Newsquest now employing 36 ‘AI-assisted reporters’
Leaders at The Guardian, Times, and Sun are cautioning about the dangers of "non-canon" AI-summarized news. Newsquest is reported to have 36 'AI-assisted reporters' on staff. The use of AI technology in news reporting is a topic of concern among traditional media outlets. The debate around the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated news continues to grow. It remains to be seen how this technology will shape the future of journalism.
Regional publishing giant Newsquest now employs 36 “AI-assisted” reporters across its titles, its editorial development director has said. Toby Granville revealed the figure, up from seven at the end of 2023, while speaking at the Society of Editors Media Freedom conference in London. The reporters use an AI-powered CMS to rewrite press releases into stories, and are tasked with checking the facts and quotes are correct in the output.
Granville connected the AI-assisted reporters directly to Newsquest’s efforts to build loyal local audiences, saying their work “frees up the rest of the newsroom to actually be out pounding the beat, knocking on doors, getting original content that people are willing to pay for”. He added the AI-assisted reporters helped because “we’ve got a lot more space to fill in those newspapers now, because there’s not many adverts in them”.
Although the print audience is declining, Granville said: “We’ve managed to slow down decline by focusing on better front pages, higher local story counts, news that’s actually relevant to the old readers... “We know that that audience is dying, but we’ve managed to add probably five or six more years to the print products, at least, having gone from around minus 16% [a year] to minus 10% on our newspaper sales.”
AI-Assisted Reporters Progression
Asked how AI-assisted reporters can progress professionally given they’re not doing traditional beat reporting, Granville told Press Gazette that they “choose to do this kind of AI-assisted work because they prefer it to traditional reporting." He explained various opportunities for progression within the organization, including training in AI literacy, brainstorming new ideas for using AI for journalism, and the chance to return to traditional reporting if desired.
Risk to Publishers from AI and Chatbots
At another session at the conference, Times and Sunday Times head of digital Edward Roussel discussed the risk to publishers from AI and chatbots. He highlighted the potential for publishers to be disintermediated from their readers as AI-driven personalization and summarization technologies advance.
Roussel emphasized the importance of building a loyal direct audience to mitigate this risk and shared strategies used by The Times titles to encourage reader engagement and loyalty. Chris Moran, head of editorial innovation at The Guardian, raised concerns about the impact of AI-driven content personalization on newsrooms and the need to preserve the distinctiveness and accountability of journalistic content.
Influence of AI on News Consumption
Nadine Forshaw, the editorial innovation lead at The Sun, expressed her belief that flaws in AI news summarization could erode user trust over time. She emphasized the importance of maintaining authority and credibility in news reporting to address potential shifts in user habits caused by misleading AI-generated content.
The discussion at the conference highlighted the evolving role of AI in journalism and the challenges and opportunities it presents for news organizations.