Greetings and salutations. I started a weekly briefing for Publishing Strategies yonks ago but shelved it pretty soon afterwards for no apparent reason. So, here I am correcting that fatal flaw. These are the articles that caught my eye over the last seven days…
…but first a reminder of how whacky working with AI can sometimes be. Yes, we all know bots hallucinate but this one took me completely off guard.
I was trying to find some info about an old rave I used to go to years ago (as you do) and Google’s AI Mode gave me quite a decent response as there’s never been a lot of detail about that specific event.
However, something in the response felt a little familiar so I asked AI Mode where it had sourced the info from. It referenced a specific DJ interview:
But as I read the answer, I realised that the copy was not from NARR Radio but actually from ME.
Google had pulled in the transcript from an Instagram video post I’d uploaded earlier this year, so the citation and quoted source were completely made up.
This was so odd, at one point I thought I was hallucinating.
Its apology was equally suspect:
What the hell Google AI??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just another reminder that, as we absorb more AI into our lives - freely handing over API details, passcodes and personal information - the system is, at best, flaky.
Anyway, here’s the Couscous track I wrote and let’s crack on.
SEMRush AI Visibility Index Report 2026.
Of course, it’s a promo for a suite of Semrush tools but I thought it did a pretty good job of outlining the basics when it comes to AI Visibility with some smart recommendations - including just how different each of the bots are in what they cite and mention.
AI visibility is a topic-level game: A study of 50,000 brands in ChatGPT [Study]
Some standout insights here from Kevin Indig, reminding us to delve deeper into topic level analysis. “Broad SEO signals do not consistently predict topic ownership. Domain-level metrics like Authority Score and organic traffic correlate with ownership only about half the time. The competitive picture only becomes clear at the topic level.”
I also like his point: “Grow your topical authority. Topical presence comes from three things working together: broad content coverage across the questions inside a category, relevant mentions in the sources ChatGPT draws from (Reddit, review sites, industry publications, expert commentary), and strong entity signals (structured data, consistent brand naming, third-party citations that tie your brand to the topic).”
And Speaking of entities there was a great video on this very subject by Kim Harris which you can watch here.
Kim also had some excellent tips on ‘writing for the next question’ so go and check it out. Likewise, Harry Clarkson-Bennett also has a great summary of the steps you need to consider when it comes to entity search.
Louisa Frahm also have a nice post about optimising for conversational search which also includes this notion of ‘the follow-up question’.
Bot Management In Search 2026
Chris Green has some excellent advice here on bot management - a really strong overview of everything you should consider before typing that disallow rule. He also has several neat tools via his website so go and check them out.
Did I mention cool seo tools? I also launched a few myself this week. If nothing else you will love the Google Core Update predictor. Then again, if you have an actual life, you will move swiftly on.
International SEO for Publishers
Barry Adams always chooses the key topics being discussed in SEO-land and this one is no exception.
Google announces web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console
Publishers can now start to see which stories and topics are being discovered through visual search, and how that behaviour differs from traditional Google searches.
The Generative AI Report Sucks - Let’s Make It Brilliant
Harry delivers another useful method of connecting data to make powerful commercial decisions, this time via the Generative AI Report available in Google Search Console.
50 things you should know about AI
I found this fabulous podcast this week and I now my tiny brain feels levelled up.
The Godfather of User Needs x A Stern Look
Dmitry Shishkin and Selma Stern have a great chat here about short-termism in newsrooms that limits innovation. Thankfully our AI overlords will soon elevate us all from this messy business of being human.
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Final Thought: I am coming round to the idea that using the term ‘commodity content’ is becoming redundant, at least in the news industry. I think the term has become too pejorative, a polite way of saying ‘don’t do crap content.’ This avoids the detail that a lot of newsroom output is necessarily functional i.e a lot of users just want accurate breaking news served without any frills.
So, I think we, as an industry have to be careful when we use this term ‘commodity’, because it belittles the good work of journalists working every minute to get those stories out.
That still doesn’t change the fact that all publishers are facing an existential moment if if they don’t offer something distinctive or try to put their personalities front and centre - they are going to struggle. But let’s be kinder when we are trying to problem-solve here.
See you next week.