News Machines

News Machines analyzes how news media in the U.S. and worldwide are innovating with AI. One new case study every week.

New posts

Aug 18, 2026

•

10 min read

How to price your journalism for AI when you're flying blind

News publishers can finally state terms that AI crawlers understand. But you can’t confirm yet who they are.

Ulrike Langer

Aug 12, 2026

•

6 min read

How Writers' Bloc wants to get small publishers paid when AI steals their work

A fingerprint for every article, a watchdog for the web and AI models, and an alliance for collective bargaining. I interviewed the founder — and I'm signing up.

Ulrike Langer

Aug 5, 2026

•

6 min read

Which media companies are making money with AI in real life, and how are they doing it?

I found out by querying Sergei Yakupov's AI for Newsroom database for free — and so can you. Here are my analysis and some tipps for your own queries.

Ulrike Langer

Load more

Archive

Jul 29, 2026

•

5 min read

How to tell whether your AI visibility is worth anything

AI sends traffic that converts better than almost any other channel. But news publishers who get cited most are not the ones receiving it.

Ulrike Langer

Premium

Jul 21, 2026

•

9 min read

How SPUR wants to make AI companies report what they do with your journalism

Every AI licensing deal signed so far has been priced blind. A new telemetry standard is meant to end that — if AI companies agree to be measured.

Ulrike Langer

Jul 14, 2026

•

6 min read

Why AI agents might finally be the perfect micro-payers

AI companies are abandoning the flat rate. Here’s what news publishers can do to turn that shift to their advantage.

Ulrike Langer

Jul 7, 2026

•

5 min read

How TIME, The Economist and Dow Jones each decided what to expose to AI agents

Three of the smartest names in media looked at the AI-agent future and moved in different directions, protecting their unique assets.

Ulrike Langer

Jul 1, 2026

•

7 min read

How a cycling website turned its newsroom tools into the product

Velora Cycling looks like an AI-native publication. Seven months in, it's really a software company with a cycling site as the demo.

Ulrike Langer

Premium

Jun 24, 2026

•

7 min read

How a War-Zone Newsroom in Ukraine Uses AI To Listen

The Kyiv Independent employs machines to learn the needs of its paying members and sends humans where machines can’t go.

Ulrike Langer

Premium

Jun 16, 2026

•

6 min read

Why a non-techie wrote one of the most useful AI guides for newsrooms

A review of Martin Schori’s “AI in the Newsroom” — three years building and running Aftonbladet’s AI hub turned into a practical guide for curious journalists and newsroom leaders

Ulrike Langer

Premium

Jun 9, 2026

•

7 min read

Why It’s Easy to Launch Speedboats and Hard to Bring Them Home

The Norwegian tabloidVG has systematized where to point AI down to one decimal place. But how innovation crosses back into the core newsroom still depends on a single person.

Ulrike Langer

Jun 2, 2026

•

6 min read

How a small AI lab in Norway built a vibe-coding ladder for non-coding journalists

Polaris Media Vest gave reporters who can’t code a way to build interactive tools for readers — and a clear line between the throwaway widget and the service worth maintaining.

Ulrike Langer

May 27, 2026

•

6 min read

Why the question of whether to license AI is harder than it looks

Three key questions sit underneath it. None of them have settled answers yet.

Ulrike Langer

May 19, 2026

•

5 min read

How Zetland wants to conquer Europe with journalism people trust and care about

Legacy media has lost the plot on why readers should care. Zetland believes it has found a solution in the age of AI - and is now taking it across Europe. Germany is next.

Ulrike Langer

Premium

May 13, 2026

•

5 min read

Reroute NJ: How a Pop-up Website Served 2,000 Commuters a Day

Built in a day, closed in a month: The case for ephemeral websites in journalism

Ulrike Langer

Load more