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Oliver Buchannon
Michael Frew
📉 Newsweek Lost 75% of Its Traffic. Then Had Its Best Revenue Year.

Jul 23, 2026

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5 min read

📉 Newsweek Lost 75% of Its Traffic. Then Had Its Best Revenue Year.

A 93-year-old magazine lost three-quarters of its traffic and is about to post its best revenue year ever.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🎙️ Own Your List. Rent Everything Else.

Jul 16, 2026

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5 min read

🎙️ Own Your List. Rent Everything Else.

A podcaster with 11 million weekly listeners says the only asset she controls is her email list

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🎯 Your Content Powers AI Chatbots. You're Not Getting Paid.

Jul 9, 2026

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4 min read

🎯 Your Content Powers AI Chatbots. You're Not Getting Paid.

One in four chatbot answers cites YouTube creators, but platforms keep the revenue.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💸 AI Has a Licensing Market. Creators Were Cut Out.

Jul 2, 2026

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5 min read

💸 AI Has a Licensing Market. Creators Were Cut Out.

AI companies pay billions for training data. Most creators never see a cent.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🤖 AI Can't Cite Your Site If It Can't Load It

Jun 25, 2026

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4 min read

🤖 AI Can't Cite Your Site If It Can't Load It

Content optimization and schema markup mean nothing if your WordPress server can't respond to AI crawlers in time.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🔓 You Can Opt Out of Google AI. Here's the Catch.

Jun 18, 2026

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4 min read

🔓 You Can Opt Out of Google AI. Here's the Catch.

The CMA forced Google's hand. Publishers now have a formal opt-out right they cannot safely exercise.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
⚖️ Your Terms of Service Are Now Your Firewall

Jun 11, 2026

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4 min read

⚖️ Your Terms of Service Are Now Your Firewall

A federal court hears today whether your ToS, not just robots.txt, can block AI agents from your site

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
📉 Traffic-Built Media Just Got Priced. Results Are In.

Jun 4, 2026

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4 min read

📉 Traffic-Built Media Just Got Priced. Results Are In.

Vox sold New York Magazine at a loss. BuzzFeed exited for $20 million cash. Traffic was never the business.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💸 Amazon Slashed Affiliate Rates. No Press Release.

May 28, 2026

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4 min read

💸 Amazon Slashed Affiliate Rates. No Press Release.

Amazon cut Associates commissions up to 50% with no public announcement. Publishers found out from their account managers.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
📉 Google Added Links. Publishers Still Have No Click Data.

May 21, 2026

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4 min read

📉 Google Added Links. Publishers Still Have No Click Data.

Google expanded AI Search link surfaces this week. Publishers still cannot measure whether any of it drives clicks.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💸 AI Scrapers Take 100% and Call It Infrastructure

May 14, 2026

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4 min read

💸 AI Scrapers Take 100% and Call It Infrastructure

The scraper economy rebranded as "agentic infrastructure." The extraction math has not changed one bit.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💼 Platform Fame Is a Sales Funnel, Not a Business

May 7, 2026

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4 min read

💼 Platform Fame Is a Sales Funnel, Not a Business

TJ Palma built $1.2M in real estate revenue from platform fame - the followers were the funnel, not the product

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🎬 $50M Movie, Zero YouTube Distribution Rights

Apr 30, 2026

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4 min read

🎬 $50M Movie, Zero YouTube Distribution Rights

Even YouTube’s biggest creators can’t sell their own films

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🤖 AI Agents Are Browsing for You, But Your Site Can't Handle It

Apr 23, 2026

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4 min read

🤖 AI Agents Are Browsing for You, But Your Site Can't Handle It

Every major browser now ships AI that acts on your behalf. Most websites are structurally broken for the shift.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
⚖️ AI Companies Are Finally Paying for Using Your Video Content

Apr 16, 2026

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7 min read

⚖️ AI Companies Are Finally Paying for Using Your Video Content

Copyright lawsuits trace creator videos to AI training datasets. Plus: Yoast adds free AI visibility scans for WP sites

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🚨 Why EmDash Isn't The 'Spiritual Sucessor To WordPress' - Yet

Apr 9, 2026

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7 min read

🚨 Why EmDash Isn't The 'Spiritual Sucessor To WordPress' - Yet

Cloudflare solves developer security — but skips the ownership, monetization, and exit questions publishers actually care about

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🔑 Publishers Split Revenue 50-50 With AI - Creators Get Zero

Apr 2, 2026

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7 min read

🔑 Publishers Split Revenue 50-50 With AI - Creators Get Zero

Independent creators weren't invited to the News/Media Alliance licensing deal that pays publishers when AI cites their content

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
Cloudflare built the scraper it promised to block

Mar 26, 2026

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7 min read

Cloudflare built the scraper it promised to block

Plus: AI pays Disney millions: the two-tier content economy is here - creators are on the wrong side of the deal

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🔗 YouTube Built the Audience. Substack Captured the Equity.

Mar 19, 2026

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7 min read

🔗 YouTube Built the Audience. Substack Captured the Equity.

How one creator turned 870K YouTube subs into 5,200 paying Substack members.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
Google Discover Drives 68% of News Traffic — That’s a Problem

Mar 12, 2026

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7 min read

Google Discover Drives 68% of News Traffic — That’s a Problem

Publishers celebrating Discover growth are missing the point: you're trading search intent for algorithmic dependency with zero guarantees

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🔍 Why WordPress's legal drama reveals your real risk

Mar 5, 2026

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6 min read

🔍 Why WordPress's legal drama reveals your real risk

Sealed court docs + creator capital markets = the business model shift nobody's talking about

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💸 Google isn't killing your traffic - you're letting it

Feb 26, 2026

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8 min read

💸 Google isn't killing your traffic - you're letting it

The publishers growing revenue right now aren't fighting Google. They're routing around it.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🔥 Why publishers are losing the AI content war

Feb 19, 2026

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7 min read

🔥 Why publishers are losing the AI content war

The IAB's bill won't save you. Here's what actually works when LLMs scrape your content.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
🍴 AI platforms eat your content-here's the revenue math

Feb 12, 2026

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5 min read

🍴 AI platforms eat your content-here's the revenue math

While creators chase AI traffic, the platforms are measuring 'utility' vs. human relevance-and only one pays

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
💸 Publishers pay 30% to rent content

Feb 5, 2026

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7 min read

💸 Publishers pay 30% to rent content

Cloudflare’s AI licensing turns ownership into infrastructure rent, shifting control and margins away from publishers and into CDN infrastructure layers.

Michael Frew
Michael Frew
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