Innovations in Media: 'Newsberg'

While visiting family in Oregon a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an interesting print-digital hybrid that leverages old and new media to broaden its audience. 

Newsberg serves Newberg, Oregon, a charming city of about 25,000 people that sits in the Willamette Valley wine country. The city's primary local media is The Newberg Graphic, a 138-year-old weekly newspaper and digital operation owned by Carpenter Media Group. 

But wedging its way into local eyeballs is Newsberg.org, an enterprising 3-year-old hyper-local non-profit news venture that combines a weekly 2-page print product with a weekly email newsletter, active website and larger special print editions. All are free. 

Click to read more ...

Innovations in Media: ‘Make us your preferred Google source’

Updated on Thursday, August 13, 2026 at 9:02 AM by Logan Molen

Search-engine optimization has been a challenge for news websites for several decades, ever since Google Page Rank brought the opportunity for more eyeballs to the forefront of web strategy.

In the age of artificial intelligence and Google’s focus on “AI Mode” when prioritizing results, even the smallest of tweaks can pay dividends. 

Several days ago, while visiting Monocle.com, I was presented with this page, encouraging me to add the site to my list of “Preferred Sources” on my Google Pixel 9 phone. I frequently use the Pixel’s “swipe right” feature to pull up a feed of top news and topics of interest based on trends in my search history. 

What’s smart about the strategy

Click to read more ...

Innovations in Media: 'Primary' — not 'Objection'

I started out here with plans to highlight a new startup called Objection. But in a world of pivots, before I could start writing, Objection” has transformed itself into a new venture called Primary. Regardless, both ventures are worth exploring. 

The June 2021 Hollywood Reporter article that spawned a complaint via the Objection website.Let’s start with Objection.ai, which I first learned of from a June 10 article in The Hollywood Reporter. That article — headlined “An Online Tribunal Funded by Peter Thiel is Putting Journalists on Trial. “I’m Case No. 1” — certainly caught my eye. The article is well worth reading, but here’s the gist: 

Anyone who is the subject of a news article can “object” to anything within that article by submitting a complaint to Objection. The site then contacts the author of the article, inviting them to defend their work by uploading supporting evidence. Objection then would send the information to a “tribunal” of artificial intelligence “judges” to gauge the legitimacy of the journalism. The AI judges included publicly available models like Claude, ChatGPT and Grok. 

Click to read more ...