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OpenAI has acquired Technology Business Programming Network (TBPN) to remain close to the source of news.
The daily live video and audio podcast focuses on business and technology news, hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays.
“As I’ve been thinking about the future of how we communicate at OpenAI, one thing that’s become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply to us,” Fidji Simo, OpenAI CEO of Applications, wrote in a blog post Thursday announcing the acquisition. “We’re not a typical company. We’re driving a really big technological shift.”
The move not only follows OpenAI’s “mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” but could have a major influence on industry and consumer opinion through “constructive conversation about the changes AI creates,” national policy decisions, and becoming a core part of “editorial independence.”
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TBPN will continue to run programming, choose guests, and make editorial decisions, according to the company — an important part of maintaining its “credibility” and trustworthiness, like the answers OpenAI’s chatbots return for each query.
Perhaps the key in the announcement resides in the words: “They’ve helped many brands market online and because they have a strong pulse on where the industry is going, their comms and marketing ideas have really impressed me.”
Having a voice for an industry, a company and a nation could be interesting. Influence comes from connecting news media brands with technology brands.
“Time and time again, pioneers of new platforms have also bought up content and influenced conversations about those platforms,” CNN’s Brian Stetler wrote in his April 2, 2026 edition of the Reliable Sources newsletter.
Stetler wrote that a live-streaming show with a small but loyal and influential audience, “where executive moves are treated like sports trades,” will financially support one of the leading AI companies—OpenAI.
“In an interview with CNN’s AI correspondent Hadas Gold, OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane cited that long history of ‘companies and entities owning and acquiring media properties,’ harkening to the days of Westinghouse Electric owning CBS and Microsoft partnering with NBC to launch MSNBC,” Stetler wrote.
It makes me wonder what influence TPBN would wield not only for the AI industry, but for the Trump administration’s national AI policies as OpenAI begins a process of going through an initial public offering (IPO).
Simo wrote in the announcement: “I can’t wait to leverage their talent outside of the show to innovate on how we bring AI to the world in a way that helps people understand the full impact of this technology on their daily lives.”
Influence will also support government policies in an indirect way. The White House called on Congress to pass federal AI legislation last week that would override state laws. The measures included Congress streamlining the process to build data centers to power the technology, proposed guardrails in a framework to prevent the government from using the technology for censorship, and workforce training.
Then you have an up-and-coming company acquire a media brand. But in my opinion, a company preparing to go through an IPO acquiring an editorial brand is nothing new.
Adobe recently acquired Search Engine Land. Arrow Electronics in the early 2000s acquired Electronic Buyers’ News. Jeff Bezos also acquired The Washington Post, and Marc Benioff acquired Time magazine.
“TBPN has built something pretty special,” Simo wrote.
Laurie Sullivan is a writer and editor for MediaPost. You can reach Laurie at lauriesullivan@gmail.com.
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