Topic of the Week: Worst Media Excuse Ever?

Once upon a college job, I had a boss at Pizza Hut named Buford, a man with a greasy porn-star moustache who resembled a smirking scarecrow. Often, he declared in his hillbilly twang, “Excuses are like assholes: Everyone has ‘em but nobody likes ‘em!”

That man had not a single redeeming quality. He wasn’t just crude: He hit on my cute waitress girlfriend. But Buford had a point about excuses. The only thing worse than a source or PR who makes excuses is the reporter who uses those excuses to make an excuse to the editor (Extra points off if it’s on deadline). 

Over several decades as a journalist, I’ve heard ‘em all. But when it comes to the worst excuse ever, it may also be the best. It involves:

a) a hoity-toity, absent-minded Ivy League professor, my interviewee

b) a foreign “dignitary” you couldn’t name for front-row tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, posited as worth breaking a commitment for  

c)  a country that ranks right up there with Kyrgyzstan when it comes to “name one fact about it” 

When I asked, “Why’d you miss the interview?” she replied:

******

******

I’ve tried this one out myself. Believe me, it doesn’t work. 

-Lou Carlozo

Who's going where and why it matters. Not just job shifts - power dynamics, layoffs, and who's headed out. 

🧳 Elias Schisgall joined The Wall Street Journal as reporter on the newswires team covering breaking corporate stories; previously intern at Bloomberg Law writing for its Daily Labor Report, and associate managing editor at The Harvard Crimson. (X)

🥳 The Verge celebrated its 14th anniversary, with editor-in-chief Nilay Patel noting the site is "just getting started" despite being labeled "mainstream media" by influencers.

🥳 The New York Times reported a 26.1% increase in adjusted operating profit for Q3, adding 460,000 digital-only subscribers to reach 12.33 million total; no staff changes mentioned.

💔 Teen Vogue’s website is folding into Vogue.com, ending its independent online publication status and further eroding its brand presence; the top editor Versha Sharma is leaving the company, while Chloe Malle, head of editorial content at Vogue, will oversee Teen Vogue’s integrated presence focusing on career development and leadership.

⭐ a16z announced an eight-week New Media Fellowship for creators with a record of "impactful content" via newsletters, podcasts, communities, brands, or companies; details on eligibility, benefits, and applications available via a16z.

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