🤖 Why AI is a ‘game-changer for local news’

By Hayley Milloy | August 29, 2024 |

Thursday, 29 Aug 2024

Reading time:

8 mins

While the number of Artificial Intelligence tools for journalists has exploded over the last year, AI’s impact on local journalism has been growing for years.

Here at LION, we’ve heard from our members that it can be challenging to determine how AI might be impacting their work, whether to use certain tools, and what the future might hold.

So we asked Nikita Roy, the founder and host of the Newsroom Robots podcast and Harvard-recognized AI futurist, to join us in our News Entrepreneur Community Slack to talk about it.

If you’re wondering 1) where to get started with AI, 2) which tools and workflows are the most time-saving, especially for small publishers, 3) what ethical considerations to keep in mind while experimenting with this technology, or 4) what are the pluses and minuses of major players, read the top Q&As from our recent “Ask Me Anything” Slack session.

Our top takeaway? “AI is a game-changer for local news” when used responsibly.

– Samantha Matsumoto, LION’s community engagement manager

P.S. We’ll be in Chicago for the 2024 Summit next week, so you won’t receive our usual Thursday morning newsletter. However, we’ll be sending a special edition revealing the winners of our sixth annual LION Awards on Thursday evening. 🏆

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2024 Summit: SOLD OUT

We’re one week out from our Independent News Sustainability Summit and officially ✨ SOLD OUT ✨ of tickets. If you’d like to be placed on a waiting list, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

We owe a huge thank you to everyone who expressed interest in this event, and we’d like to shout out again our generous sponsors, whose support has made it possible: Knight Foundation, Google, The Carol Oppenheim and Jerome S Lamet Charitable Fund, the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), Indiegraf, The MacArthur Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, Democracy Fund, Ballotpedia, BlueLena, Lede AI, News Revenue Hub, Newspack, The Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and Broadstreet.

LION CA member call

Are you a LION member in California? Sign up for a call on Friday, August 30, at 9 a.m. PT with LION Executive Director Chris Krewson, Membership Director Sarah Gustavus Lim, and Board Member Neil Chase of CalMatters to discuss the settlement between Google and the state, a public-private partnership that will create a new fund for local journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and a new national AI accelerator program. We’ll discuss LION’s limited role in the settlement process, and share what we can about how it will all work.

12 resources for independent publishers

1. Make more money from ads. Reserve a seat for Indiegraf’s webinar on creating a successful ad strategy. Bonus: LION member Burlington Buzz’s Nicci Kadilak will be joining to discuss her ad sales journey. (TODAY at noon ET)

2. Address burnout this election season. This free American Press Institute webinar will give you actionable insights for reassessing and repairing your relationship with work. (TODAY at 1 p.m. ET )

3. Apply for a Sustainability Audit. This LION program includes a thorough assessment of each participating news business, including actionable recommendations, resources, and up to $20K in direct funding. (Apply by Aug. 30)

4. Work with us. We’re hiring a membership services manager to help ensure LION’s membership systems, processes, and customer support operate efficiently and smoothly. (Apply by Sept. 3)

5. Figure out your finances. Sign up for this free webinar, hosted by A Bookkeeping Cooperative, on budgeting and financial systems development, where you’ll learn about basic financial terminology, reporting, and more. (Sept. 5)

6. Develop a mobile app. This toolkit by The Lenfest Institute breaks down the ins and outs of devising a mobile app strategy.

7. Keep audiences around. Sign up for Blue Engine Collaborative’s newsletter, The Boost, which is in the midst of a five-part series on digital subscriber and member retention.

8. Facilitate better brainstorming. These tips from LION member The Markup’s Sisi Wei prioritize making effective brainstorming meetings accessible to all participants.

9. Engage your community. Check out this roundup of free and practical engagement journalism guides.

10. Get a robot to write it. Created in a LION newsroom, Word Nerd creates articles for real estate transactions, marriage certifications, crime announcements, and more in minutes instead of hours. Replace hours of manual work in seconds with safe generative and non-generative AI. (Sponsored content by Lede AI)

11. Handle your biggest newsletter headaches. Read the newsletter advice Inbox Collective Founder Dan Oshinsky shares again and again.

12. Start a staffing plan. This LION NEA course can help you brainstorm what types of employees best fit your current needs and budget.

What we’re reading

Keep it simple. New research reveals that typical news readers prefer simple headlines, though journalists don’t like to write them. (Nieman Lab)

The path to Press Forward. Want to start a Press Forward local chapter? These four steps can point you in the right direction. (Press Forward)

Election fatigue. While almost half of U.S. adults are tired of hearing about the presidential election, local news outlets have a particular advantage in helping readers overcome news fatigue. (Medill Local News Initiative)

LIONs in the news

This week’s shoutout feels particularly special.

As if we weren’t already excited to head to Chicago next week for our 2024 Summit, this Crain’s Chicago Business article highlights “a new class of publications persevering to cover local news,” including LION members Harvey World Herald and Block Club Chicago.

It also explains how Press Forward, the national funding coalition led by the MacArthur Foundation, started in the city with the Chicago Independent Media Alliance.

We can’t wait to be among locals and visitors alike, all working together to build a better news ecosystem.

In other LION member news:

⭐ The Jersey Bee and Rutgers University–Newark hosted 10 local high school students for a hands-on, five-day journalism workshop.

⭐ Oviedo Community News’ Megan Stokes has been named ‘Editor of the Year’ by the Society for Professional Journalism during its annual Sunshine State Awards. Eric Orvieto was also honored for his work on a series on Oviedo’s Black communities.

⭐ Deep South Today, The Maine Monitor, and The Nevada Independent have signed content-sharing agreements with The Associated Press.

⭐ Sahan Journal, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, and The Texas Tribune are featured in this book, “What Works in Community News,” a study of journalism startups that “are solving the local news crises one community at a time.”

⭐ The Appeal’s Tara Francis Chan and The Buckeye Flame’s Ken Schneck have been selected for the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership.

How to reach us

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