niemanlab.org: Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting "small town America"

[Dennis Donovan]

niemanlab.org - Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America”

Good Daily, which operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S., is run by one person.

By Andrew Deck Jan. 27, 2025, 1:44 p.m.


On first glance, Good Day Fort Collins appears to be a standard local news round-up. One recent edition of the newsletter includes short blurbs and links to over a dozen stories about the mid-size Colorado city — a restaurant opening, a record-breaking snowfall, a leadership shake-up at a local hospital.

The newsletter attributes the stories to longtime Fort Collins news outlets, like The Coloradoan and the Loveland Reporter-Herald. Further down is a spread of events happening across the city, including an upcoming polar plunge and a figure-drawing class.

“I’m a senior citizen here in Fort Collins, and this newsletter is like a lifeline. I don’t have the attention span these days to read the paper, and Facebook is a mess,” reads one testimonial on the sign-up page from “Matthew K., retiree.” “I use Good Day Fort Collins to keep one foot in the town I grew up in, and my friends and family continue to live in,” says “Michael H., expat.”

Google those quotes, though, and you’ll find the same names and testimonials supporting hundreds of other local newsletters across the U.S. “Matthew K.” also lives in Queen Creek, Arkansas; and Post Falls, Idaho; and Marysville, Washington; and Denton, Texas. “Michael H.” grew up in each of these towns, and many more.

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