The Washington Post’s first AI strategy editor talks LLMs in the newsroom

[Nieman Lab: The Daily Digest] Thursday, March 28, 2024 [The Washington Post’s first AI strategy editor talks LLMs in the newsroom]( Phoebe Connelly on prompt training, AI anxieties, and her first-of-its-kind role By Andrew Deck. [How The Wall Street Journal is keeping Evan Gershkovich in the news]( “We want everyone to feel they’ve got skin in the game here.” By Sarah Scire. [The Atlantic tops 1 million subscriptions]( What We’re Reading NPR / Miranda Green and David Folkenflik [Chevron owns this city’s news site. Many stories aren’t told →]( “Chevron presents the Standard as an investment in the Richmond community. [The public relations firm operating the Standard wrote]( ‘This site would tell the stories other outlets had lost the resources to tell.’ But not all of the stories.” Columbia Journalism Review / Josh Hersh [Can sports journalism survive in the era of the athlete? →]( “‘We’re in a time of information abundance,’ says Brian Moritz, a sports media researcher at St. Bonaventure University. ‘But actual journalists—the people who hold systems and power structures accountable—they’re being totally phased out.'” The Wall Street Journal / Alexandra Bruell [How The Atlantic went from broke to profitable in three years →]( “A core part of [Nick] Thompson’s strategy was to figure out how much readers would be willing to pay for a subscription. He ended up raising subscription prices by more than 50%, and made it harder for people to read stories without paying … Subscriptions now account for two-thirds of revenue, compared with a little less than half when Thompson took the helm.” The New York Times / Mark Landler and Adam Satariano [Russian group spread disinformation about Princess of Wales, experts say →]( “Martin Innes, an expert on digital disinformation at Cardiff University in Wales, said he and his colleagues tracked 45 social media accounts that posted a spurious claim about Catherine to a Kremlin-linked disinformation network, which has previously spread divisive stories about Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as about France’s support for Ukraine.” Poynter / Alex Mahadevan [A pink slime site used AI to rewrite our AI ethics article →]( “The piece, filed in Tech Gate by an alleged human named Bourbiza Mohamed — who racks up bylines on stories about video games, Bitcoin and NASA every five minutes or so — was published four hours after Poynter’s story. It had Poynter’s art and logo, and followed the same structure as Kelly McBride’s article, but nearly every sentence was rewritten with peculiar word choices. For example, the Tech Gate article says: ‘Consider of it (sic) like a meals prep package. A lot of the function is completed, however you even now must roll up your sleeves and perform a little little (sic) bit of labor.’ Compare that to McBride’s piece: ‘Think of it like a meal prep kit. Most of the work is done, but you still have to roll up your sleeves and do a bit of labor.'” The Boston Globe / Aidan Ryan [GBH warns of possible layoffs as it faces “financial headwinds” →]( “‘Like many other media outlets, GBH is facing financial headwinds,’ [chief executive Susan] Goldberg said in a statement, in response to Globe questions. ‘We are looking at a variety of ways to address this, including eliminating end-of-year bonuses across the organization. While final decisions have not yet been made, layoffs are not off the table.'” Los Angeles Times / Hannah Wiley [L.A. Times reporters attacked by Minnesota troopers will settle lawsuit for $1.2 million →]( “Two journalists who were cornered and attacked by the Minnesota State Patrol as they covered protests over [George Floyd’s murder]( for the Los Angeles Times will soon settle a lawsuit with the state for $1.2 million. The pair, one current and one former L.A. Times employee, alleged the troopers [violated their 1st Amendment rights]( Digiday / Sara Guaglione [BDG publishes fewer stories amid referral traffic declines, and focuses on events to grow and monetize audiences →]( “BDG has also streamlined its editorial strategy from covering ‘as many content categories and capturing as many category specific dollars as possible from advertisers’ to… focusing on ‘three to four categories at most on a lifestyle site and moving the more niche categories like travel or food onto very specific sites, instead of trying to spread them out over the portfolio,’ [senior vice president of marketing and audience development and head of social Wes] Bonner said. BDG is also focusing its efforts on social channels other than Facebook and X, such as Instagram and TikTok.” TechCrunch / Paul Sawers [LinkedIn targets users caught between TikTok and what used to be Twitter →]( “A few weeks back, LinkedIn [said that premium subscriptions brought in $1.7 billion last year]( (the kinds of numbers that [Musk can only dream of over at X]( The Guardian / Maya Yang [Karlie Kloss and Joshua Kushner announce plan to revive Life magazine →]( “The announcement comes more than 20 years after Life, which was initially founded in New York City in 1883, [stopped]( its regular publications.” The Washington Post / Sarah Ellison and Josh Dawsey [NBC offered Ronna McDaniel a better contract to appear on MSNBC →]( “MSNBC President Rashida Jones participated in recruiting former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this month and McDaniel was offered a more lucrative contributor contract after she agreed to appear on MSNBC and not just NBC News, according to people familiar with the matter.” Columbia Journalism Review / Anika Collier Navaroli and Jasmine E McNealy [The role of “Trust & Safety” teams in an AI-dominated world →]( “The failure to implement adequate policy for social media sites both internally and with external regulation has already led to deadly results, like January 6th. And that happened before the emergence of LLMs. Now, I fear that the convergence of unregulated social media and prevalence of Generative AI could lead to a ‘November surprise’ in this year’s elections.” [Nieman Lab]( / [Fuego]( [Twitter]( / [Facebook]( [View email in browser]( [Unsubscribe]( You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for for it at www.niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab Harvard University 1 Francis Ave.Cambridge, MA 02138 [Add us to your address book](