# People Inc. is building custom APIs to make its journalism easier for AI agents to use [Canonical reading](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-a6b59503) Digiday’s Jessica Davies reports that People Inc. is moving from web crawling and Amazon S3 buckets toward custom APIs for AI partners. The APIs provide article text in Markdown, plus authorship, publication or update details, and other “trust signals that matter.” People Inc. chief innovation officer Jon Roberts says full webpages contain material meant for browsers that can distract AI agents and add processing costs. He calls sending an entire HTML header “abuse” and says it is “not reasonable.” The custom APIs are intended to strip out that material; Roberts says crawling is an inefficient way for AI systems to get information. Davies says the approach could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over how its journalism reaches AI partners. Roberts says the company is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents. The report places this work amid publisher layoffs and efforts to distinguish useful agents from content-scraping bots, but gives no measured results for the APIs’ effects on costs, traffic, or revenue. Other publishers are testing different approaches, including Markdown versions of content and agent-oriented products, though some plans remain in development. What will People Inc. learn from its AI tools that leads it to offer AI partners a more useful way to access its content? Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims. ## Original source Digiday · Article Original source date: Nov 2, 2026 (2026-11-02T05:01:00+00:00). Date basis: Date stated by the publisher. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z. First observed: 2026-11-04T12:36:36.258Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-04T22:22:37.192Z. - [People Inc. is building custom APIs to make its journalism easier for AI agents to use](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Limits The report does not provide measured results for the custom APIs’ effects on processing costs, traffic, revenue, or control over content delivery. The report describes the APIs as a move in progress and does not specify when they will be available to AI partners or which partners will use them. The 7,851% year-over-year growth figure for traffic from AI agents and agentic browsers is attributed to HUMAN’s 2026 State of AI Traffic report; the article does not provide further methodology in the supplied text. The article gives no detailed account of how People Inc.’s workforce cuts relate to the API project. ## Open question What will People Inc. learn from its AI tools that leads it to offer AI partners a more useful way to access its content? ## Source-stated People Inc. is moving toward custom APIs that provide AI agents with article text and key details, rather than full webpages. > People Inc. is moving toward custom APIs to help AI agents access its content more efficiently. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated The APIs send article text in Markdown with authorship, publication or update details, and other trust signals. > The custom APIs strip out that extra material, sending the article text in Markdown along with details such as who wrote it and when it was published or updated and other “trust signals that matter.” - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated Roberts says full webpages include material that distracts agents and adds processing costs, and calls sending the entire HTML header “abuse.” > “If you are an agent and you’re reading an HTML page, 90% of the content is junk meant for a browser to read, not an agent,” Roberts told delegates at Digiday’s Media Strategies London event. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated The report says the approach could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over delivery to AI partners; it does not report measured results. > Strategically, that could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over how its journalism is delivered to AI partners. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated People Inc. is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents, according to Roberts. > The publisher is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents, he added. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated Davies reports that People Inc. laid off about 6% of its workforce the week before publication, amid pressure on publishers to find durable businesses as AI reshapes discovery and access. > The cuts underscore the pressure on publishers to find durable businesses as AI reshapes how audiences discover and access journalism. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source and contributor context Jessica Davies · Article author These are credits stated by the source; they do not establish a profile match or authorship of every passage. ## Source media Media declared by the original publisher; availability checked separately from the editorial reading. - [image · Digiday](https://digiday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/10/ai-news-effect-digiday.jpg?resize=1030,579) ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## API An application programming interface: a defined way for software to request data or actions from another system. - [Definition reference](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/API) ## AI agent An AI system that chooses and carries out actions toward a goal, often using software tools. - [Definition reference](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents) ## Agentic AI AI systems that plan and carry out a series of steps toward a goal, often by using other software, rather than giving one answer. - [Definition reference](https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/glossary#agentic) ## Digiday Digiday is a trade publication covering digital media, marketing and advertising businesses. - [Explore this context](/entities/digiday) - [Reference](https://digiday.com/) - [Reference](https://digiday.com/feed/) ## Figure Figure develops humanoid robots and publishes its own tests of how they perform physical tasks. - [Explore this context](/entities/figure) - [Reference](https://www.figure.ai/news) - [Reference](https://www.figure.ai/news/helix-2-5-zero-shot-30-home-generalization) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 6464fe45-e0e0-47e8-85f3-3ac0eae4c46e. Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna. Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: material\_development. Observation: 8782b9c4d0e3e1160dd5843e6e4b2f185933a3cc6046009826bef1d0c8f9d618. Source text hash: 53beb0ec5d5bb7538f66793f014295a9b33bae6e9931e58ff75670b5255fa383. ## Revision and source-check history ### Version 1 — 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z Digiday’s Jessica Davies reports that People Inc. is moving from web crawling and Amazon S3 buckets toward custom APIs for AI partners. The APIs provide article text in Markdown, plus authorship, publication or update details, and other “trust signals that matter.” People Inc. chief innovation officer Jon Roberts says full webpages contain material meant for browsers that can distract AI agents and add processing costs. He calls sending an entire HTML header “abuse” and says it is “not reasonable.” The custom APIs are intended to strip out that material; Roberts says crawling is an inefficient way for AI systems to get information. Davies says the approach could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over how its journalism reaches AI partners. Roberts says the company is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents. The report places this work amid publisher layoffs and efforts to distinguish useful agents from content-scraping bots, but gives no measured results for the APIs’ effects on costs, traffic, or revenue. Other publishers are testing different approaches, including Markdown versions of content and agent-oriented products, though some plans remain in development. What will People Inc. learn from its AI tools that leads it to offer AI partners a more useful way to access its content? ## Original source Digiday · Article Original source date: Nov 2, 2026 (2026-11-02T05:01:00+00:00). Date basis: Date stated by the publisher. Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z. First observed: 2026-11-04T12:36:36.258Z. Retrieved: 2026-11-04T22:22:37.192Z. - [People Inc. is building custom APIs to make its journalism easier for AI agents to use](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Limits The report does not provide measured results for the custom APIs’ effects on processing costs, traffic, revenue, or control over content delivery. The report describes the APIs as a move in progress and does not specify when they will be available to AI partners or which partners will use them. The 7,851% year-over-year growth figure for traffic from AI agents and agentic browsers is attributed to HUMAN’s 2026 State of AI Traffic report; the article does not provide further methodology in the supplied text. The article gives no detailed account of how People Inc.’s workforce cuts relate to the API project. ## Open question What will People Inc. learn from its AI tools that leads it to offer AI partners a more useful way to access its content? ## Source-stated People Inc. is moving toward custom APIs that provide AI agents with article text and key details, rather than full webpages. > People Inc. is moving toward custom APIs to help AI agents access its content more efficiently. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated The APIs send article text in Markdown with authorship, publication or update details, and other trust signals. > The custom APIs strip out that extra material, sending the article text in Markdown along with details such as who wrote it and when it was published or updated and other “trust signals that matter.” - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated Roberts says full webpages include material that distracts agents and adds processing costs, and calls sending the entire HTML header “abuse.” > “If you are an agent and you’re reading an HTML page, 90% of the content is junk meant for a browser to read, not an agent,” Roberts told delegates at Digiday’s Media Strategies London event. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated The report says the approach could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over delivery to AI partners; it does not report measured results. > Strategically, that could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over how its journalism is delivered to AI partners. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated People Inc. is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents, according to Roberts. > The publisher is not focused on advertising directly to AI agents, he added. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source-stated Davies reports that People Inc. laid off about 6% of its workforce the week before publication, amid pressure on publishers to find durable businesses as AI reshapes discovery and access. > The cuts underscore the pressure on publishers to find durable businesses as AI reshapes how audiences discover and access journalism. - [Supporting source](https://digiday.com/media/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-easier-for-ai-agents-to-use/) ## Source and contributor context Jessica Davies · Article author These are credits stated by the source; they do not establish a profile match or authorship of every passage. ## Source media Media declared by the original publisher; availability checked separately from the editorial reading. - [image · Digiday](https://digiday.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/10/ai-news-effect-digiday.jpg?resize=1030,579) ## Terms and references Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement. ## API An application programming interface: a defined way for software to request data or actions from another system. - [Definition reference](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/API) ## AI agent An AI system that chooses and carries out actions toward a goal, often using software tools. - [Definition reference](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-agents) ## Agentic AI AI systems that plan and carry out a series of steps toward a goal, often by using other software, rather than giving one answer. - [Definition reference](https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/glossary#agentic) ## Digiday Digiday is a trade publication covering digital media, marketing and advertising businesses. - [Explore this context](/entities/digiday) - [Reference](https://digiday.com/) - [Reference](https://digiday.com/feed/) ## Figure Figure develops humanoid robots and publishes its own tests of how they perform physical tasks. - [Explore this context](/entities/figure) - [Reference](https://www.figure.ai/news) - [Reference](https://www.figure.ai/news/helix-2-5-zero-shot-30-home-generalization) ## Editorial provenance Version 1. Publication ID: 6464fe45-e0e0-47e8-85f3-3ac0eae4c46e. Prepared by gpt-6-luna; grounding review by gpt-6-luna. Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true. Editorial selection: accept; reasons: material\_development. Observation: 8782b9c4d0e3e1160dd5843e6e4b2f185933a3cc6046009826bef1d0c8f9d618. Source text hash: 53beb0ec5d5bb7538f66793f014295a9b33bae6e9931e58ff75670b5255fa383. ### passed — 2026-11-04T22:23:45.609Z — anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 Publication: 6464fe45-e0e0-47e8-85f3-3ac0eae4c46e attribution — pass: The report is credited to Digiday's Jessica Davies. Roberts' quotes, including 'abuse' and 'not reasonable,' are correctly assigned to him. The efficiency and control assessment appears in the article's own voice, so attributing it to Davies is fair. The no-advertising-to-agents statement is correctly attributed to Roberts. > “If you throw it the entire HTML header, that’s abuse. Right, that’s not reasonable.” summary — pass: The reading leads with the actor, People Inc., and explains the change: from crawling and S3 buckets to custom APIs. It says the APIs deliver article text in Markdown with authorship and date signals, so a general reader can follow the function. Terms like API, Markdown and tokens fit the tooltip approach. Optional repair: 'publisher layoffs' could say People Inc. itself laid off about 6% of its workforce. The question follows the source's statement that People Inc. applies lessons from its own AI tools. > People Inc. is building those details into its content for its own AI tools, then using what it learns to offer AI partners a more useful way to access that material. date — pass: The originalPublished value, 2026-11-02, matches the article byline date. > By Jessica Davies • November 2, 2026 support — pass: All claims are grounded in the text. The draft keeps the efficiency and control benefit conditional ('could'), and it correctly notes the article reports no measured results. The other-publisher examples are supported, including Markdown versions and an MCP layer, and the draft notes that some plans are still in development. It invents no stakeholder costs or benefits. > Strategically, that could make access more efficient and give People Inc. greater control over how its journalism is delivered to AI partners. media — pass: The selected media is the verified direct link to the original Digiday article, which is the most direct way for readers to reach the source. ## Recorded references Explicit citations in public readings and public file attachments to this reading. Shared topics are not citations. Other artifact types need an explicit reference adapter. No public references recorded here yet. [Reference data (JSON)](/readings/a6b59503baee63751e4077b6e96e72163473b27fe0f280828d347ed480f0031d/references.json) ## Corrections and challenges [Send a correction or an opposing source](https://escapemeridian.com/corrections/) [JSON record](https://escapemeridian.com/readings/people-inc-is-building-custom-apis-to-make-its-journalism-a6b59503.json)