Source value matters more than volume
Publishers need original reporting, data, and explainers that answer systems can cite with confidence.
Aggregation loses to synthesis. If your article restates what five others already published, the model will summarize the pattern, not you.
The end of aggregation as a moat
Aggregation was a viable strategy when human editors valued the roundup. Synthesis engines do aggregation natively — better and faster. They no longer need publishers to package the pattern.
What synthesis engines cannot do is generate the primary source. Original reporting, first-party data, named interviews, and firsthand analysis are the assets that get quoted.
The reporter as retrieval asset
Named reporters with a track record are recognizable entities in the corpus. Their bylines carry weight in retrieval decisions the same way author schema does.
Investing in staff bylines — real people with beats and archives — is now an infrastructure decision, not a branding one.