Recorded live at the WAN-IFRA Paris AI Forum, Episode 19 of The Signal looks at how AI is being used across news organisations from journalists building their own tools and AI-powered archive discovery to audience-focused products designed to solve very specific local problems.

We explore why organisations including The Economist, Polaris and KQED are experimenting with new approaches to AI, coding and newsroom innovation, and why the next phase of AI in journalism may need to move beyond internal workflows.

Because making journalists more efficient is only part of the story. The bigger opportunity could be using AI to improve the audience experience, create genuine two-way conversations and rebuild trust between news organisations and the people they serve.

The conversation also looks at what newsrooms risk losing as more entry-level work becomes automated, and how AI can be introduced without stripping away the skills, judgement and culture that make journalism work.

We also hear about the Newsroom AI Catalyst Program for Ukrainian Publishers, a WAN-IFRA, ERPU and Fathm initiative supporting 10 independent Ukrainian publishers to develop practical AI projects around critical updates, investigations, data and cultural preservation.

This is a conversation about what AI is actually doing inside newsrooms and what it could do next.

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In this episode of The Signal, Tom Trewinnard speaks to Katya Gorchinskaya, creator of Jindex.ai, a database tracking publicly disclosed examples of AI adoption across the global media industry.

Katya reveals that media organisations are adapting to AI at a pace that could be up to 100 times faster than the original digital transformation. But while much of the focus is currently on newsroom workflows, content production and AI tools, the next phase could be much bigger.

We’re starting to see AI move into advertising, subscriptions, revenue models and the way audiences discover news.

Then there’s an even bigger question: what happens when the newsroom itself disappears?

Katya discusses the rapid emergence of AI-native media outlets, fully synthetic news organisations operating with little or no human involvement and why many are appearing in places where local journalism has already disappeared.

The conversation also explores AI adoption in China, where public procurement data reveals a highly centralised, top-down approach to AI implementation in media.

But perhaps the biggest question is one we still can’t answer: what will the media value chain actually look like when audiences increasingly discover and consume news through AI?

The Signal is a Fathm podcast about AI, journalism, media innovation and the forces changing how we create, distribute and consume information.

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What happens when the relationship between PR and journalism starts to change?

In this episode of The Signal, Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard are joined by music publicist Andy Prevezer to explore the changing world of music PR, journalism, media relationships and the creator economy.

Andy shares his perspective on the long-standing relationship between publicists and mainstream media, why trusted national publications still matter when artists and public figures need to set the record straight, and how social media, podcasts and creators are changing the way people communicate directly with audiences.

The conversation also looks at the growing financial pressure facing independent musicians, from the decline of traditional music magazines and local venues to the realities of touring and streaming, and asks what the future of the music industry might look like.

And then there’s AI.

As the technology reshapes media and creative industries, is there still something uniquely valuable about live, human experiences that technology simply can’t replicate?

The Signal is a Fathm podcast about AI, journalism, media innovation and the forces changing how we create, distribute and consume information.

Subscribe to The Signal for new episodes every week.

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Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode, Fergus and Tom speak with music PR guru Andy Prevezer. Andy has worked with Liam Gallagher, Simply Red, Sting, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Neil Young and many, many more. From writing press releases and securing column inches in daily newspapers to guiding artists towards an entire reimagining of their public perception, Andy has done it all. In this episode he explains what music PR was, what it became and what it is now.

Andy, Fergus and Tom discuss

• The importance of trust.
• The nurturing of the relationship between artists, PRs and journalists.
• Waking up and thinking, "What's Liam Gallagher said now?"
• The current state of major labels and how they view the work of public relations.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is - and can be - used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders, practical thinking on the future of journalism, and honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're on a quick holiday. The internet can wait. Can't it?

While Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard take a few days away from The Signal, we’ve pulled together some of the best bits from the series so far.

From AI and the future of journalism to audience behaviour, the death of traditional virality, newsroom innovation, creators, business models and even the occasional detour into Love Island, like a holidaymaker finally reaching their hotel room, there’s a lot to unpack.

If you’re new to The Signal, this is a good place to start. If you’ve been with us from the beginning, consider it a summer recap.

And if you want the full conversations, you can catch up on all episodes of The Signal now on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

We’ll be back with a brand new episode on September 3. Until then, happy catching up.

Hosted by Fathm co-founders Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode we consider: is going viral dead? Is the only thing we have left to share the World Cup or the Traitors? How do you go viral in 2026? After a flood of AI generated Kurdish apple doctor videos, who does TikTok think Tom even is?

The internet used to be predictable, Google was for search, Twitter was great for breaking news and Facebook was good for discovery. Then normal people began to use “algorithm” in every day sentences. Social media managers curated content and data. Companies were born who helped you measure your spikes in engagement.

That’s the “old internet”, now the whole thing is fragmented. The walls are now down, you can access the same information, it’s just the big tech companies would rather you stayed on their platform. Does AI search work well? That depends if you’re a user or a brand. TikTok, YouTube and Reddit are all strong for search. They dig into the strange worlds of whale-washing videos and coffee-machine reviews content. Have we had the Death of Virality? Is the new viral measurable impact? Are we at the very beginning of personalisation? Where’s the concept of a shared experience gone? All these questions and more.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is — and can be — used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders and practical thinking on the future of journalism, as well as honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, then subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode, Fergus speaks with Jessica Davis, Vice President of News Automation and AI Product at USA Today Network. Drawing on her extensive experience leading AI initiatives and capstone research at CUNY, Jessica addresses the critical challenge of scaling AI efficiently while preserving journalistic integrity.

She explains why constant manual oversight - having humans "in the loop" - creates operational bottlenecks and automation bias. Instead, she advocates for a "human on the loop" model, utilising structured AI evaluations and supervisory "evaluator" agents grounded in clear, data-informed metrics.

In this episode, Fergus and Jessica discuss:

• Maintaining Trust: Why "generative AI is probabilistic" and how to manage accuracy risks.
• Avoiding Oversight Fatigue: Moving past manual review without losing editorial control.
• Evolving Standards & Hallucinations: How "evaluator agents" fix errors and prove reliability.
• Embracing Industry Shifts: As Jessica notes: "I do think it's a natural step, and if it makes us uncomfortable, well, why? Let's sit with that a minute... and talk."

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is - and can be - used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders, practical thinking on the future of journalism, and honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episode, Fergus talks to journalist Simon Ingram to consider what journalism is doing right and wrong when covering the climate crisis. "Sell hell and you are a party pooper - sell joy and you're tone deaf." This self-contained paradox captures the entire editorial problem that journalists are facing.

As Simon says, "Climate journalism has traditionally relied on nobility of the audience, but it's folly to presume that people care about the greater good." So what techniques are there to pull people in and keep them invested? "It's not about saving the planet," Simon says. "It's about saving the human." Journalists need to reframe climate messaging away from supposed ideas of altruism toward the clearer goals of self-interest.

We can see how "words are moving quicker than the pictures" when headlines that describe crisis-level heat waves are paired with simple stock images of people eating ice cream and enjoying paddling pools. Journalism needs to inspire readers to live differently - to make them want to embrace change.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is — and can be — used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders and practical thinking on the future of journalism, as well as honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, then subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. In this episose they consider Frontier AI, the story of Anthropic’s Mythos and the government-worrying levels of its capabilities. The power of Fable 5 and the regulation of frontier AI models. Are we at risk of losing access to US-owned technology? What about Chinese-owned “open-weight” models and the surge in demand they’ve created for Mac Minis. Should you build on the best models - and absorb the cost? - or the slightly less intelligent models that no one can turn off?

What are the risks for newsrooms and governments with “model sovereignty”? What about the “token tax” - for those people working in other languages than English? Should we think of AI as electricity, the energy behind what we all do? What AI is the safest to use? How do you get enough space, power and water to provide that service? Fergus and Tom consider Elon’s methane turbines (not a 90s indie band, btw) and the ability of governments to control how models are used.

What about the idea of publicly owned AI models? The question is, of course, is it a bubble? But how can an infrastructure be a bubble? The good news, Fable is back and Tom is happily token-maxing.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is — and can be — used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders and practical thinking on the future of journalism, as well as honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, then subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to The Signal, hosted by Fergus Bell and Tom Trewinnard. The second part of this deep dive into Sulzberger's speech considers whether there's a pressure not to dissent from the message of speeches like this one. Why weren't journalists asking more questions of OpenAI's Varun Shetty when they had the chance?

Does the news industry hold itself to the same standards it demands of the technology companies - and do audiences even understand that? Tom and Fergus look into the "simplistic" arguments around search, social media and advertising: where does the burden of responsibility really lie, what does future sustainability look like, and how do you learn from what's gone wrong?

Fergus tackles his "multiple problems" with Sulzberger's speech, and considers whether it's right that one news organisation gets to set the tone of the conversation. How do news organisations use AI in the right way? Is being a "destination for news" a soon-to-be outdated idea in an AI-intermediated world? What are the industry's standards, and how should it build trust with audiences? And if you believe in the power of AI, how do you build the technologies of the future? The Signal is here to spark the conversation.

If you want to understand how the news is being created and distributed, how AI is — and can be — used in newsrooms, insights from media leaders and practical thinking on the future of journalism, as well as honest conversations about what's working and what isn't, then subscribe and follow to stay close to The Signal.

Fergus and Tom will be here every week. Find The Signal on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts.

Produced by Rob Fitzpatrick

Edited by James Bullock

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.