Ask a News SEO: USA Today’s Michael Hastings
We talked about using AI in the newsroom, building trust with audience, as well as what he wishes more editors understood about AI
Hello, and welcome back. Jessie and Shelby here, back from busy weekends. Jessie celebrated her birthday with the hits: a workout class, sauna, a HUGE nap, softball and gelato. Shelby is now a fully converted football (soccer) fan after a huge 6-0 Canadian win, and is attempting to go 3-for-3 seeing the matches at different Toronto establishments this Wednesday. Wish our country well, dear reader: we are watching history!
This week: Ask a News SEO with USA Today’s Michael Hastings! We talked about using AI in the newsroom, building trust with audience, as well as what he wishes more editors understood about AI.
🚨 Heads up! WTF is SEO? is off for the next two weeks for Canada Day, the Fourth of July, the World Cup and the fact it’s peak summer and we are taking Sheryl Crow’s seasonally-relevant advice (to soak up the sun).
Let’s get it.
THE INTERVIEW
WTF is SEO?: How are you using AI the most right now? For example, are you using it to speed up workflows, edit for style or head help with any sort of spreadsheet work?
Michael Hastings: Right now, I would say the highest value applications are workflow acceleration and discovery work. It’s a great brainstorming partner, too. I use it regularly for summarizing very long documents, new policies and accelerating research. One of my favourite ways is using it to help surface large patterns — maybe even anti-patterns — in datasets. We have agentic workflows that help with a variety of repetitive tasks — cleaning documents, extracting emails, extracting data from sources across the web. Also, we have a metadata assistant tool that uses internal data to help suggest winning headlines and meta data right in our CMS. There is a human in the loop with this tool and it is great inspiration to help with all sorts of metadata decisions.
Outside of work, right now, I use it for a variety of personal projects like organizing bills or generating mockup designs of what projects could look like just from a photo. There’s a lot of interesting accelerations. I say “right now” because it seems like every month there’s a new use case or something to experiment with.
WTF is SEO?: Do you think that using AI to help produce content runs the risk of diluting your brand in the eyes of readers and search engines? What guardrails do you have in place to make sure that that doesn’t happen?
Michael Hastings: It absolutely can if done carelessly, especially without guardrails. Specifically for USA Today, as early as April 2023, we implemented an ethical guidelines policy for journalists, product teams and SEO teams that give full disclosure when we use any AI for generated assets or assisting with the content. Our guidelines also include human editorial review and clear disclosure standards On the technical side, we are continuously monitoring quality signals from search platforms and users.
We also have a variety of specialized training. Some training will be different depending on what your use case is. We also have a pretty robust council that shares ideas, approves or gives feedback on any and all AI use cases at at our company.
WTF is SEO? Newsletter: Is it even worth it to rank on AI platforms or AI search?
Michael Hastings: I think it is useful. The question is evolving though. We want to be a trusted source wherever our audience is going. And I think that’s probably the same for most publishers. Last year, Reuters put out a pretty good report on the status of AI demand. A lot of users are using this as an initial point to jump on, get some judgment-free gut checks for life decisions, conversations, some very long-tail queries — and that’s right up our alley. But, at the end of the day, we’re just focused on being a trusted, citable source across all platforms, wherever our audience is.
I think it’s also worth mentioning some of the latest Google policy documentation on optimizing for generative AI. One of the main themes from some of their latest was that SEO is still very relevant to how AI surfaces answers. A lot of their answers are rooted in a search index: Google for Gemini, Bing for ChatGPT. Again, it is SEO fundamentals that still impact and can drive a lot of AI visibility. So, the question is evolving as we look at referral traffic from those engines as well. But, we just want to be a trusted, citable source wherever our audience is at.
WTF is SEO?: On the question of trust, what are the main priorities that you have as an organization thinking about SEO to communicate your topic authority, your E.E.A.T, your brand authority?
Michael Hastings: This is a question all publishers have. How can we display our E.E.A.T? Behind all of our content, we’re looking at trust, authority, experience and expertise. So, when we’re covering a beat, we want to make sure we’re covering it consistently. We want to make sure we have the right assets, writers, editors, and teams that have long-term experience in that beat.
We also want to provide validated, trusted content. That means transparency, following our ethical guidelines, our journalistic guidelines. We understand that our users are valuing our input because of the trust and we want to display that wherever we can on the site and through our work.
WTF is SEO?: How do you feel about AI Mode?
Michael Hastings: Any meaningful shift in how audiences discover their information is something that publishers need to take seriously. In the beginning, I would say the threat meter was higher than it is right now. I think zero clicks from Google is a bit of hype. We know that there could be some constriction in the future as AI answers questions without the follow through of a click or referral, but Google has assured us in various updates and press releases that they will continue to send traffic to publishers through their AI experiences.
We need to continue to focus on getting information out to all the people who need it most and we will continue to meet them where they’re at. We want to continue to be that source of trust and authority wherever our users are at.
WTF is SEO?: What would you never use AI for in a newsroom? And what do you advise newsrooms against using AI for at all costs?
Michael Hastings: I would never use AI for anything that needs a human connection or a lived experience. The best way I think of this it to frame it through E.E.A.T and making sure that you’re taking the experience framework seriously.
AI (right now) cannot taste, it cannot take you to places that require lived experiences like Disney World. It can’t tell you the thrill of which rides to go to. Anything that needs a lived experience is important.
For example, take a headline like, “The five best places to eat for Cinco de Mayo.” AI can summarize a listicle pretty easily. Now, compare that to, “Here are five places I actually ate at, what I ordered and which one I would take my in-laws to.” This is irreplaceable by AI and that voice cannot be authentically generated. So, I would never use it for anything that requires a human connection and a lived experience.
WTF is SEO?: What’s one thing that you wish that people in newsrooms — both journalists and senior leaders — understood better about AI?
Michael Hastings: I think that we should all know that AI is a tool in your toolbox. And with all tools, it’s useful for some things and for other things, it really is useless. Now, for the uses of AI, I don’t think we even have scratched the surface. Experimentation with use cases is extremely important. We need to push the boundaries of what we can use it for while rooting ourselves in E.E.A.T principles. It’s going to never be a substitution for things that need a human connection and lived experience.
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RECOMMENDED READING
Google news and updates
🤖 Barry Schwartz: Google speaks on chunking, site signals, content, paywalls and AI clicks.
Even more recommended reading
0️⃣ Rand Fishkin: Zero-click searches are highest in the UK, lowest in Germany. France has the most efficient searchers.
🔗 Matt G. Southern: The UK’s CMA introduced two new conduct requirements for Google Search — including a requirement for advance notice on major ranking changes.
🤖 Matt G. Southern: Google and Microsoft back a draft AI agent discovery spec called Agentic Resource Discovery.
🪫 Matt G. Southern: Reports from sites about deindexing continue to roll in, but Google says it sees nothing unusual happening.
🧪 Barry Schwartz: Microsoft Bing is testing a design tweak for the news section within Bing Search.
✏️ Sylvain Deaure: What editors can learn from an analysis of millions of headlines in Google Discover.
⚽ Sara Guaglione: How USA Today is trying to beat AI Overviews on World Cup news.
⚽ Danny Goodwin: USA Today is using AI to publish breaking sports coverage faster.
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Have something you’d like us to discuss? Send us a note on Twitter (Jessie or Shelby) or to our email: seoforjournalism@gmail.com.
Written by Jessie Willms and Shelby Blackley