Associated Press

Leading technology executives from the BBC, AP, the Partnership on AI and Adobe said news organizations won’t be able to avoid the profound changes being ushered in by generative AI, and the time to frame up ethical and safe guidelines for its use is today.

Paul Caluori, AP’s VP of global products, and Derl McCrudden, AP’s VP and head of global news production, discuss the organization’s new AI-based archive search tool that circumvents the need for metatags and the shadow that generative AI casts over the industry at large. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Fox News is opposing a renewed effort by the Associated Press, the New York Times and NPR to unseal documents related to its recently settled defamation lawsuit, saying it would do nothing but “gratify private spite or promote public scandal.”

While it’s not yet feasible to combine rundown-based computer systems favored by newsrooms with digital teams’ storycentric content management systems, progress is being made in communication between the systems and with third-party software, bringing the two groups closer together. Above: Vizrt’s Story is a Web-based system for script creation and editing that tightly integrates with the Viz One media asset management system and Viz Pilot template-based graphics system.

Broadcasters are calling on a combination of cloud, software and transport technologies to facilitate collaborating and sharing at a station or across groups. The pandemic has shifted the many news sharing tools into high gear. Above: Dalet Pyramid Cut is Dalet Pyramid’s web-based feature-rich video and audio editor.

The report is based on survey results from nearly 200 newsrooms across all 50 states and more than two dozen in-depth interviews with local news leaders. Print, radio, television and digital outlets are represented, as well as commercial and nonprofit operations. In addition to demonstrating a readiness to adopt AI and automation technologies, the report outlines what local news providers need to drive technological innovation. To address many of the needs highlighted in the report, AP will offer a free online curriculum beginning next month, open to all U.S. news outlets. It will feature live, virtual workshops and recorded tutorials. International news outlets will have access to all recorded sessions.

The news organization will hire about 20 journalists based in Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S. to supplement the news agency’s journalists already covering climate and the environment. Together the team aims to transform how AP covers the climate story, including focusing on the profound and varied impacts of climate change on society in areas such as food, agriculture, migration, housing and urban planning, disaster response, the economy and culture.

What does the future of journalism look like as AI and automated technologies take hold in other industries? The AP is working hard toward that future, and it’s working with news organizations across the country to figure out how AI can best help local newsrooms.

In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace urged the agency to explain why the name of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Martha Mendoza was run through the databases and identified as a potential confidential informant during the Trump administration, as detailed in a report by Homeland Security’s inspector general.

Daisy Veerasingham, the Associated Press’ incoming president and CEO, says that live video reporting, along with automating functions like transcriptions and translations around it, will be a key focus for the organization. Does that mean an AP streaming service could be in the offing? Note: This story, which is available to all, would normally be reserved for TVNewsCheck Premium members only.

She will become the first woman, first person of color and first person from outside of the United States to lead the AP in its 175-year history.

The Associated Press’ recent firing of a young reporter for what she said on Twitter has somewhat unexpectedly turned company and industry attention to the flip side of social media engagement — the online abuse that many journalists face routinely.

Equipment manufacturers say newsrooms have been too slow to embrace a storycentric model of content creation, one far more in line with consumer habits than the old evening-newscast-as-endgame paradigm. Above, Sam Adams, the morning anchor for KHQ Spokane, is preparing clips for NonStop News, the station’s 24/7 streaming channel. He’s seated at the NonStop News Desk, which is where these clips are prepared. He can produce and present the clips in a very short amount of time. The lower TV in the distance is receiving NonStop News over-the-air on ch. 6.3.

That announcement came hours after more than 100 AP journalists signed a letter expressing concern about how former news associate Emily Wilder was treated. The journalists want more clarity in what can be said on forums like Twitter and Facebook and faith the company would protect them from pressure campaigns.

Journalists from the Associated Press, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other tenants were safely evacuated from the 12-story al-Jalaa tower in Gaza City after the Israeli military warned of an imminent strike. Three heavy missiles hit the building within the hour, disrupting coverage of the ongoing conflict between’ Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Israel. “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” AP President-CEO Gary Pruitt said.

At the end of a turbulent campaign, the global news organization has a big role to play, with 4,000 reporters collecting vote counts from county clerks in 50 states. Above, an Associated Press staff member reading copy from the election tabulator in November 1936.

Latakoo’s newly launched Manifest integrates with AP ENPS to accelerate news production capabilities for broadcasters.

The change conveys “an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa,” John Daniszewski, AP’s vice president of standards, said in a blog post Friday. “The lowercase black is a color, not a person.” The news organization will also now capitalize Indigenous in reference to original inhabitants of a place.

With coronavirus pushing numerous staffers into remote working situations, broadcasters are increasingly looking to exploit all of the remote functionality in their newsroom computer systems. Improved IP connectivity and better automation software is helping to make that happen.

The Associated Press will add a statehouse reporter in 13 states as part of a new partnership with Report for America, the organizations announced Monday.

Automation technology is fast evolving to keep up with demand for content on multiple platforms. Vendors say it helps eliminate redundant tasks and integrates as many platforms as possible without posing a threat to jobs or creative control.