"Two Fake Journalists Walk Into an Editorial Meeting" If you need a laugh today — this is a real story. It's just also completely absurd. The editorial process that let them through has been failing long before AI existed. thesignalmemo.substack.com/p…

WIRED got fooled by a fake journalist. So did Business Insider. The Guardian. Architectural Digest. The Cut. Dwell. They didn't fail because of AI. They failed because nobody checked. That's been happening long before ChatGPT existed. If you want a laugh and reality check, read my latest article thesignalmemo.substack.com/p… @ronnychieng

Spirit Airlines is shutting down. Passengers are being notified via a $12.99 "Closure Notification Fee."

Skin longevity in a bottle with an OTC formulation. By Lancôme. 100% BS. Stay tuned for an article on this topic.

A retainer for a mid-size health tech startup typically runs $15,000 to $35,000 a month. That’s not a campaign budget — that’s the monthly fee to manage a company’s narrative. A single month of PR representation costs more than a year of Forbes contributor fees. The same expertise that publications won’t pay for, the companies being covered are paying for aggressively — to control what gets written about them, by whom, and when. open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

A journalist sees investor interest and assumes the company has been vetted. An investor sees a flattering Times profile and assumes the journalism did the scrutiny. Neither has. Theranos. WeWork. AllBirds. Juicero. The journalists and the VCs went to the same conferences, sat on the same panels, and validated each other's judgment — and when the companies collapsed, moved on to the next narrative together. The market correction never travels as far as the original story. The damage does. Part 3 of my series on vibe journalism is live: open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

Part 1 of "How Journalism Lost Its Soul" hit 1,600 readers since Thursday. Organic. No paid promotion. No algorithm boost. Not the numbers I had at Forbes. Yet. But for the first time, I own my audience. Part 2 is live. Part 3 — the most uncomfortable one yet — drops Wednesday. These are exactly the kinds of pieces legacy media would never publish about itself. So I did. Subscribe for free: lnkd.in/g7NxYEDD #journalism #media #techjournalism #substack

The gravitational pull is constant and invisible. It shapes which pitches get approved, which companies get profiled warmly, and which investigations never quite get resourced. Nobody makes a phone call. Nobody kills a story directly. It just works. This one gets uncomfortable. open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

Forbes BrandVoice campaigns start at $50,000. @Forbes paid me $50 an article. Not $500. Fifty dollars. Never mind having a track record of viral articles. The math is not complicated. And it is not accidental. Part 2 of How Journalism Lost Its Soul is live — and this one gets uncomfortable. open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

Journalism didn't lose its soul from budget cuts. It lost it from something much harder to fix. The business model is straightforward, if uncomfortable to name. And this is exactly the kind of piece Forbes would never publish about itself. So I did. #journalism #media open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

Vibe journalism: the art of borrowing the authority of reporting without doing any of the reporting. It’s everywhere. And it’s why trust in media just hit a 50-year low. open.substack.com/pub/thesig…

It cracks me up how influencers and makeup brands that bring them to Coachella don’t understand that it’s a MUSIC festival first. Most of the influencers share nothing about the music there which blows my mind.

Most Superbowl halftime performers sing and dance. 🔥🔥Bad Bunny did so much more for this year’s Superbowl. His performance was like a Broadway musical in terms of the acting, storytelling and symbolism. The Latin wedding scene was amazing! He showcased and educated us on Latin culture with Latin pride — and national pride. It was the best halftime show I have ever seen. instagram.com/reel/DUhNeMNAD…

Coinbase’s Superbowl commercial was a joke. It asked, “"Am i all you need? Am I so secure?" No and no. Everyone needs to acquaint themselves with @coinbase’s lack of accountability if your account gets hacked. Yet its CEO wants it to he a a "super app" that acts as a primary financial account, effectively replacing traditional consumer banks. 🤔😂 variety.com/2026/tv/news/coi… #crypto #coinbase

🔥 Bad Bunny’s halftime show wasn’t just a performance — it was a masterclass in Latin culture and storytelling. 🎶 Bad Bunny didn’t just perform… he showcased, educated, celebrated Latin pride, national pride, and spoke to unity over hate on the world’s biggest stage. 🌎🇵🇷 #SuperBowlLX #LatinPride #MásQueUnShow

By the time trend reporting agencies put together their expensive reports, they are behind the trend. That’s not a knock on firms like Mintel or CB Insights. It’s the nature of retrospective analysis in markets that move in real time