Topic: original reporting

June 19, 2026

USA Today vs. Google AI: Battle for breaking news traffic

USA Today Co. is using AI-assisted "shell files" to rapidly publish breaking sports news, aiming to capture search traffic before Google's AI Overviews can summarize the events, a strategy tested during the 2026 Winter Olympics and now applied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The shell-file system, wh...

Google’s Standards Stay, But AI Makes Them Harder to Ignore

Sam Sifton of "The New York Times"' "The Morning" newsletter addressed AI's role in journalism after a book by Steven Rosenbaum was found to contain AI-hallucinated quotes, emphasizing that his newsletter is written by humans who verify information and take accountability for errors. Google's off...

Google’s Nick Fox: Deeper Content Wins in AI Search

Google's Nick Fox states that ranking in AI search still relies on creating great content, but advises going beyond surface-level answers as AI summaries handle basic queries, rewarding content that goes "one level deeper, two levels deeper." Google warns against "commodity" content that repeats ...