Half Of Newsrooms Already ‘Actively Working’ With Generative AI
The WAN-IFRA survey indicated it is management, rather than individual journalists, driving adoption.
Half of newsrooms are “actively working” with generative AI tools like ChatGPT, according to a new survey. The survey by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) also indicates that newsroom leaders are the ones spearheading the deployment of AI in newsrooms.
The survey of 101 editors, journalists or other newsroom staff, conducted with Schickler Consulting, focused on how news organisations are already using generative AI, a technology that can produce lengthy plain-language text from short prompts.
Some 49% of respondents answered yes to the question: “Is your newsroom actively working with generative AI tools like ChatGPT?” The remaining 51% answered no
Insider Union Staffers Go On Strike After Steep Layoffs
Members of the outlet’s union walked off the job on Friday after it couldn’t come to an agreement with management on a new collective bargaining agreement. The union voted on Monday to approve a strike, with 94 percent of the unit in favor of the move. “Management failed to agree on a fair contract that settles our healthcare ULP and pays us what we’re worth,” Insider Union tweeted early Friday morning. “Starting now, over 250 Insider employees are on indefinite strike.” “We are looking to get a contract that we deserve, and I think our members recognize that we bring that value to the newsroom,” William Antonelli, an Insider reporter, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “I think a strike demonstrates that value.”
“Guild members working at Insider are demanding that the company rectify the harm caused by its unlawful decision to unilaterally change their health coverage,” said Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild of New York, in a statement. “Many members now are paying hundreds more for essential medications and healthcare while Insider executives pocket the savings. I am proud to support Guild members who refuse to allow over-compensated executives to line their pockets at workers’ expense.” “The strike is unfortunate, but we respect our team’s right to do it. We’ve made an excellent offer, and we hope they accept it soon,” spokesperson Mario Ruiz said in a statement.
Insider CEO Henry Blodget took the company’s stance a step further in a Friday email to staffers, blasting the NewsGuild for having “persuaded” the union to strike. “As I told you two years ago, my only concern about having a union at Insider was that a third-party organization might try to use it to divide us and create an “us vs. them” dynamic at the company,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, this is indeed what the Guild has recently tried to do.”
Publishers’ Group Warns That Generative AI Content Could Violate Copyright Law
A publishers’ trade association— which includes the New York Times, the Washington Post, Disney, and NBCUniversal—is reminding members that AI tools built on their archives could break copyright laws. According to a draft of guidelines from Digital Content Next that was shared with Marketing Brew, “copyright laws protect content creators from the unlicensed use of their content” and “use of copyrighted works in AI systems are subject to analysis under copyright and fair use law.” Additionally, it says that “most of the use of publishers’ original content by AI systems for both training and output purposes would likely be found to go far beyond the scope of fair use as set forth in the Copyright Act and established case law.”
The document, which hasn’t been shared with members yet, also notes that “use of original content by [generative AI] systems for training, surfacing, or synthesizing is not authorized by most publishers’ terms and conditions, or contemplated by existing agreements.”
Titled “Principles for Development and Governance of Generative AI,” the draft was written with input from members with the goal of giving publishers a tool to help aid discussions with generative AI companies, regulators, and internal conversations, according to Jason Kint, the trade group’s CEO.
While the ad industry goes gaga for generative AI, many publishers have raised red flags about the impact these tools could have on the media ecosystem. They’ve expressed concerns around whether responses generated by AI are gleaning information from behind paywalls and how these tools could potentially cut into site traffic.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, told the Wall Street Journal that the company has “done a lot with fair use,” the legal doctrine that lets copyrighted material be used without permission under certain circumstances. He also said the company has made deals for content.
Kint declined to say if any of its members were considering legal action over generative AI-related copyright issues. Still, publishers should have a seat at the table and an opportunity to discuss potential compensation and how any information pulled from their archives will be credited, he said. “There’s lots of different ways that they may choose to negotiate, but that negotiation should happen.”
Louisiana Begins Public Notice Transition To Newspaper Websites
Last week, Louisiana became the first state to pass a law that will eventually make newspaper websites the primary platform for public notice. HB-650 requires local governments to post their notices on official newspaper websites beginning in 2027. They’ll also be required to publish print notices describing the subject matter and location of the online notices, but — in a reversal of present custom — the print ads will be free and the online notices will be the ads they pay for.
HB-650 passed both houses unanimously and is expected to be signed by Gov. Jon Bel Edwards when it reaches his desk.
The bill has a number of other provisions that take effect next year. One new mandate changes how public notice fees are set. Another requires official newspapers to publish local notices on their websites and on the Louisiana Press Association’s (LPA) statewide public notice site. There’s also a now-ubiquitous “errors and omissions” clause stipulating that publication mistakes made by newspapers don’t undermine the validity of a notice.
The legislation only affects local governments — parish police juries, city councils, school boards and other local bodies — so public-notice laws regulating the state government and judiciary won’t change for now.
CherryRoad Buys Cass Newspaper
CherryRoad Media acquired the Cass County Star-Gazette on June 1, buying it from Delphos Herald, Inc. in Ohio and the Cohen family. It is the first publication the company owns that is based in Illinois. The company, a subsidiary of CherryRoad Techologies, has been buying local newspapers across the country since late 2020 with its purchase of the Cook County News-Herald in Grand Marais, Minnesota. CherryRoad currently operates upwards of 75 local news outlets, most of them located in the Midwest. The Cass County Star-Gazette itself has been in operation since 1866.
The purchase comes at a time of upheaval for the country’s local news outlets. Last year, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism found that newspapers in the nation were shutting down at a rate of just over two a week, with a fifth of U.S. citizens living in “news deserts” with limited access to local news. Surviving papers have had to cut down on staff and circulation in response to dwindling revenue.
Northwestern also noted that regional chains like CherryRoad, Kentucky’s Paxton Media and West Virginia’s Ogden Newspapers have been buying up papers as larger conglomerates shed their newsrooms. The study found that CherryRoad and Paxton bought two-thirds of the 90 papers Gannett had sold off since 2020.
CherryRoad CEO Jeremy Gulban said the deal to buy the Star-Gazette had been in the works for a few months. The paper was the first chance the company was given to move into the state, he said.”When this opportunity was brought to us by a broker,” Gulban said, “it was of interest to us because Illinois is a state we wanted to have a presence in.”
