AI search is creating a new incentive system for media

The fight for attention is shifting from clicks to citations, and that could reward better journalism—if bots can find it.

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Pete Pachal is a journalist and the creator of Media Copilot, a newsletter and podcast that examines how AI is changing media, journalism, and the news.

Lakes of digital ink have been spilled on the topic of AI killing traffic to media sites. I’ve certainly poured my share. The basic fear: If your business depends on attracting as many eyeballs as possible to content on a website, AI will detour that gaze and point it toward its own summary of that content, resulting in far fewer people looking your way.

There’s still a lot to be resolved with respect to the economics of AI scraping and how publishers will be compensated for that act. But however that plays out, it’s becoming clearer by the day that the battle for attention is slowly shifting to whose information is cited........

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