TL;DR. So this is the question I keep circling in 2026: if AI can spin up an infinite amount of content from basically nothing, what’s still worth anything? I brought on Michael Schreiber to answer it, because he’s spent years inside the rooms that set the standard, New York Times, HBO, ABC, NBC, and now runs MediaFeed, a content syndication company, plus a local podcast in his New Jersey town. We got into the slop problem, why the smartest move is teaching people to do the thing you sell, what trust actually looks like now, and the moment his co-host read his AI-written draft and told him to knock it off. Watch the full conversation above.
Outline
(00:13) – Welcome
(01:05) – From newspapers to MediaFeed
(05:26) – The content funnel, top to bottom
(07:23) – Why you resist the urge to sell
(10:08) – Teach them to fish, they still pay you
(13:43) – What trust looks like in 2026
(14:17) – Lazy AI versus strategic AI
(18:33) – The tidal wave of slop
(21:23) – Canonical tags and being known for something
(30:06) – “This is shit. You’re a good writer.”
(43:52) – Denial of Death
My Takeaways
Resist the sell, or lose the trust. Michael’s whole model runs on real editorial content, and the hardest discipline in it is refusing to sell inside the piece, even when the piece only exists because you have something to sell. His reasoning landed for me because it cuts both ways. “People are smart enough to figure that out and will undermine your brand ultimately. And it also probably won’t help your sales.” So you lose the trust and you don’t even get the conversion. That’s the worst trade in content, and most people make it without noticing.
Teach people to fish. Here’s the counterintuitive one. Michael talked about creating content that shows people how to do, on their own, the exact thing his client’s service provides. Sounds insane until you hear him out. “You can teach people how to fish. They’re still going to want you to go fishing for them sometimes.” A small slice does it themselves, a much larger slice reads it and goes, that sounds like a lot of work, I’ll just pay you. You become the encyclopedia Britannica of whatever it is you do, and the trust comes with it.
“This is shit. You’re a good writer.” This is the moment I’ll be telling people about. Michael tried handing his podcast write-ups to AI, fed it samples of his own writing, the whole thing. His co-host read it and said, pardon the French, “this is shit, you’re a good writer, what the hell are you doing?” So he stopped and went back to writing them himself. I felt that one, because it’s exactly why I still write my own Monday and Thursday pieces by hand and only bring AI in afterward to check whether I’m rambling.
The tool gets you efficiency, but the voice is still yours to bring.
If anyone can generate the content, the only scarce thing left is the reason it’s worth trusting. What’s yours?
About Michael Schreiber
Michael Schreiber is the CEO of MediaFeed, a content syndication company that helps brands, nonprofits, and journalists develop and distribute real editorial work. A longtime journalist whose path ran through newspapers, documentaries, and financial outlets including TheStreet and Credit.com, he also hosts a local podcast covering his New Jersey town. Find his work at mediafeed.co, on Instagram, and on LinkedIn.
About me
Joel Salinas is an Executive AI Coach for leaders at small and mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. 1:1 coaching, team workshops, and AI strategy work built around amplifying what your team is already good at. Creator of the AI Leadership Triad. He writes Leadership in Change. If you want help thinking through your own AI strategy or online presence, start here.
Written by a human, for humans.
