Railway Security Attack: Changing Every Key and Leaving
Railway lost control of the place where its customers' keys are kept, then told me it would be prudent to change everything. I spent Friday afternoon doing it. Then I left.
Platform Thesis
My AI Offered to Build Something We Already Had
At the end of August, my AI offered to build me something we already had. It was one of six times that day it told me something didn't exist. The fix wasn't a smarter AI.
Charlotte City Council Meeting: Seven Stories From Six Hours
Charlotte's council met for six hours on September 28. The curfew got the headlines. We wrote seven stories from the whole meeting, and found a vote that was never announced.
Redesigning Our Newsroom Tool: Colors Weren't the Problem
I asked for a new look for the tool I run sixteen publications from. I got two, hated both, and it turned out the colors were never the problem.
Mercury Local at Six Months: One Person, 16 Publications
In April I said Mercury Local was a platform. Six months on: sixteen publications, a paper launched in a day, local businesses who wanted it too, and an arrest log that would have vanished.
Mercury Local AI Governance: The Prompt Is the Policy
The rules that govern Mercury Local weren't designed. They were decided one failure at a time, the way the common law was. Eleven rules, eleven mistakes, one person who signs the corrections.
What Agentic Control Actually Means
Most people hear "AI-generated news" and picture a machine with no editor. James Watt tackled this problem in 1788 with two spinning iron balls. Control isn't supervision. It's a governor.
Mercury Local Is a Publishing Platform, Not a Publication
Eli Whitney got the credit for interchangeable parts. The idea still holds: make the part once and it fits every gun. That's what Mercury Local does for local news.
Multi-Agent Newsrooms: What the Architecture Looks Like
A transit tax explainer with thirty-four factual claims, checked before I read a word. What a newsroom of specialized AI agents actually looks like, and why it needs a devil's advocate.
The Charlotte Mercury's Most Important File Is Markdown
The most important file at The Charlotte Mercury has the same format as a grocery list. The model is a commodity. What you write down for it is not.
AI Newsrooms: One Article Is Easy, the Operation Is Work
Anybody can get an AI to write an article. The work is the operation around it, and like Neurath's sailors, you rebuild it at sea while it runs.
Saving Local News: Build the System First
Most plans to save local news start by hiring the old newsroom back. Newspapers have been here before, and nobody saved them by going back to hot lead.