I've been publishing here for more than a decade, and traffic changed more in the last eighteen months than in the ten years before that. Search sends less. The answer shows up without the click.

The Reuters report is the clearest data I've seen on where that goes. Trust in news at 37 percent. Most people under 25 getting their news from social, video, or a chatbot rather than a publication.

The one change I've made is leaning harder on email, since it's the only channel I actually own. Whether that holds up in five years, I have no idea.

If you've found something that works better, send it my way.

Craig

The Reuters Institute published its 2026 Digital News Report this summer, built on almost 100,000 interviews across 48 countries. The headline number: only 37 percent of people say they trust the news they see. News avoidance climbed to 42 percent. For the first time, social media and video networks beat both television and newsrooms' own websites and apps as the way people get news, across the markets studied.

AI chatbots are a small but growing part of that shift. Weekly use of chatbots for news rose from 7 percent to 10 percent globally in a single year, according to the report. The growth came mostly from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Southern and Eastern Europe, where people were already used to getting news through platforms rather than direct visits to a publisher's site. Among 18 to 24 year olds, more than half now name social media, video, or AI as their main source of news.

That same week, OpenAI renewed a very different kind of investment. The company committed another $5 million in funding and $3 million in tech credits to the American Journalism Project, extending a partnership that started in 2023. The program funds nonprofit local newsrooms building AI tools for fundraising, translation, and civic reporting.

Set that against the other track record. More than 30 local newspaper publishers, together owning close to 400 US papers, sued OpenAI and Microsoft in June over what they call the theft of hundreds of thousands of articles. Hachette, Cengage, and Elsevier separately sued Google in July over Gemini's training data. The New York Times case against OpenAI is still going. More than 40 AI copyright cases are already active in US courts.

The dollar figures show how unevenly the money lands. News Corp's OpenAI deal is reportedly valued at over $250 million across five years. Dotdash Meredith's confirmed floor is $16 million a year. Smaller publishers have been offered $1 to $5 million a year, if they're offered anything.

So the same handful of AI companies are suing some newsrooms into settlements, licensing others at wildly different rates, and funding a few nonprofits directly, sometimes all three at once. Meanwhile the audience habits that actually determine a newsroom's future (video, creators, chatbot answers) are moving faster than any lawsuit or licensing deal can keep up with.

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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Redwood City, CA (hybrid)
Supports CZI's investment team with AI tooling across its science and education portfolios. Base pay range $134,000 to $183,700.

Technical Documentation and Content Engineer, Claude Docs
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Regional State and Local Affairs Lead, Southern States
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Leads Anthropic's state and local government relationships across the Southern US, tracking AI legislation and representing the company at hearings.

Research Scientist, Takeoff Intel
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A research role on Anthropic's team studying the pace and trajectory of AI capability growth.

Head of Deal Desk, International
Anthropic, Dublin, Ireland
Leads deal structuring and approval for Anthropic's international enterprise contracts.

Associate Programme Officer, P2
UNITAR, Geneva, Switzerland
One-year fixed-term post supporting diplomatic training design and delivery, with a focus on Asia. Deadline July 31, 2026.

Investment Analyst
Investible, Sydney, Australia
Full lifecycle venture role at an Asia-Pacific VC firm backing early-stage tech, climate, and health startups.

Analista de Aprendizaje Global
Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, Colombia
Manages international mobility and global-learning strategy for EAFIT students and faculty, including AI tool literacy.

Investment Associate
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Two-year role at an early-stage fund backing tech companies in health, financial resilience, and climate. Salary £45,000 to £50,000.

Director of Digital Accessibility
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Program Manager, Transition Exchange
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Blue Ambition Fund: Call for Applications
Wilde Ganzen, open to organizations in Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Africa
Funding for youth and women's economic independence through small business support and wage employment. Concept notes due August 15, 2026.

Berggruen Prize Essay Competition
Open to the public, submit by August 17, 2026
A $50,000 prize for an original essay on where civilization is headed, including questions raised by AI and technological change. No academic affiliation required.

Director, Inclusion Networks
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Leads Microsoft's global Inclusion Network ecosystem across 22 employee-led networks, including the push to modernize the program with AI-enabled insights and automation. Salary range $130,900 to $277,200.

Every day, 4.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news fix. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture — all in a brief 5-minute email. No spin. No slant. Just clarity.

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Joke of the day: Why did the AI chatbot apply for a press pass? It heard trust in the media hit a record low, so the bar finally seemed low enough.

News:

Job board of the day: All Tech Is Human's Responsible Tech Job Board, covering roles in responsible AI, trust and safety, and public interest technology.

Podcast: Newsroom Robots, hosted by Nikita Roy, digs into how newsrooms are actually deploying AI week to week, from The Economist to Bavarian Broadcasting.

LinkedIn profile to follow: Alyssa Castillo Yap, a program manager working on AI ethics and sustainability. She came to it through research at the University of Tokyo on AI, speculative fiction, and how both shape who gets designed out of a system. Filipino, based in Japan, and writing about AI from well outside the usual US and UK vantage point.

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