AI & the future of media with The Atlantic CEO, Nicholas Thompson

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, led one of the first major content licensing deals with OpenAI in 2024. In this conversation, he joins Azeem to unpack how AI is transforming media – and what that means for every business navigating the shifting economics of attention, trust, and discovery.

We cover:

(01:49) Journalism’s four horsemen

(5:33) The collapse of search

(9:07) Cloudflare’s counterattack

(13:56) Is this the search-traffic fix?

(17:42) Rise of the sovereign creator

(22:57) Do great writers need editors?

(26:22) Why conservatives win new media

(27:17) How Substack drives discovery

(31:08) East Coast vs. West Coast ethics

(35:11) How Nick uses AI in writing

(42:13) Is AI friend or foe to journalism?

(45:32) The Atlantic’s survival plan

Nick's links:

The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasxthompson/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/nxthompson

Substack: https://nxthompson.substack.com

Azeem's links:

Substack: https://www.exponentialview.co/

Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azhar

Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem

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