diff --git a/src/lib/ai/rewrite-client.ts b/src/lib/ai/rewrite-client.ts
index c471987..fec7cbd 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai/rewrite-client.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai/rewrite-client.ts
@@ -196,29 +196,47 @@ export const ollamaProvider: RewriteProvider = {
     const apiKey = process.env.OLLAMA_API_KEY;
     if (apiKey) headers["authorization"] = `Bearer ${apiKey}`;
 
-    const res = await fetch(`${endpoint}/v1/chat/completions`, {
-      method: "POST",
-      headers,
-      body: JSON.stringify({
-        model,
-        messages: [
-          { role: "system", content: systemBlock },
-          { role: "user", content: userPrompt },
-        ],
-        stream: false,
-        // Ollama recognises response_format for JSON-mode on recent builds; the
-        // legacy `format:"json"` option also works on /api/generate but the
-        // OpenAI-compatible surface uses response_format.
-        response_format: { type: "json_object" },
-        temperature: 0.6,
-        max_tokens: MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS,
-      }),
-    });
-
-    if (!res.ok) {
-      const errText = await res.text().catch(() => "");
-      throw new Error(`Ollama API ${res.status}: ${errText.slice(0, 500)}`);
+    // Retry-with-backoff against Ollama 503 / "server busy" / fetch failures.
+    // The single AI_002 node is shared with the ask-bb-ai + forum-burst
+    // workloads, so pending-request saturation is common — burning 3 attempts
+    // in 0.5s (as the outer orchestrator does) doesn't give it room to drain.
+    const RETRY_DELAYS_MS = [0, 8000, 30000, 90000]; // 0, 8s, 30s, 90s
+    let res: Response | null = null;
+    let lastErr = "";
+    for (let i = 0; i < RETRY_DELAYS_MS.length; i++) {
+      if (RETRY_DELAYS_MS[i] > 0) await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, RETRY_DELAYS_MS[i]));
+      try {
+        res = await fetch(`${endpoint}/v1/chat/completions`, {
+          method: "POST",
+          headers,
+          body: JSON.stringify({
+            model,
+            messages: [
+              { role: "system", content: systemBlock },
+              { role: "user", content: userPrompt },
+            ],
+            stream: false,
+            response_format: { type: "json_object" },
+            temperature: 0.6,
+            max_tokens: MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS,
+          }),
+          signal: AbortSignal.timeout(180_000),
+        });
+        if (res.ok) break;
+        const txt = await res.text().catch(() => "");
+        lastErr = `Ollama API ${res.status}: ${txt.slice(0, 500)}`;
+        // Only retry on 5xx / busy / timeout. 4xx other than 429 is permanent.
+        if (res.status >= 400 && res.status < 500 && res.status !== 429) {
+          throw new Error(lastErr);
+        }
+        if (!/busy|pending|queue|503|timeout/i.test(txt) && res.status !== 503 && res.status !== 429) break;
+      } catch (e: any) {
+        lastErr = e?.message || String(e);
+        // network / abort — retry
+      }
+      if (i === RETRY_DELAYS_MS.length - 1) throw new Error(lastErr || "Ollama request failed after retries");
     }
+    if (!res || !res.ok) throw new Error(lastErr || "Ollama request failed");
 
     const data: any = await res.json();
     const text = (data?.choices?.[0]?.message?.content || "").toString();
diff --git a/src/lib/ai/rewrite-pipeline.ts b/src/lib/ai/rewrite-pipeline.ts
index 355615c..56f4043 100644
--- a/src/lib/ai/rewrite-pipeline.ts
+++ b/src/lib/ai/rewrite-pipeline.ts
@@ -164,6 +164,37 @@ export async function rewriteSubmission(opts: RewriteOptions): Promise<RewriteOu
       .single();
     if (artErr || !art) throw new Error(`Could not save rewritten article: ${artErr?.message}`);
 
+    // ── PUBLISH to wp_imported_posts so the /news pages actually serve the
+    //    rewritten content. Without this step, ai_rewritten_articles fills
+    //    up with rewrites that never surface publicly. Uses a negative wp_id
+    //    so the rewrite doesn't collide with WP-imported sequence values.
+    try {
+      const featuredImage = sub.metadata?.featured_image_url || null;
+      const authorName = persona.name || sub.contributor_name || "Broadcast Beat";
+      const finalSlug = `${slug}-rw-${(art as any).id.toString().slice(0, 6)}`;
+      const wpRow = {
+        wp_id: -Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) - attempt,
+        wp_slug: finalSlug,
+        title: rewrite.title,
+        excerpt: rewrite.excerpt,
+        content: rewrite.body,
+        author_name: authorName,
+        category: rewrite.category || "News",
+        tags: Array.isArray(rewrite.tags) ? rewrite.tags : [],
+        featured_image: featuredImage,
+        status: "published" as const,
+        wp_published_at: new Date().toISOString(),
+        imported_at: new Date().toISOString(),
+        ai_rewritten_at: new Date().toISOString(),
+        site_id: 1,
+      };
+      await sb.from("wp_imported_posts").insert(wpRow);
+    } catch (publishErr: any) {
+      // Don't fail the whole pipeline — the rewrite still landed in
+      // ai_rewritten_articles. Just log so we can backfill later.
+      console.warn(`[rewrite-pipeline] published rewrite ${(art as any).id} to ai_rewritten_articles but wp_imported_posts insert failed:`, publishErr?.message || publishErr);
+    }
+
     return {
       submissionId: sub.id,
       rewriteJobId: lastJobId,