I've Got Questions with Sinead Bovell AI Could Disrupt Media… or Reinvent It | The Atlantic CEO, Nicholas Thompson
Dec 4, 2025
Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and former editor of Wired, dives into the complex relationship between AI and journalism. He explains how AI poses both threats and opportunities for media companies, and discusses The Atlantic's growth in a turbulent landscape. Thompson shares insights on experimenting with AI partnerships, the necessity of maintaining journalistic integrity, and the essential skills future journalists will need. He also touches on his new book, The Running Ground, exploring resilience and creativity through the lens of running.
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Use AI To Find Stories, Not Replace Writers
- Build an internal suite of AI tools to help reporters find and prove stories, but avoid using AI to write copy.
- Thompson wants tools that make journalism a 'magnet' for finding needles-in-haystack stories.
Three AI Risks To Journalism's Economics
- Three AI-driven threats could upend news: chatbot-first consumption, the web disappearing, and hyper-personalized AI-generated ads.
- Thompson lays out how each trend could remove traffic, credit, and ad revenue from publishers.
Lock Data, Block Scrapers, License Selectively
- Lock control of your data, block scrapers, and selectively license content to AI devices.
- Thompson highlights partnering with Cloudflare and exploring revenue-sharing reverse-search models like ProRata.
