National World said it will adopt a broader automation strategy for the remainder of 2023, including “immediately tapping into artificial intelligence in production across both print and digital platforms.”
National World Interface.
The plan was announced by the newspaper alongside the revelation that it had cut nearly a third of its workforce in the past two years and was continuing to make further cuts, affecting more than 50 journalists.
The report also confirmed annual operating profit fell from £4.1m to £1.4m, while total revenue also fell slightly from £43.5m to £41.6m.
National World spent a total of £3m on buying newspapers and news organisations – including the Rotherham Advertiser, Banbridge Chronicle and Newry Reporter – in the first six months of this year.
The report said 300 journalists, nearly half of National World’s editorial workforce, have now been trained “in all aspects of video , including presentation and editing,” which has led to a 49% increase in online video views, contributing to a 67% increase in video advertising revenue.
The group added that digital revenue rose 9% to £8.9m, while print publishing revenue fell 8% to £31.7m.
The fact that some news organizations around the world have begun using AI tools to produce news articles is causing controversy, because in addition to the huge benefits, it can affect the quality of journalism and even spread misinformation.
Recently, a British local news site, The Bournemouth Observer, was discovered to have faked the profiles of human journalists and editors in its articles, despite using AI to publish its articles.
The Bournemouth Observer accused of faking journalist profiles to publish stories using AI.
The Bournemouth Observer, which was exposed for creating questionable AI-generated content in an investigation earlier this month, had welcomed the launch of Genesis, a new Google AI tool designed to write news stories.
The paper's editor-in-chief Paul Giles has previously denied posting fictional stories on the site, but admitted some content had been "polished" using AI.
Giles' admission came after police failed to find any data related to the two incidents reported by the newspaper, meaning they could be fabrications generated by AI tools.
Following the investigation, Giles announced that he was prepared to remove the description of The Bournemouth Observer as a “newspaper”, focusing instead on blogging, although the “News” and “Topics” sections still appear on the site.
Huy Hoang (according to HFP)
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