The year we all algorithm-proof our audiences

At Capital B’s all-staff summit earlier this year, I led a brainstorm asking our team to consider a potential extinction-level scenario: What would we do if, tomorrow, search and social media ceased to exist? What would we need to have in place to make sure people could still find our work?

The question sounds hyperbolic — but is it? In 2015, we were an industry holding hands with Big Tech, in an often sketchy yet mutually beneficial situationship. Platforms used our content to retain users, and newsrooms used those platforms to build audience and brand awareness and to secure millions of page views that helped bring in revenue.

Ten years later, things are different. We got dumped. Newsrooms still optimize stories for search, hit publish, and push them out to the platforms. But now, we only hope the AI overviews and the anti-news social algorithms that amplify harmful, racist ideas don’t relegate our work to the void. In 2025, we no longer have assurances that many people, let alone the specific communities we serve, will see our journalism online.

And the ground is still moving under us. Publishers are reporting a 55% drop in search traffic. There’s talk about “Google Zero” — the moment when AI news overviews take over completely, and Google stops sending users to outside websites altogether. Some of these fears may be overblown, as newsrooms are actively preparing for life after search. Google Zero is not destiny. Still, for many publishers, this scenario would in fact be an extinction-level event.

But for local, mission-focused newsrooms that have spent the last decade building distribution strategies that prioritize listening, human connection, and in-person presence, the threat may be less existential. For us, Big Tech was one lever to get our journalism to the people it was meant for, but it was never the only one.

So at that brainstorm earlier this year, we shared ideas to triple down on that approach. Algorithm-proofing — an important pillar of Capital B’s three-year strategic plan — is how we’re building a community of readers, watchers, listeners, and event-goers who rely on our work so deeply, who find it so meaningful, that they seek it out on their own, even as Big Tech makes our reporting harder to find.

Gary, Indiana, home of one of our two local newsrooms, is ranked the 4th worst-connected city in the country. So we had no choice but to find ways around the barriers that keep news out of reach. Gary Monthly, our print newsletter, flies off the stands each month. One editor spotted a resident handing it to others, describing it as “all you need.” And our partnership with a Black AM radio station — “This Week in Gary” — reaches commuters who we might never see online.

In addition to what we jokingly call this “pivot to print” in Gary, we’re investing in events designed for community connection first, giving us a chance to convene audiences that include the politically disconnected. Capital B Atlanta’s “Why I Love Atlanta” storytelling series brings hundreds of natives together to share what they love about their hometown, as gentrification changes it rapidly. In Gary, editors host trivia nights about Gary history and host bingo nights at senior homes, where they read the news to seniors aloud.

For newsrooms serving Black audiences, this strategy is a necessity, as we are staring down a more severe audience crisis than the industry at large. News deserts overlap with lower-income, rural, and Black areas. When new technologies emerge, communities historically underserved are often the last to benefit. Black audiences also report high levels of distrust in both the media and in AI, technology already being used to drum up false, harmful narratives about Black communities. And Black news consumers face disinformation at a rate 2.7 times higher than the general population.

That’s why we pursue partnerships beyond newsroom collaborations, working with organizations focused on improving news ecosystems for Black people. We’re part of Onyx Impact’s Information Integrity Lab, which pairs influencers with Black press to amplify our reporting to their large audiences.

And in all of this, we’re honoring the familiar mantra to “meet people where they are.” For better or worse, the audiences Capital B needs to reach — young people, Black people — get their news from search and social platforms. Our job is to make sure quality storytelling is still there, even when we’re unsure it will be elevated or buried.

In 2026, I am hopeful algorithm-proofing is where we’re all headed. Because what other choice is there? Big Tech has made it clear their goals are not our own. More importantly, at the heart of this strategy is a community-first vision that insists journalism deliver value to people, not corporations. The more newsrooms that commit to that shift, the better off we’ll all be.