Inside the Newsroom: How AI and Choice Are Remaking Media
Inside the Newsroom - Paul Edmondson, CEO of The Arena Group, joins Jeff Snyder to discuss how AI, creator economies, and changing consumer choice are reshaping the media landscape in 2026. They cover the rise of video and written storytelling, diversifying revenue streams, recruiting talent, and how tools like AI complement (not replace) journalists. Watch for insights on building modern media businesses and what gives publishers a competitive edge.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Paul Edmondson. He is the Chief Executive Officer for the ARENA Group.
Paul, thanks so much for making time for us this morning. Jeff, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
Yeah, and I have a whole bunch of questions for you. As I told you, I'm very curious. I think the audience is curious about the changing world of media.
We see it in our streaming. We see it online, in social media. Let me start with the basic question for you.
It's 2026. If you didn't know, let me ask you, how has the media landscape continued to evolve? And maybe what are some of the challenges for you and the ARENA Group?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Well, I think you have to start with AI. You know, AI is everywhere. It's impacting businesses everywhere from tools to distribution.
And that's for 2026 and even for 2025, that's really been what has sort of been changing the media landscape across, you know, from streaming to text.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Is there anyone in the lead? I mean, when I think of, you know, I'm still kind of old school. I like to watch cable television from time to time or whatever they call it today.
Streamers, social media, cable networks. Is anyone leading or is it really just everyone's leading or everyone's behind?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Yeah, I think you have to look at it across really what is happening with consumers. And consumers just now have choice and they can consume, you know, content however they really like. So whether they want to read it, watch it, listen to it.
And I think that's really the biggest change that's happened is all the choice that's out there for people, how they want to digest their media.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So is there like a fixed pie when you think of views, you know, and maybe from your perspective as someone who's running multiple media sites, media outlets, is there just this fixed pie of viewers or is the pie getting, for lack of a better analogy, getting bigger every day, every week, every year?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
That's a really interesting question. There's a couple things that have been historically tied to consumption. One is connectivity.
And connectivity continues to improve across the world. The other thing is like we talked a little bit about AI and tools. And tools allow people to be more productive on the amount of content they create.
And when you combine those two things together, consumption goes up. So my view, the pie is actually increasing rapidly. There's certainly some challenges to pieces of the pie.
And depending on how you go after it, and you can look at print, radio, television, CTV, you know, subscriptions, syndication, all those other aspects of it. But there are just more consumption and more creation.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So how do you structure an organization, a media outlet? As I said, the Arena Group, you oversee many different media properties. But do you have to realign yourselves in order to serve the customer who may be accessing your information in so many different ways through all these mediums?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Yeah. I think every media company, particularly anybody that gets to scale, is constantly evolving their business. There's some really, I think, some really interesting things today, because there are individual creators that have really built, you know, interesting businesses for themselves, or small businesses, or even in some case, large businesses.
And they really specialize in one aspect of it. I think as sort of a media company that gets to scale, you're actually asked to do a lot of things. It's kind of like being a five-tool baseball player, you need to be able to do video, you need to be able to write well, you need to be able to distribute content, you need to be able to, you know, work with advertisers and partners and all those sorts of things.
So the business can be complicated or a certain level of complexity to it. But, and I do think it's really, really hard to do every aspect of that well at scale today. And I think that really becomes, how did a business grow up?
And I think that some of the advantages to some of the newer businesses is they grew up more natively with video, with social. They have cost structures that align with it. They have partnerships and all those sorts of things.
And I think that's sort of the, you know, kind of always been a little bit of like, maybe you're a little bit, you've been around for a bit, you have some more scale, but you're also competing with all the folks that are growing up with natively.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. It seems like agility is probably, probably one of the number one attributes you probably have to have as an organization. Let me ask you about what medium may be important, or maybe they're all important in terms of the customer, the future customer, the customer today.
Is video content the number one medium by which people are consuming information, or is the written word, is the podcast or the audio important? I mean, we all consume in different ways, but is one in your mind taking priority over the others?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
So I've always felt it is really, really difficult to write well. And it's a skill, it's an art. And there are few people that can really combine, you know, sort of that great storytelling that have that motor, that engine, that drive.
And I, and I really think the written word has been king for a really, really, really long time. I think one of the things that's really changing with tools and AI is it's, I'll give the example as you can take a creative person today and they can vibe code an app. And that really changed how productive people can be with types, you know, you type of a type of media or a type of application.
And I think that's a huge change. And I think it's actually helped the person who might be an okay storyteller actually become a very good writer because the tools have gotten so good. And my view has probably changed a bit on this, where I would say today, it is almost more challenging to create video content that tells great stories, that's condensed enough, kind of like what we're doing here today, and really packs the information where a consumer wants to do it.
And I almost think it's easier today to go from video to text than it is to go from text to video, if that makes sense. As, as someone, as a journalist or somebody who creates content, I think that that has really changed.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, I would, you know, without, before these tools like AI, I mean, I, you know, tech writing is, is my opinion, a lost art. And there are some that do it really well and some that maybe struggle. Let me ask you about, I'm going to go back to something about being a successful media outlet.
Do you need, and you talked about advertisers, you talked about some of the other elements. I mean, do you need to diversify your revenue streams in order to be successful? Because back in the day, it was all, you know, when I read the Baltimore Sun, it was all about ad revenue and seeing whether the giant had what was on sale.
That's no longer the case. So do you have to diversify your revenue in order to be successful in today's environment?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Yeah, I think absolutely. You need to diversify your revenue. You need to diversify your audience.
You need to diversify your number of partners, all of those things. Yes. I mean, if you look back just like sort of the change from even like the late nineties and classified ads to where we sit today, I think it's really hard to find, you know, a lot of digital publishers.
There are some that really survive off of classified ads. And that's just, you know, one example of how this landscape has changed. So from a, from a media business, I mentioned a little bit about the complexity is you are in the licensing business.
You are in the syndication business. You are in the video business. You are in the social business.
You are in the newsletter business or pick your, you know, your, your, your menu of those.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah. Let me ask you, I, you know, when you look at the, the media landscape, you can't forget the journalists, the people that are actually doing the writing. How do you, you know, given the complexities around revenue and some of the challenges with more, the pie growing or more outlets, how do you attract, I mean, these are skilled people.
They have to be able to write. They have to be able to articulate. They go through journalism school by and large.
How do you, how do you retain or even attract folks in, in this media environment?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Well, I think it's, I think it's a really great question and there's, there's just tremendous competition out there for the top talent. And there are, you know, there's a whole bunch of different slices of when you talk about journalism and talk about journalists today and how they fit into the landscape. There's everything from the individual creator to personality driven and to meet, you know, media companies that produce content every single day that you don't know.
And then you'd even go down to like beat writers for sports where local people really identify, not necessarily with the brand and the publication, but with their local beat writer and they have a real relationship with them. And I think that everybody has to compete for talent. And I think that journalists really have a tremendous number of choices today.
And they can, they can be part of a large organization like the arena group that can write for, you know, men's journal, the street parade. We have a whole swath of powder surfer, you know, goes on and on, but they can also be individuals. They can have their own brand.
They can stand like it's, it's there are plenty of folks that are doing really good job as individual creators and they can sort of, you know, base their business on what they wanted to be, how much time and effort and where their talents really lie. So in that sense today, I think that competition is just, it's just tremendous for the best folks and for the best talent because they have so much choice out there.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Uh, let me end on kind of where we started, which is, you know, we talked about artificial intelligence through this conversation. Uh, you know, I, I don't view AI as a threat. Um, I, I view it as a compliment to what I do.
I don't think that it can replace Jeff Snyder or, or, you know, I'm a human being. I have qualitative aspects to me where do you, how do you factor that into what you do at the arena group and with all your properties, do you think that it eventually replaces the journalist or, or is it as we've talked about just really compliments the journalist?
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Yeah, I definitely think it's on the compliment side of the house. And I think it's really important is if you just go back and look at history and you talk about people and tools, people and tools, they, they've just become more and more productive, productive. And the, I think some of the questions that I ask or, or look for is just, where is that, where is that line in terms of productivity?
How much better can they be at storytelling? How much better, you know, effective can folks be at their jobs? And I kind of go back to that other question, which is competition, uh, for the best people, uh, and for them to, you know, manage their careers and do it in a successful way.
And I really do see AI as a really powerful tool that helps people differentiate and the people that can incorporate it into their work in a way provides more and more ability for them to produce video, text, audio, to distribute it across different platforms, to understand the analytics, uh, and all of those things. Like, I think they really, really help a person, an organization, uh, do a better job. And at the end of the day, it's still, it is still a people driven business.
Uh, and I think that's really, really important. And, uh, I think that those folks that really do lean in and understand how to use these tools more effectively, uh, will give themselves a competitive advantage in the market.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, very well said. Well, Paul, I can't thank you enough for making a few minutes or more than a few minutes, a lot of your time to share, uh, your insight into the changing media landscape from the outside looking at it is, uh, it is changing day to day. We have, you know, everything from streamers to podcasters, to content creators.
It's absolutely amazing. Thanks so much for joining us and look, we look forward to having you back on the program again, very soon, sir.
Paul Edmondson, CEO, The Arena Group
Thanks for having me.
The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 7:30 AM.