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Tong Li

@tongli.bsky.social
52 followers 20 following 874 posts

Digital Media & Brand Strategy Expert | Former Journalist & Skilled Storyteller | Data & Business Analytics Enthusiast

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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Creators using AI isn’t the same as AI replacing creators. Use it for analytics, editing and busywork? Great. Let the algorithm decide the hook, tone and structure of everything? That’s how creativity becomes sameness. AI should expand human expression—not standardize it. digiday.com/media/the-cr...
digiday.com
The creator economy’s stance on AI is shifting — again
Creators are integrating AI tools into their workflows, but at what point does it overtake the creative process and result in sameness?
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Reddit’s bot problem is real. Killing RSS and public API access is still the wrong kind of fix. It blocks scrapers—but also researchers, moderators and ordinary people who use open tools. techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/r...
techcrunch.com
Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots | TechCrunch
Reddit is ending support for RSS feeds, as the company continues tightening access to its trove of user-generated content.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Inquirer’s Scrape project gets AI in local news right: use it to surface leads, not write the story. A tool that cuts 12 hours of source-scanning while editors still decide what matters is augmentation, not replacement. www.lenfestinstitute.org/solutions-re...
lenfestinstitute.org
How The Philadelphia Inquirer built Scrape, an AI tool to surface hyperlocal news leads
The Philadelphia Inquirer's AI tool, Scrape, combs through hyperlocal news leads, enabling editors to report on a broader geographic area.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Good journalism isn’t automatically a sustainable business. If an independent newsroom survives because one founder does six jobs, works unsustainable hours or relies on a spouse’s income, that’s not resilience. www.poynter.org/business-wor...
poynter.org
What does it take to make an independent local newsroom work? More than good journalism. - Poynter
A new study of 112 independent publishers shows just how much local news entrepreneurs have to juggle
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
California’s new local-news law ties tax credits to newsroom jobs: hire more reporters, get more support; cut staff, get less. But hedge funds can qualify too. The real test is whether public money produces more original reporting where communities need it most. www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/cali...
niemanlab.org
California’s big local news bill becomes law
At the end of August, the state of California passed a bill to give news organizations tax credits based on the number of journalists they employ. It's the largest local news bill in the United States...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Columbia Journalism School pausing its M.A. while launching its first online degree feels like a bigger question about who journalism education is built for. www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/colu... #Journalism #JournalismEducation
niemanlab.org
Columbia Journalism School will pause its M.A. program (and launch an online degree)
The Columbia Journalism School will pause admissions for its Master of Arts program, dean Jelani Cobb announced on Thursday. The country's most prestigious journalism school also announced a new onlin...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Google reportedly is paying ~100 publishers when their journalism contributes to AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini. Good principle: If reporting creates value for an AI answer, the newsroom that financed that reporting should share in the value. www.theverge.com/tech/1002665... #Journalism #AI
theverge.com
Google reportedly tests paying publishers for AI search results
Around 100 publishers have joined Google’s pilot program, The Information reports.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The most important audience shift in journalism may be moving from: “How do we get more clicks?” to: “How do we become something people choose to return to?” www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/how-... #Journalism #AudienceEngagement
niemanlab.org
How publishers are rethinking audience engagement: Five takeaways from the Future of Media Technology Conference
"It would be a mistake to try to replicate the creator economy."
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Big AI copyright ruling — but an important caveat: The appeals court ruled against Ross Intelligence, which used Westlaw headnotes to build a competing legal search product. The court stressed that Ross was't a generative AI system and did not create new expression. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/fede...
niemanlab.org
Federal appeals court upholds Thomson Reuters’ landmark AI copyright win
On Tuesday, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters, upholding the company's landmark win in a copyright infringement case against the now-defunct legal AI startup Ross Intellig...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I like The Guardian’s approach to “journalists as creators.” It’s creating 40 paid roles with structured training in video, audio, photography, social, text + audience engagement — with at least 20% of work time dedicated to training. pressgazette.co.uk/news/guardia... #Journalism #CreatorEconomy
pressgazette.co.uk
Guardian creates 40 jobs to train journalists as content creators
The Guardian is creating 40 new jobs which will feature training to help newer journalists gain content creator skills.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
NPR becoming “video-first” sounds almost contradictory. But maybe that’s the wrong way to think about it. NPR’s mission was never “make radio.” It was public-service journalism. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/npr-... #PublicMedia #Journalism
niemanlab.org
NPR, the quintessential audio news brand, adapts to a video-first future
NPR’s new chief content officer Nadine Zylstra on how the public media company acquired Machine Gods — which she thinks can be “the Car Talk of AI.”
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“AI shame” sounds like an individual problem. Nearly 70% of surveyed communication scholars already use generative AI somewhere in their work — but many still worry that admitting it will make them seem less credible. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/a-la...
niemanlab.org
A lack of professional AI guidelines leads to feelings of “AI shame,” a new study finds
Are you a journalist who has used AI for work in some capacity but been nervous to tell anyone about it? Worried about how your bosses might see you, or that your work might be discredited? Well, aca...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is much closer to the AI investment model I want for local journalism. OpenAI is adding $10M in cash + credits to Lenfest’s fellowship program — but instead of funding an “AI writes the news” product, it embeds full-time technical staff inside local newsrooms. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/open...
niemanlab.org
OpenAI doubles support for Lenfest’s AI and local news fellowships
With an additional $10 million in program funding, the Lenfest Institute will consider new applicants in local TV news and statewide public service journalism.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The NYT says it wants three things from AI licensing deals: Fair value. A sustainable partnership. Control over how its journalism is used. Good principles. But The Times can walk away from a bad deal. A small local newsroom often can’t. digiday.com/media/what-t... #Journalism #AI
digiday.com
What The New York Times looks for in AI licensing partnerships
The New York Times is seeing a more publisher-friendly AI licensing ecosystem, but the marketplaces still have a long way to go.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A disaster newsroom doesn’t just need reporters. It needs water, power, food, working phones, a low-bandwidth website — and people who haven’t been awake for 36 hours. That’s why I like Emergency Mode for News. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/when... #LocalNews #Journalism
niemanlab.org
When disaster strikes, newsrooms scramble. A new website aims to help tame the chaos.
Emergency Mode for News has checklists and other tools to help journalists respond to disasters before, during, and after they happen.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The most important revelation here isn’t an inflammatory internal quote. It’s the “doom loop.” Microsoft employees reportedly worried that AI could depend on human-created content while simultaneously destroying the economic foundation of the people who produce it. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/an-a...
niemanlab.org
“An astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions”: Court records show what Microsoft and OpenAI actually thought about AI training
Would you call large language models training on an internet's worth of content "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions"? Or perhaps you prefer the "largest theft of labor in human history"...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The DOJ siding with OpenAI and Microsoft in the NYT copyright case is consequential. But the stranger part is that Axios says the filing caught the Copyright Office and USPTO by surprise. AI competitiveness is a legitimate policy goal. www.axios.com/2026/09/19/j... #AI #Copyright #Journalism
axios.com
Scoop: DOJ's copyright filing took key agencies by surprise
The department argues copyrighted works to train models should be considered fair use because that practice is new and transformative.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Wikipedia has an unusual AI problem: Its knowledge is everywhere, while fewer humans are actually visiting the site. That matters because people don’t just consume Wikipedia. They fix it. They add sources. Correct errors. Update articles. Donate. www.adweek.com/media/wikipe... #Wikipedia #AI
adweek.com
Inside Wikipedia's Plan to Survive the Answer Engine Apocalypse
At Brandweek, the nonprofit’s director of brand explained why ubiquity without attribution is an existential threat, and how a new campaign aims to fix it.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The White House press pool isn’t a perk for whichever network happens to be on rotation. It’s shared infrastructure. www.cnn.com/2026/09/20/p... #PressFreedom #Journalism
cnn.com
What is the White House press pool, and why is it now under threat? | CNN Politics
It’s the most powerful office in the world, and hundreds of journalists want to cover it. But how?
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The most important AI-agent question may not be “Are they autonomous?” It’s “Who pays for the mess they create?” An agent can save one person 10 minutes by sending 500 emails, hammering a reservation system or automating outreach. www.404media.co/theres-a-100... #AIAgents #TechPolicy
404media.co
There’s a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Already Ruining the Internet
“AI agents” now have enough power and permission to be extremely annoying online.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
AI can answer a lot of simple questions now. That makes the next layer of journalism more important: What does this mean for me? What matters most? What can wait? What should I do next? www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/prot... #Journalism #ServiceJournalism
niemanlab.org
Protein grams and retirement plans: Service journalism enters its next era
"It's not enough anymore just to give a headline or answer a simple question. AI and social have really taken that over."
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
CrowdTangle mattered because it let journalists and researchers see how narratives were moving across Facebook and Instagram. Then Meta killed it. That’s what makes Arbiter interesting. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/two-... #Journalism #PlatformAccountability
niemanlab.org
Two years ago, Meta killed CrowdTangle. Can a new AI tool fill the void?
Arbiter uses large language models and AI agents to help journalists see the next harmful narrative on social media before it peaks.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I like this direction much more than another “AI detector.” Apple’s new Reference Image feature tries to prove that a photo was actually captured by a real iPhone camera — essentially creating a digital negative at the moment of capture. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/appl... #Journalism #AI
niemanlab.org
Apple launches a new way to prove a photo was shot with an iPhone (not generated by AI)
At its annual iPhonepalooza today, Apple announced a new feature aimed at making it easier to know where an image came from or whether it's been edited — the sort of provenance data that could be usef...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The best place to catch an AI fake is before publication, not after it goes viral. Press Gazette’s new tool puts AI/deepfake checks directly inside the newsroom CMS — text, images, video and audio. That’s a useful direction. pressgazette.co.uk/news/press-g... #Journalism #AIEthics
pressgazette.co.uk
Press Gazette launches newsroom tool to stop AI fakes before publication
Press Gazette launches Made by Humans, a new tool for publishers which aims to protect them from publishing misleading AI-generated content.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Meta says Community Notes now produces more corrective content than its old fact-checking program. But volume isn’t the same as coverage. Indicator found that only about 3% of Instagram posts already debunked by AFP received a Community Note. indicator.media/p/meta-says-... #FactChecking
indicator.media
Meta says Community Notes is bigger than fact-checking. That's not the whole story
Crowdsourced fact-checking on Instagram covered just 3% of false posts debunked by one fact-checking website
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The courts will decide whether OpenAI and Microsoft infringed the copyrights of The Seattle Times and Newsday. But the economic question is bigger: Who pays for the reporting that makes AI answers useful? www.theverge.com/ai-artificia... #Journalism #AI #LocalNews
theverge.com
Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft for infringement
The Seattle Times and Newsday want AI models built on their works destroyed.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
YouTube views are “skyrocketing” partly because YouTube changed what counts as a view. A video can now register a public view as soon as it starts playing, including autoplay — while engaged views and revenue may barely move. news.thepublishpress.com/p/youtube-vi... #YouTube #CreatorEconomy
news.thepublishpress.com
YouTube Views Skyrocket 📈
Here’s what it means for creators
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
One of the most promising newsroom AI stories I’ve seen starts with something very unsexy: A better CMS. POLITICO consolidated six systems into one and can now build AI tools directly into reporters’ workflows. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d... #Journalism #AI
pressgazette.co.uk
How Politico has boosted AI innovation by moving to one headless CMS
Politico is changing the tech it runs on to Sanity CMS with the aim of being more global and more innovative.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A fascinating subscription lesson from FOIAball: One paywalled scoop brought in 1 paid subscriber. A free scoop brought in 3. www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/how-... #Journalism #Newsletters
niemanlab.org
How one newsletter writer is building a subscription business when “paywalls don’t really work”
David Covucci, founder of FOIAball, on using public records to break big stories about college football and what to try when readers assume someone else will pay.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Using AI to help a local reporter monitor agendas, search records or find stories? Great. Using AI to repackage reporting from existing local newsrooms, put it on a hyperlocal-looking site and call that “rebuilding local journalism”? chimediajournal.substack.com/p/daily-hera... #LocalNews
chimediajournal.substack.com
Daily Herald staff moves to unionize and AI “news” network expands to Chicago suburbs
Also, Chicago Public Media union contract negotiations, Neighbors magazine’s troubles, Pulitzer-winning Chicago reporter launches Substack, a new suburban photojournalism book, and more
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I’m fine with AI helping someone research or fact-check an op-ed. I’m much less comfortable with AI writing the op-ed itself. A byline makes a promise: these are this person’s thoughts, expressed in words they are willing to own. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/are-... #Journalism #AI
niemanlab.org
Are newspaper opinion sections embracing AI-written op-eds?
Outside The Wall Street Journal, it appears not.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Young people aren’t “not interested in news.” They’re increasingly finding it somewhere newsrooms didn’t traditionally control. Daily Mail, BBC News, CNN and Fox News have each added 11M+ TikTok followers since 2024. pressgazette.co.uk/social_media... #Journalism #TikTok
pressgazette.co.uk
The news publishers on Tiktok with biggest growth since 2024
Press Gazette analysis shows the biggest and fastest-growing of the major news publishers on Tiktok, with data from August 2026.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The best thing about Google DeepMind’s Backstory is that it doesn’t reduce fact-checking to a black-box “87% AI” score. It combines reverse-image search, provenance, watermark checks and context tracing — then shows journalists the steps it took. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/goog... #FactChecking
niemanlab.org
Google’s new AI tool helps fact-checkers investigate AI fakes
Backstory automates provenance checks, reverse image searches, and context tracing to speed up verification work.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The Athletic’s creator program is a good reminder that journalism doesn’t have to choose between newsroom rigor and creator culture. Creators bring voice, platform fluency and audience trust. Newsrooms bring reporting, editing and fact-checking. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/the-... #Journalism
niemanlab.org
The Athletic teams up with sports creators to reach new (and younger) audiences
Nearly a year into its Creator Program, The Athletic has amassed 50 million video views and 100,000 new followers.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Prism News said AI could help solve America’s news deserts. It built 200+ “local” sites, repackaged reporting from real local outlets under fictional AI bylines, produced no original reporting — and now the network is gone. www.interlochenpublicradio.org/ipr-news/202... #LocalNews #Journalism #AI
interlochenpublicradio.org
Prism News shuts down network of more than 200 AI-generated local news sites
Just months after launching across the U.S., Prism News has shut down its network of more than 200 AI-generated local news and hobby sites — including Prism Grand Traverse County.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Reddit is testing AI videos that read real posts and comments aloud. As an accessibility feature? I can see the value. As another way to manufacture endless short-form content? Much less appealing. www.theverge.com/tech/981289/... #Reddit #AI
theverge.com
Reddit’s AI is turning posts into podcasts and short videos
Would you rather read or listen?
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I want AI to help save local journalism. But “AI makes one reporter capable of covering more territory” is not the same thing as rebuilding local news. This CJR piece shows both sides. www.cjr.org/feature/axio... #LocalNews #AIEthics
cjr.org
Axios wants to save local news with AI.
“At the end of the day, if someone’s going to pay you for content, you say: Well, how much are you going to pay me?” Jim VandeHei, the chief executive, said of his company’s deal with OpenAI. “If that...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Apple reportedly wants to pay publishers when Siri AI actually uses their journalism. That’s a healthier starting point than “scrape first, negotiate later.” If a newsroom’s reporting helps generate an answer, the newsroom should share in the value created. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/appl...
niemanlab.org
Apple may start paying publishers to deliver news with Siri AI
Hey Siri, how much is the news worth to an AI assistant? The answer, according to a report by Alexandra Bruell in The Wall Street Journal, starts at $100 million. Apple has approached publishers to u...
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
What if public media stopped trying to beat social platforms at the engagement game — and built something around completely different incentives? Chicago.com is experimenting with no follower counts, chronological feeds, and paid human community stewards. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/can-...
niemanlab.org
Can public media build its own social network? Chicago Public Media teams up with New_ Public to try
"This is a community platform, not a news site — it's very much not a news site."
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Ad tech isn’t just about which sneaker ad follows you around the web. The same infrastructure can expose where your phone is — and location data derived from real-time bidding has reportedly ended up with data brokers and government customers. www.404media.co/this-tool-un... #Privacy
404media.co
This Tool Unmasks the Shadowy World of Ads that Track Your Location
It's usually very difficult to investigate the advertising industry. A new tool called DecryptAds aims to make it much easier with a massive dataset anyone can query.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
This goes beyond AI slop. Fake sites are borrowing the look and credibility of major news brands, filling them with AI-generated promotional content, and apparently selling “guaranteed coverage” to clients. That is counterfeit journalism. pressgazette.co.uk/news/fake-fo... #Journalism #MediaTrust
pressgazette.co.uk
Fake Forbes websites and the PR agency offering guaranteed coverage - at a price
Fake iterations of the Forbes website are packed with AI-generated and promotional content.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
One promising idea for fighting AI misinformation: stop pretending technology can automatically tell us what is “true.” Japan’s Originator Profile standard asks a narrower question: Who actually published this? www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/japa... #Journalism #Disinformation
niemanlab.org
Japanese publishers are fighting imposter news sites with a cryptographic signature
The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun, and NHK have all signed onto the Originator Profile standard.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I’m more interested in publisher-owned AI than another chatbot summarizing journalism from the outside. The New York Post’s Hamilton uses its own archive and reporting for search, briefings and recommendations, while the newsroom says it retains editorial control. www.axios.com/2026/08/11/n...
axios.com
New York Post launches "Hamilton" AI chatbot
Publishers are turning to AI interfaces to keep readers engaged as search and social traffic referrals erode.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
More comments ≠ better conversation. An analysis of nearly 1 million NYT comments found that data-rich, analytical stories attracted fewer commenters — but produced more evidence-based arguments and more readers actually talking to one another. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/we-a... #Journalism
niemanlab.org
We analyzed 6,400 New York Times stories to find out how comments change when you give readers more information
The same stories that produced sharper, more analytic conversation also produced <em>less</em> conversation.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
SPJ is updating its ethics code for the first time since 2014, but wisely isn’t writing rules around specific AI tools. The better principle is durable: whatever technology you use, you remain responsible for accuracy, verification and the finished journalism. www.cjr.org/feature/soci...
cjr.org
The Society of Professional Journalists is taking a red pencil to its ethics code, shared exclusively with CJR.
The Society of Professional Journalists is taking a red pencil to its ethics guidelines—the first update since 2014.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
“The future is for everyone” sounds great. But if your “personal superintelligence” knows your relationships, health, career, finances and daily life — while being built by one of the world’s biggest advertising companies — privacy and governance are not side issues. www.404media.co/mark-zuckerb...
404media.co
Mark Zuckerberg Posts Deranged 6,500-Word Essay About Giving Everyone AI Superintelligence
"The future is for everyone," Zuckerberg says, describing future that is primarily good for Meta.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The backlash against AI slop is starting to produce results. Platforms are rolling back unwanted features, restricting fully AI-generated content and giving users more ways to reject synthetic junk. The deeper issue is consent. www.wired.com/story/the-ai... #AIEthics #DigitalRights
wired.com
The AI Slop Backlash Is Actually Having an Impact
Platforms are finally recognizing that people don’t want to consume AI slop. A growing number of sites and apps now have tools and policies to flag, label, and ban AI-generated content.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Listeners should absolutely be able to skip ads. But when Spotify controls distribution, ad tech, audience data and the button that determines whether an ad gets heard, this becomes more than a UX decision. www.semafor.com/article/08/0... #Podcasting #PlatformAccountability
semafor.com
Spotify’s new ‘skip’ button could end the podcast business as we know it
The Swedish streaming giant cast the move as streamlining a feature that already exists, the Spotify app’s 15-second skip button.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
AI is already reshaping every stage of journalism — from story ideas and sourcing to verification, storytelling and distribution. The promise is real: better document searches, more accessible reporting, broader sourcing and less repetitive work. www.niemanlab.org/2026/08/a-ne... #Journalism
niemanlab.org
A new book looks at how AI is rewiring the newsroom, for better and worse
AI is already helping reshape journalistic practices across five stages of news production: coming up with story ideas, sourcing information, verifying content, telling stories, and distributing news.
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Tong Li @tongli.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
AI search can turn marketing into something that sounds like neutral judgment. Companies are publishing self-serving “best of” lists, structuring them for language models and experimenting with hidden prompts meant to influence future recommendations. www.theverge.com/tech/900302/...
theverge.com
Can AI responses be influenced? The SEO industry is trying
Marketing firms are going all in on AI search.
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