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Confessions of an AI Clickbait Kingpin

Serbian DJ turned internet entrepreneur Nebojša Vujinović Vujo floods abandoned news sites with AI-generated articles. But he wants you to know he’s a nice guy.

 

I was going to include this as a NIB, but the more I read the more fascinating it became. Nebojša Vujinović Vujo is an interesting character — a man aware that what he’s doing is verging on the immoral side of publishing, but equally aware that if he wasn’t doing it any number of other people and publishers would be doing it instead.

In essence, this profile explores how the DJ-turned-entrepreneur (currently working on a song called ‘Fat Lady’) went from buying up domains to squat on them to eventually using ChatGPT to create a media business based on gaming SEO. This bit is especially relevant for us given that it illustrates the game of cat-and-mouse between AI and Google, but I really recommend you read the entire article:

“Vujo says The Frisky creates revenue of between $30,000 and $50,000 a year. Perhaps it will stabilize at that level, but to score another soaring success, he has to keep hunting for other distressed media properties with lapsed domains. ‘It’s like a drug,’ Vujo says of the adrenaline rush of scouting potential squatting sites. ‘You never know what’s waiting’.”


 

Many small news nonprofits feel overlooked by funders. A new coalition is giving them a voice

“There are haves and have-nots in the nonprofit journalism space. And this isn’t right.”

There’s an ugly truth to local news funding — that you have to be a certain size to begin with to qualify for the amount of funding that would be genuinely transformative. That truth is brought to light in this article from Sophie Culpepper — but so too is the potential solution: The Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets (ANNO), which sees small outlets band together to speak to potential funders as a group.


 

“We’re not going to be a lifestyle company,” Dow Jones CEO says

Financial information publisher Dow Jones is doing gangbusters, so why change tack now?

Axios’ Sara Fischer has an exclusive here with Dow Jones’ CEO Almar Latour following its extremely positive results. As you’d expect given the success it effectively boils down to “we’re not going to change horses mid-stream”, although Latour’s allusion to the NYT is indicative of just how dominant that paper is in the minds of subscription-based businesses.


Know a good sales freelancer with a bit of capacity? Singletrack World is looking. More details on our (fledgling) recruitment board in our community forum.


 

What Medium’s CEO has learned about technology and journalism

The online publisher is on track to become profitable this year. But challenges remain for Tony Stubblebine, including AI-generated content.

I’m sure it wasn’t actually like this, but read the first two questions posed to Medium’s CEO here and tell me it doesn’t come across as a very antagonist interview. Anyway, Medium appears on track to turn a profit — but is facing the same challenges as the rest of the industry when it comes to the proliferation of AI-generated content.


More from Media Voices

 

Futureproofing local news: special podcast series

In the third episode, we speak to some local news organisations about getting company culture to the best possible place.

 

How Apple News can support publisher data strategies

There are clear pathways for publishers to funnel readers to their own properties and support data strategies using Apple News.

 

Publishers blink as Meta cuts off money and traffic

The already-strained relationship with the tech giants soured further in 2023 as attempts to force payments in Canada saw Meta block news completely.

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