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There’s an air of panic in the media world. The specter of AI has been looming large for a couple of years now, but the threat now appears to be solidifying. Publishers are reporting that search traffic is in free fall, and there’s overwhelming evidence that AI chatbots give very little in terms of referrals. What to do about “Google Zero” has gone from a theoretical destination to a reality that the media world must contend with. Of course, panicking is never a good strategy. But pivoting can be, and there’s been no shortage of that lately. Both Wired and The Verge announced this week a stronger push into newsletters, one of the more reliable ways to connect directly with readers. When Business Insider recently announced layoffs, it also said it would invest in live events. And even publishers that already charge for subscriptions are doubling down on them: Newsweek will launch new types for both consumers and businesses, and The Guardian now has a new, cheaper tier for readers who want to opt out of personalized ads. While AI may be the impetus behind a lot of these changes, they’re all directionally pushing toward building direct relationships with audience members. That is smart, but at a more basic level, they’re appealing to human desires that go beyond just getting informationa task AI fulfills very effectively. Offerings like newsletters, memberships, and events give a sense of belonging, encourage reading habits through consistency, and emphasize voiceeither that of the brand or the individual writer. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Within all this is the beginnings of a post-Google content strategy for media. But really, it’s only half a strategy because it only accounts for humans. Much of internet activity in the future will be the result of bots, whether they’re hoovering up data to inform AI models or acting as agents on behalf of individual users. Data from TollBit indicates bot crawling is already comparable to what the big (non-AI) search engines dowhen everyone has their own AI agent, I would wager it will be the majority. Any forward-looking content strategy needs to take into account both humans and machines. The new organic audience Let’s start with the people. A few months ago, I hosted a webinar on the types of content that are most resilient to AI summarization. AI does a great job of summarizing news, but it struggles with voice and unique perspectives. The consequence: If you want good opinion and analysis, you’ll need to click through. Visual and interactive content is poorly conveyed by AI. And because AI is well known to hallucinate sometimes, anything that might inform a crucial decision for a readerlike context for health, legal, or financial decisionswill likely motivate readers to check the original source. Certainly, memberships and subscriptions are important mechanisms to build a loyal audience, but they also need to be centered around something readers can’t get anywhere else. That usually means narrowing the lens of focus rather than widening it. Niche subjectseven within a more general brandwill typically see higher engagement and more loyalty than general ones. Then there’s the stickiness of interactivity. One thing that emerging media platforms like Substack and TikTok do well is encouraging direct conversation between content creators and audience members. But being interactive doesn’t always have to be so hands-on: Semi-automated features like polls, quizzes, and games are all effective habit-buildersand cannot be substituted by AI. Rise of the machines If you think about it, there’s a kind of a “well, duh” quality to all the reports that confirm people don’t click through to sources when they use AI. (Pew Research just put out another, by the way.) That’s because removing the need to click is largely the point. Why go and read a whole bunch of articles when bots can do it for you? But that reveals the other side of the coin: Bots are now doing the searching and the clicking, and that activity is traceable, measurable, and potentially monetizable. In other words, the inevitable rise in bot traffic represents both an unprecedented threat and a massive opportunity. First, there’s the obvious idea of charging bots to scrape your site. Putting in paywalled endpointswhere AI bot operators pay a small fee to access contentmay work, especially now that Cloudflare is leading the charge in empowering website owners to block bots. However, it greatly depends on the scrapers acting in good faithand even if they do, it’s doubtful if the fee per scrape that publishers charge would ever be enough to build a sustainable business. What could help is winning the next SEO war: AIEO, or artificial intelligence engine optimization. Being one of the primary sources in an AI Overview or a ChatGPT answer might not seem like much of a prize, given the low click-through rates. But if you pair it with both a pay-per-crawl mechanism and a content strategy that focuses on the AI-resilient content types discussed earlierthe ones that have a higher chance of audiences seeking them outthe benefits could end up being more than mere bragging rights. This kind of AI-first content strategy does require a more sophisticated approach. You’d have to make use of the full search and AI toolbox, including things like Google snippets to ensure AI crawlers highlight the most enticing parts of your content without giving the store away, and MCP servers that can ensure bots have diect access to the content you green-light for them. While that can be technically cumbersome, the market is already adapting, with AIEO specialists like Scrunch AI offering one-stop-shop packages that essentially make a bot-friendly copy of your website so that crawlers can feast while humans enjoy your regular site. Smaller, better . . . robot-ier? The truth about the future of media is that the audience, the human audience, will be smaller for pretty much everyone. As more people get their information from AI portals, publishers will need to make the most of the few people who come directly to them. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Going small can ultimately be part of a healthier brand of journalism, as I argued in my very first column. But the parallel trend is that the bot audience is rising fast, and it undoubtedly will be a dominant force in the way information is distributed. Harnessing that force will be essential for the media. And though there are still a lot of unknownsthe best practices, the legal framework, even the potential rewardsat least it’s easy to see what not to do: wait. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/03\/mediacopilot-logo-ss.png","headline":"Media CoPilot","description":"Want more about how AI is changing media? Never miss an update from Pete Pachal by signing up for Media CoPilot. To learn more visit mediacopilot.substack.com","substackDomain":"https:\/\/mediacopilot.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
Its true that personal ambition fuels success. But we can reach a dangerous tipping point when healthy drive becomes hyper-ambitiona compulsive cycle of excessive striving that becomes self-defeating. Unlike healthy ambition that energizes you, hyper-ambition can leave you perpetually unsatisfied, overextended, and grinding to exhaustion. The cost isnt just personalhyper-ambition eventually undermines the very professional success it promises. Heres how to recognize if youve crossed into the danger zoneand take practical steps to realign toward healthy ambition. 1. You Feel Like Youve Never Achieved Enough and Are Never Satisfied Are you on a professional achievement treadmill, immediately shifting focus to your next goal after hitting a milestone? While accomplishments and rewards can provide short-term satisfaction, the challenge to getting into such a rhythm is that you may pursue goals without considering what you truly want. This can catch up to you when you realize youve met external expectations but never connected to your internal motivation, leaving you dissatisfied. Putting all your attention against the pursuit of professional validation can also lead to ignoring key areas of ones life that affect long-term happiness and well-being, such as your personal relationships, your health, and activities that fulfill and restore you. To realign to healthy ambition, orient your goals toward internal motivation firstits a better predictor of engagement and success. Research has shown that putting attention and focus on personal success linked to fulfillment, satisfaction, and happiness begets external success, while the opposite focus doesnt hold true. Start with your values: test if a goal is aligned with what is important and matters to you, rather than solely meeting external expectations. Academic studies have shown that aligning our goals with our values leads to more satisfaction, higher persistence, and more goal attainment. Expand your ambition to include meaningful life goals and challenge what success truly means in your life. Studies confirm that once our basic needs are met, more income, wealth, or possessions dont correlate with lifelong happiness. Plus, Gallup research finds that well-being isnt tied just to career or finances, but also encompasses physical, social, and community well-being. 2. You Feel Constantly Over-Extended and Frustrated You Cant ‘Do It All’ Do you say yes to every opportunity without strategic prioritization, then feel stretched thin and frustrated by your inability to pursue them all effectively? This suggests you either think more is always better, leading to overload and overwhelm, or you may not have an approach to help you choose where to put your time and attention when faced with seemingly equally valid goals. To shift toward focusing on what matters, use strategic methods to make conscious choices. Create and visualize a goal system by identifying your core priorities and mapping how other goals connect. This can reveal if youre pursuing too much, show how aligned actions serve multiple goals, and reduce perceived friction between supposedly competing goals. You can maximize goal attainment by creating these positive connections, minimizing conflicts, and better understanding trade-offs you may make. When faced with choices, apply the urgencyenergy filter. Ask, What has urgency, and do I have energy for it? This reveals several strategies: Prioritize: Commit to high-urgency, high-energy ambitions Reinterpret: For high-urgency, low-energy goals, find ways to achieve the same outcome with less time and effort Postpone: Back-burner lower-priority ambitions Let go: With self-compassion, release goals that no longer serve you Learn to compromise wisely by focusing on what matters at this time rather than trying to do everything. 3. Youre Grinding Hard All the Time Without Recovery How often do you find yourself compulsively working, putting in excessive hours without recovery time, leaving you exhausted? Operating in a persistent high-performance mode leads to unproductive stress, causing your physical and mental health to suffer. Ironically, your productivity declines and your work suffers, too. To break this pattern, be strategic about managing your effort and prioritizing recovery. Our ambitions arent created equal. Be discerning about the effort put against your goals by asking three key questions: Aspiration: How good do I want to be at this? Determination: What is worth the hard work? Motivation: How much effort do I want to put in and whats required? Additionally, manage perfectionism. Be conscious about where you apply excellence and give yourself permission to say this is good enough for lower-stakes areas. Finally, make recovery a leadership imperative. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the celebrated presidential biographer, has said: The most underappreciated leadership strength is the ability to relax and replenish energy. Research shows we paradoxically neglect recovery practices when we need them most. We need a deliberate plan to sustain ourselves for the work that matters and to prioritize time to psychologically disconnect from work. Sustainable success comes from strategic ambition, not hyper-ambition. The idea that you have to choose between being ambitious and being well is a false choice. The goal shouldnt be to eliminate ambition, but to keep it in a healthy zone where it energizes rather than depletes youallowing you to achieve what you really want both professionally and personally.
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E-Commerce
The YIMBY (yes in my backyard) movement has achieved remarkable growth in the past few years, uniting people across the political spectrum who share a common belief: It should be easy to build more housing. You can find shared interests among unlikely alliances when you step out of political tribes. People who label themselves as socialists and capitalists are standing at town hall podiums to support and promote abundant housing. High fives! Hooray for unity, right? Insert record scratch. Socialists and capitalists have economic worldviews that are incompatible with each other. There’s definitely consensus about the ends (plenty of homes), but the means will be hotly debated. The clash was inevitable, and the recent book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance, has keyboard warriors starting to realize there are a host of competing opinions on how to get past the gatekeepers who would have homes remain scarce. You might think something as apolitical as a townhouse wouldnt be a lightning rod for a populist left-versus-right debate. The reason is economics. Considering the surge in populism in recent years, its worth understanding why economics, not neighborhood character, is at the heart of the argument. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"green","redirectUrl":""}} The Socialist YIMBY Socialist YIMBY advocates believe housing should be universally accessible, treated fundamentally as a human right rather than a commodity to be bought and sold for profit. Prominent democratic socialists, like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, argue for “decommodifying” housing, where the government would guarantee homes. Market forces are not part of the equation. A socialist YIMBY is going to want state-managed housing solutions, price controls, rent freezes, and strict regulations on private ownership. Mamdani even said hed be open to the abolition of private property if it meant getting people places to live. Socialist YIMBYs build their case on fairness, social justice, and community stability. They argue that a free market creates disparities, displaces vulnerable populations, and commodifies essential human needs. The belief here is that removing profit motives from housing reduces speculation, stabilizes communities, and ensures housing stability and equity, prioritizing human dignity and communal well-being above private gain. The Capitalist YIMBY Capitalist YIMBY advocates believe in leveraging market mechanisms. To them, the root cause of housing shortages lies in artificial restrictions imposed by zoning laws, burdensome permitting processes, and other bureaucratic interference. Their economic rationale hinges on the concept of supply and demand, and prices as crucial signals. Capitalist YIMBYs argue that when the price of a type of home goes up in an area, it signals to developers, investors, and builders that demand is high and supply low. Rather than suppressing these signals through artificial price controls, they propose getting rid of laws that prohibit housing and streamline approval processes in order to spur rapid and flexible housing production. They argue that robust competition among builders and investors inherently leads to diverse housing options, lower overall costs, and more innovation in housing solutions. The Perplexed YIMBY A person is standing at the philosophical crossroads to abundant housing and two fellow YIMBYs are giving conflicting directions: We have to go left. No, we have to go right. Socialists look at capitalist solutions as inherently exploitative, always creating more inequalities, and they believe profit motives are what make homes too expensive. Capitalists look at socialist solutions as inevitably leading to inefficiencies, housing shortages, and stagnation. When Ive asked people about their take on this conflict, a common response is something like Well have enough homes for everyone if building regulations are relaxed and the government is in charge of low-income housing. I believe thats wishful thinking, since it brings us right back to the fundamental disagreement on economics. A capitalist will say, There is a market for small and modest housing, so get the government out of the way. The socialist will say, We dont believe you. I truly believe that populists on the left and the right want there to be enough homes for everyone. But its also clear that the populist left and right will forever treat each other like theyre living in a cartoon or comic book. Im the good guy and youre the bad guy. In spite of their shared interest in abundant housing, the socialist YIMBYs and capitalist YIMBYs are never going to agree on the means to the end. The best first step is something both sides claim to support: getting rid of the local regulatory barriers that are preventing anyone from building a granny flat, a townhouse, a duplex, etc. Legalize housing and lets see where that takes us. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
Get up. Start work. End work. Eat dinner. Get a few things done. Sleep. Rinse and repeat. Sometimes it can feel like weeks, months, or even years, fly by without feeling like much has happened. As a time management coach, I help clients make many tasks in life automatic so that they can accomplish more in less time and with less effort. To optimize our efficiency and effectiveness, routine is a necessary part of our lives. The only issue is when youre so systematized that youre not fully experiencing the joy and meaning in your life. Youre just checking things off the list. But what if there could be some simple, accessible ways to slow down the passage of time and fully engage in your life? Im here to offer you good news: There are. With these three simple tricks, you can start to feel like youre experiencing your days instead of speeding through them. Savor the Little Things Lifes simple, everyday moments can be incredibly satisfying, if you let them. But so often, were rushing through an activity or multitasking through it so much so that it simply passes us by. Researchers encourage mindful attention where you take notice of whats happening in familiar experiences to sensitize yourself to the joy they offer. Ive found that some small, intentional choices can make a big difference in my life. One ritual that Ive incorporated when the weather is nice is to sit outside during lunch and eat without doing anything else in particular. This little break to just stop and notice the grass, the trees, the flowers, the birds, and anything else around me helps me to fully experience the beauty of the season. Another choice that Ive made is when I hold my daughter at night before bed to keep my phone away from me. Its not a very long timejust about 10 minutesbefore I lay her down in her crib for the night. Although the time is short, I find its some of the moments that I stop and appreciate the gift of her precious life the most. Shes growing so quickly, and I dont want to miss out on enjoying my daughter because Im doing something else while Im with her or always trying to head on to the next activity. How about you? Is there an area where you could stop multitasking and more fully enjoy the precious moments around you? Sprinkle in Novelty Another way to extend the feeling of time is to sprinkle in dashes of the out-of-the-ordinary that break up your routine. When youre only doing your habits, your brain blends together the experiences from day-to-day. But when you do something distinctive, you experience the novelty effect where your brain has a higher state of attention and stores the experience as a separate and distinct memory. This could look like signing up to attend larger events like going to a new work conference or taking a vacation to explore a different locale. Or you can add in novelty in much smaller ways throughout your weeks to help you feel like life isnt passing by in a blur. On the professional side, small moments of novelty could look like adding in some networking lunches or events where you connect with new people and see new places. Or it could look like learning a new skill that you havent tried your hand at before. Or it could look like setting up your computer at a new coworking space or coffee shop. On the personal side, you could attend a local festival instead of watching Netflix, check out a new restaurant in town instead of going to the place where youre a regular, or try out a new workout class instead of going to the one youve attended for years. Its completely fineand even goodto have routines and do standard things you enjoy. But mixing up your experience every once in a while can help you slow down your subjective experience of time. Is there some novel experience you could insert in your life this week? Stop Trying to Keep Up In a time not so long ago or far away, there were no smartphones, no apps, and no streaming services. And life was well, good. Another way to slow down time is to take away the pressure that just because you could do something that you should. Just because someone you follow posted something doesnt mean you need to read it. Just because some major world event is happening doesnt mean you need to be an expert on it. Just because a new season of a show came out that you like doesnt mean you need to watch it nowor ever. Most of the content created in the world is entirely optional for you to read or consume. Letting go of the need to engage 24/7 can dramatically increase your feeling of being relaxed and like you have more time. In my personal life, Ive placed boundaries on social media use. I dont even have accounts on some social media apps, and for the ones where I do engage, I try to limit myself to a few times a week. When I get the itch to engage more often, I try to pick up a book instead. Its a lot more satisfying to get through a relevant book than to scroll endlessly through a feed. Do you pressure yourself to keep up on content where you dont have an actual responsibility to engage? If so, how could you lower your standards to open up more time and space to just be? A lot of life is routine. Thats not a bad thing. But by trying out these strategies, you can slow down your perception of time and experience deeper satisfaction in the moments.
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E-Commerce
Not long ago, leaders largely steered clear of the rough-and-tumble of politics. They inhabited a culture of impartiality, and for the most part stayed in their lane, rising now and then when called upon to offer observations about their specific sectors. Those times are over. We now live in an era of CEO activism, where shareholders, employees, and consumers expect corporate leaders to take a stand on issues far beyond their core industryissues like immigration, DEI, or gender rights. Whereas before, hardly anyone outside of their industry could pick a chief executives out of a lineup, todays business leaders from Howard Schultz to Bill Gates to Elon Musk are household names, with the ability to influence public discourseand policywith a single tweet. For a business, there are distinct advantages to taking a political stand. At the same time, there is a fine line between brand enhancement and brand destruction. In this climate, how can a leader be transparent about her or his belief system without alienating anyone? Rewards and Risks First, its hard, if not impossible, to reveal your belief system without alienating someone. Its almost a given: audiences and stakeholders these days may demand a political stand, but they can also be thin-skinned and easily offended when they dont agree with that stand. For the leader, the key is to avoid alienating significant portions of the constituencies and stakeholders responsible for the companys ultimate success: shareholders, employees, and consumers. When it comes to affiliating openly with a political figure or party, there can be advantages, such as privileged access and perhaps the ability to favorably influence policy direction. That said, there are also risks. Some of them are obvious: political fortunes are volatile, and public opinion is fickle, both of which can spell trouble for an aligned business. Political leaders have many priorities, and can shift their own positions on a dime, leaving a company that has publicly pledged allegiance with a case of whiplash. They are also prone to scandal, leaving aligned brands exposed to public outrage. Moreover, while there are certainly dangers in speaking out, silence can also have negative consequences in the public eye. Its important to realize that political parties, personalities, even movements come and go. Leaders are in this for the long haul; they should want their company to prosper for more than one election cycle. Recent events demonstrate the power of public opinion. The Trump administrations executive orders against diversity and inclusion initiatives split the business communities. Target rushed to align with the new directives, but Costco remained true to its own DEI stance. As a result, consumers punished Target and rewarded Costco. Staying true to the core Remember that politicians are paid to be politicians. Executives are not. Leaders are paid to ensure a company grows and prospers far into the future. That might mean rubbing elbows with those in power, or even contributing to campaigns, but it does not have to mean selling the soul of your identity, i.e. politicizing the brand or dragging a companys image (along with you) for the sake of a small short-term advantage. Reputations are hard to rebuild, and customers, once lost, are hard to reclaim. While a leaders personal beliefs may inform actions both private and professional, there are a few basic principles that can act as guardrails, providing the freedom to be transparent while preventing the leaders viewpoints and actions from creating conflicts and harming the companys fortunes. 1. Focus on values, not politics Nobody expects an executive and a workforce of thousands to agree on every issue. But a leader can set the tone by emphasizing core organizational values rather than personal political opinions. Companies are strongest when they articulate and consistently adhere to a clear set of valuesregardless of shifting political winds. 2. Tie beliefs to business mission As a leader, you are a steward of your companys missionnot a political spokesperson. If your personal convictions align with your businesss purpose, express them in a way that supports that mission. If they dont, reflect on whether your current role aligns with your values. A CEO thrives when personal belief and business purpose reinforce one another. 3. Build credibility through consistency While political trends are fickle, brand trust is built over time. Consumers reward companies that consistently uphold their stated commitmentswhether to sustainability, product quality, or inclusion. Consistency is credibility. 4. Respect dissent, invite dialogue Foster a culture where respectful disagreement is welcome. Employees should feel safe expressing differing opinions without fear of retaliation. Provide spacesforums, listening sessions, anonymous feedback toolsfor difficult conversations to happen constructively. Diversity of thought is a strength, not a liability. 5. Be strategic If you choose to speak out, do so with intention. Consult your communications team, evaluate stakeholder impact, and conduct a risk-benefit analysis. As Harvard Business Review contributors Aaron Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel advise: Select issues carefully, reflect on the best times and approaches to get involved, consider the potential for backlash, and measure results. Whos doing it right? A number of well-known CEOs have made a point of voicing their beliefs, and have not suffered for it. On the contrary, they have developed a leadership style that manages to be both values-informed and advantageous from a business standpoint. 1. Satya Nadella (Microsoft). Nadella openly discusses empathy and his Hindu faith, speaking often of caring for his son with special needs. He is upfront about his personal values of humility and purpose, but does not impose these upon the firm directly, emphasizing instead organizational culture and customer impact. Under his watch, Microsoft has quadrupled its market capitalization. 2. Dan Schulman (former CEO, PayPal). Schulman has been vocal in support of social justice and economic inclusion, which he links to his personal Jewish ethical values. PayPal pulled out of North Carolina to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation, a move that was criticized by the right but rewarded by stakeholders, with shareholder returns remaining strong. 3. Rose Marcario (former CEO, Patagonia). Markarios Buddhist beliefs and environmental ethics were strongly aligned with Patagonias corporate mission. So when the company sued the Trump administration over its intention to dismantle and sell off national monuments, it mobilized the companys core outdoor audience and strengthened the brand, with increases in both consumer loyalty and profits. 4. Ken Frazier (former CEO, Merck). In 2017, Frazier resigned from President Trumps American Manufacturing Council following the administrations tepid response to the white supremacist marches and ensuing violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Fraziers action was see as deeply principled, and Mercks shareholder value was not damaged. Other CEOs (UnderArmour, Intel, et al) followed suit, in part because Fraziers action created a public demand for moral leadership. Finding balance In the end, leaders must balance their own need to reveal their personal beliefs with the greater good of the organization. This is both an internal and external journey that requires a high degree of reflection as well as an appreciation for the complexity of the company and its role in both the market and society. Its an extremely challenging time to be a leader, but also an exciting one.
Category:
E-Commerce
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