From the editor: Is digital media doomed? The following perspective comes from a guest who was an executive at one of the biggest newsrooms in the world. It reframes the way generative AI is often blamed for contaminating content with mediocre output. What if the focus was on the journalism and not the content?

Newsroom conversations about AI are confined by the wrong mindset. News is a service, not a product. In order to understand why this matters, let me break it down.

If news is a product, then the ultimate byproduct is the article. This mindset dictates how ads are bought, sold, and placed on the real-estate of the page. Additionally, the traffic to that page determines the ultimate value of the coverage for the bottom line. Publishers will spend resources designing the packaging and promotion of that content. Awards will be set up to honor the best designs. Careers will be made out of this whole arrangement. And while it works for many of the actors involved, it is missing one key element: the audience. For the most part, the youngest generation in the professional world are not finding any of this relevant.