Anna Jones’ Post

This annual report from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, which dropped this week, is always full of great insights, with the research surveying news leaders from around the world. One finding that caught my eye is that almost two-thirds are worried about a sharp decline in traffic referrals from social media. It's indicative of the situation media brands find themselves in that after years of working with platforms to boost traffic, social firms have become unreliable friends, moving the goalposts with their changing algorithms, which now consistently down-weight news content. How are publishers responding? In part leaders are saying they plan to target WhatsApp and Instagram, where Meta is giving them more access to broadcast. They're also continuing to leverage TikTok (obviously) and YouTube. Clearly it makes sense for news brands to use every channel at their disposal to push their content. In the UK, witness the Daily Mail - which still sells over 700,000 physical copies a day - turning its front pages into ads for its podcasts and YouTube shows. And of course no report these days is complete without something on AI. Alas, media leaders are not upbeat. While some brands are striking deals to license their content - for example, Axel Springer's agreement with OpenAI - 48% worry there is little hard cash to be made in AI. Read the full report here:

Had a great chat with AppliedXL CEO Francesco Marconi on the company's latest partnership with Bloomberg and the future of AI in journalism. Check out my article on how newsrooms currently use AI and more info on how Bloomberg uses AI to aid Bloomberg Professional Services' Terminal users. *** The world of journalism is turning at Mach speed with several partnerships being forged on licensing and AI usage within the newsroom. Last week, OpenAI partnered with Dotdash Meredith, the publisher of People magazine. The deal allows OpenAI to make use of “trusted content” from the publisher in ChatGPT, particularly to help improve the chatbot. This is only the latest in a series of similar licensing partnerships that OpenAI has forged over the past year. As of now, OpenAI potentially has access to an entire portfolio of articles from Politico, Business Standard, Financial Times, and Associated Press, to name a few. Partnerships are being established the other way around, too. Earlier this month, Bloomberg partnered with AppliedXL to make use of their AI agents to generate analyses for Bloomberg Terminal users. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated has reportedly used AI to generate articles, which means that at least one major news organisation is making use of AI-generated content. Read more: https://lnkd.in/duifvYGh Bloomberg-AppliedXL partnership: https://lnkd.in/dgyYWkDt

Report: Concerns about AI in news rising worldwide Consumers worldwide increasingly worry about using AI to create news content, particularly stories about politics and other sensitive topics, according to a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. However, most consumers are comfortable with journalists using the technology to improve efficiency. Concerns about misinformation spreading online have risen since last year, with 72% of US respondents reporting concerns about online misinformation.

Using undisclosed AI-generated content and fake journalists has caused a stir in the Sports Illustrated Union and the journalistic community. The union expressed their concern about the issue, which was also reported by Futurism. Check out the following article to learn more about the backlash that the use of AI-generated content and fake journalists has caused in the Sports Illustrated Union and the broader journalistic community. #AI #journalism #SportsIllustratedUnion #journalisticcommunity #technews

Google launched initiative to collaborate with independent news publishers using an AI tool before its public release sparks a complex conversation about the future of journalism and the ethical use of AI in content creation. The program aims to support smaller news organizations by offering financial incentives and access to AI technologies for generating news content from public data sources. However, the method of aggregating content from other websites without explicit permission raises ethical and legal questions about the originality and ownership of news content. Consider the broader implications of AI in journalism - Is it a boon for under-resourced publishers, allowing them to produce more content with fewer resources, or does it tread dangerously close to content appropriation and diminish the value of original reporting? The balance between leveraging AI to enhance journalistic practices and protecting the integrity of news content is delicate. The potential for AI tools to repurpose existing material without adding substantive new information poses a threat to the foundational principles of journalism, where the emphasis is on originality, accuracy, and providing value to the reader. Google's initiative reflects a larger trend of tech giants influencing the news ecosystem. While the Google News Initiative purports to support the industry, the underlying dynamics of power, control, and revenue sharing between tech platforms and publishers warrant scrutiny. Critics argue that initiatives like these may serve more to advance Google's interests than to address the challenges facing the news industry. This development prompts us to rethink the relationship between technology and journalism. How can AI tools be responsibly designed and used to truly support the work of journalists rather than undermining the profession? What safeguards need to be in place to ensure that AI enhances rather than detracts from the quality and integrity of news reporting? As we look at AI in our everyday lives, questions underscore the need for a collaborative approach that respects both the potential of technology and the core values of journalism. You can read more detail on this story from ADWEEK & Nytimestoday News https://lnkd.in/dHdwZxdt https://lnkd.in/dN5iZgUm

What is the future of AI in journalism? As newsrooms shrink, media outlets will turn to AI for content like other industries are doing to increase productivity with AI. At this point, AI is still an intern that needs a heavy hand to correct errors and omissions. But that won't always be the case, and newsrooms will shrink even more. Should journalists be panicky? So, here's a larger question: what does that mean for public relations? #journalism #pr #ai #likeanintern #futureofjournalism

Here's a prime example of why GenAI will not replace journalists and editors (at least for now). Nothing can replace the judgment and analytical mind of a human writer. Sport Illustrated outsourced content development for its website to a third-party - which apparently used GenAI to produce a set of shoddy articles. Further, Sports Illustrated denied the incident and hid details about its GenAI experiment from its readers. This is not what true journalism is all about. That impacted the reputation of a legendary media brand. Its subscriber base is bound to be impacted because of this incident. And this is not the first such incident with the media. This shows us that we cannot leave it entirely to AI and GenAI - the technology can only augment or assist - NOT REPLACE humans. https://lnkd.in/dJ2dbF29 #media #journalists #genAI #publishingindustry

Journalism jobs are under threat. The companies may use nice sounding terms like "AI empowered journalism", but the reality is that while there would be a FEW journalists who will use AI to greatly boost their reach, a LARGE number of journalists and copywriters will be put out of work. And it won't be just journalism jobs. Almost any job will be at threat from AI, robotics and automation. I don't think society intuitively understands how disruptive this could be. It's not the change. It's the SPEED of change which has no historical precedent. Human beings cannot change and/or be reskilled at that speed. Human beings come with a whole bag of family, relationship, emotional, mental and physical considerations. These things cannot pivot overnight to support drastic changes at the job level. Yes, it's inflexible but it's what makes us human. "As part of the deal, when users ask ChatGPT a question, the chatbot will deliver summaries of relevant news stories from Axel Springer brands including Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt. Those summaries will include material from stories that would otherwise require subscriptions to read. The summaries will cite the Axel Springer publication as the source, and also provide a link to the full article it summarises. The summaries will be available on ChatGPT as soon as the article has been published, so that breaking news is part of the user experience, according to Mr Tom Rubin, OpenAI’s head of intellectual property and content. The Axel Springer content will begin appearing in the first quarter of 2024, Mr Rubin said. The content will get a “favourable position” in ChatGPT search results, with the goal of helping to drive traffic and subscription revenue to Axel Springer brands, according to a source familiar with the deal. OpenAI will also pay for the Axel Springer content it uses to train the large language models that power ChatGPT. That content includes archived material, Mr Rubin said. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which is for multiple years and is not exclusive, according to Mr Rubin. “We want to explore the opportunities of AI empowered journalism - to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level,” said Axel Springer Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner in a statement." https://lnkd.in/dSNRF-UJ

#journalism trends in 2024 Useful Insights for #comms professionals from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: 📌 Publishers think there are opportunities to drive more referrals from messaging services like WhatsApp (+61), business networks like LinkedIn (+41), as well as relatively new sources of traffic such as Google Discover.  📌 Majority of the publisher respondents say they plan to create more video (+64 net score), more newsletters (+52), and more podcasts (+47), but broadly the same number of news articles. 📌 Most publishers are still focusing on maximising attention (54%), rather than being respectful of people’s time (37%). 📌 Many public media organisations worry most about news avoidance. Strategies that publishers will be trying to address the problem include better explanation of complex stories (67%), more solutions-oriented or constructive approaches to storytelling (44%), and more inspirational human stories (43%). There was less support for commissioning more positive (21%) or entertaining (18%) news. 📌Most news publishers think AI will have a negative impact on trust in news. 31% think that AI will lower trust a lot and 39% will lower trust a little, while only 8% think that there will be no change.

This feels by far the biggest challenge for journalism in 2024, more than AI or deep-fakes How do we get our content in front of potential viewers, listeners and readers when social media is pulling back from news? In the last 12 months "aggregate Facebook traffic to news and media properties has declined by 48%, with traffic from X down 27% and Instagram by 10%." Source: Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2024 https://lnkd.in/eusZgCGQ