Media and the Machine

My guest today is Mark Riley. He was the Head of Innovation at Dow Jones and is now Founder and CEO of Mathison.ai.

If you run or build a media business, this one is about how to survive—and grow—in the AI world.

At News Corp, Mark met with more than 110 AI companies—before ChatGPT even launched—and now coaches publishing CEOs on how to grow with AI.

In this chat, we get into:

• Whether publishers should woo or sue AI companies, or take a middle ground (Mark gives examples of each)

• We get His blunt view on how much traffic AI will (and won’t) send

• He shares The most “untouchable” media business in an AI world

• And whether the AI Models themselves can do real journalism

• AI's impact on Classifieds (Mark launched the Wall Street Journal's "Mansion" section and worked at Gumtree (the UK version of Craigslist)

Mark’s also got some great inside stories from his time at Dow Jones, such as:

• Presenting to News Corp’s Founder & CEO Rupert Murdoch just two weeks into the job
• And what it’s like walking past Fox News every day on his way into the Wall Street Journal—same building, very different ideologies 

Thanks to Pete Pachal of Media Copilot for putting Mark on my radar—he did a great interview with him in early 2025.

Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Riley.

Thanks, Rob