Platformer Reinvents Its Model in Response to the Rise of AI

Reflections on the Evolution of Platformer

At Platformer, an interesting tip for a story, received on Signal, prompted apprehension instead of the usual excitement. When to make the calls needed to verify this information? Where to find the time to meet sources in person? Since the launch of the daily newsletter in 2017, this pressure has often been felt. Platformer's approach has always been to report scoops when possible, supplemented by news analysis. This has led to an imbalance, favoring analysis over in-depth investigation.

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the backlash against tech companies, publishing link roundups on technology and democracy has been a niche for the newsletter. However, the newsletter landscape has become saturated. Many writers have left newsrooms to write for their own audiences. Newsletters, once ancillary, are now central for many publishers. Yet the decline of the web and the struggles of large media companies have reduced the amount of tech journalism available.

The rise of artificial intelligence this year has introduced systems that encroach on journalists' work. In January, Platformer experimented with an automated daily briefing of link summaries. It works as well as a hand-picked selection at finding interesting stories, and it does so automatically, overnight. Link aggregation, while never the most valuable work, has seen its worth diminish. More and more people are using personal agents to write news summaries. A growing number of Substack publications seem to be generated by AI.

Some people, particularly executives and policy professionals, are expected to begin relying on AI for news analysis. Chatbots are becoming more accurate in their answers about the implications of the news. For now, they have less authority than the experts who write paid newsletters. But the internet has already shown how it deskills and replaces journalists. It is possible to imagine a future where morning and afternoon newsletters are replaced by briefings personalized by agents.

Necessary Adaptation for Platformer

If the three pillars of Platformer are original reporting, news analysis, and link aggregation, it seems that one of these pillars is already commodified and another is on its way to being so. The team has tried to adapt to these changes, but the view is that it needs to move faster. In September, Platformer expressed a desire to spend more time on reporting. Subscribers supported this change, pointing out that quality trumps quantity.

Platformer takes pride in the original reporting done: unreported internal conversations about Meta's AI spyware, a possible disengagement from Meta's Oversight Board, and the closure of OpenAI's mission alignment team. The team has also generated interest in its firsthand experiences with AI.

They have done their best with the current schedule. But occasional days off are not enough to provide what is truly wanted: the flexibility to leave the office for several hours, to develop stories over several days, and to spend a slow news day reporting rather than putting together a column.

Today, an experiment begins to see what this version of Platformer would look like. Free subscribers will still receive one column per week. Paid subscribers will get an additional column on Thursdays, considered a reporter's notebook: what is being heard, what the team is working on, a preview of Hard Fork, and a mailbox. Some may resemble traditional columns; others may be bolder.

Paid subscribers will also receive additional stories and analyses as they are written. This is the biggest change: instead of promising to publish on a fixed schedule, pieces will go out when something interesting is discovered or when the aim is to help readers understand the big story of the day.

In practice, there are expected to be many weeks when paid subscribers still hear from the team three times a week. But for all the reasons given, Platformer must change so that the schedule serves the journalism. For too long, it has been the other way around.

Adjustments and Future Plans

A few other adjustments are being made. Side Quests, the end-of-column section with all the interesting links, is going away. Techmeme does this job better, 24/7. Going forward, the energy will be reserved for advancing the story.

The Following section, launched in September to inform readers of the day's news with thoughts and comments from influential people, remains. Readers appreciate it greatly, and Following editions will continue to be sent to paid subscribers to help them understand the big stories on days when other topics are being worked on. They will continue to be found after the columns.

Finally, a major project is under way: a limited series of conversations about the future of AI and work, which will launch next month in text, audio, and video formats. The goal is to capture the current uncertainty and the latent conflict between workers and managers, as Platformer covered earlier this year with the AI productivity paradox. Exciting discussions are planned, and more details will be shared soon. In the meantime, it's a good time to add the Platformer feed to your favorite podcast player.

As always, feedback on these changes is welcome. It is sincerely called an experiment: the plan is to iterate on this new approach over the coming months, and it remains possible to change course or revert based on reader feedback. Honestly, these changes are somewhat terrifying, as they replace the production-line logic of a three-times-a-week column with something wilder and less certain.

But as one brilliant Silicon Valley CEO put it: only the paranoid survive. In a world where everyone has an opinion but almost no one has a second source, the bet is that the value of tech journalism is shifting from aggregation and predictability to original reporting and surprise.

Platformer thanks everyone who has supported it so far and invites everyone else to join if this new chapter sounds interesting. In the meantime, there is a tip to follow.