As local news outlets dwindle and AI-powered search reshapes how information is discovered, Texas founders, mayors, and economic development leaders face a pressing question: how do you ensure your content reaches both human and machine audiences? The latest episode of The Building Texas Show, titled "Building Content for the Algorithm: Are You Doing It Wrong?", tackles this challenge head-on. Hosted by Justin McKenzie and published September 29, 2026, the episode features Mark Willaman, co-founder of Newsworthy.ai, who argues that the press release is "kind of a perfect document for today's environment."
Willaman's assertion carries significant weight for anyone relying on digital visibility. He explains that press releases are current, factual, structured, and rich in named entities—qualities that large language models (LLMs) and traditional search engines prize. "Machines love that," he tells McKenzie. The conversation drills into why simply having a website crawled by AI training bots does not guarantee that AI answers will cite your content. Instead, Willaman emphasizes retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and grounding—mechanisms that determine whether your content is pulled into an AI's response. His memorable framing: "SEO gets you into the library, but AI retrieval decides whether you're pulled off the shelf."
The implications for businesses and public figures are clear. With local news coverage declining, the ability to generate owned, structured content that machines can easily parse becomes a competitive advantage. Willaman and McKenzie outline a practical playbook, including running press releases as six-piece campaigns tied to David McGinnis's 28-day news cycle. They also discuss multi-format curation through NewsRamp.com, which transforms a single release into articles, short-form audio for Spotify and Apple Podcasts, AI-narrated video for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and zero-click social posts. This approach extends reach across platforms without requiring conversion-first thinking—a point both hosts stress, invoking the updated marketing rule of seven touches across five platforms.
For Texas communities, the stakes are particularly high. McKenzie connects the framework to his work with mayors and small business owners, noting how his mayor series has helped candidates in areas without a local newspaper reach constituents directly. The episode also highlights Newsworthy.ai's live counter of AI training bots crawling its site, offering a transparent look at how machines interact with content. Willaman's background—having previously integrated PRWeb into his HR marketing software before reconnecting with McGinnis to build Newsworthy.ai—adds credibility to his argument that the press release format itself is the moat.
Listeners can access the full conversation, including details on schema and entity structuring, wherever podcasts are heard. The episode is part of The Building Texas Show, which spotlights the founders, mayors, and operators building the future of Texas. As AI continues to mediate how information is found, the strategies discussed here may well determine which brands, leaders, and communities remain visible—and which fade into the digital noise.
