People, Planet, Purpose (and AI) in local journalism

Welcome to the first edition of the Happy Journalist - exploring local journalism sustainability through the lens of people, planet and purpose in an AI era

Sep 20, 2023

Hello and welcome to the Happy Journalist,

As you may have gathered, I’m an optimist. I love journalism and I believe that brilliant, relevant journalism has the power to make a difference in the world and to communities. I’ve spent the last 17 years in regional news, shaping newsrooms, developing brands, creating content, leading digital transformation and driving audience growth. And I was once responsible for appointing the UK’s first Happiness Correspondent. More on that another time.

Most recently, I was Discovery Director for Reach, working across its network of Live sites to deliver audience growth and find new audiences through SEO. We delivered huge audience growth, sustaining brilliant local journalism in communities which would otherwise have been left news deserts.

But I believe we’re at an inflection point in local journalism. A point where what we do with AI has the power to make or break our future. And a point where what I term the three Ps - People, Planet and Purpose, or building communities, responding to climate change and delivering solutions - will become more important than ever.

AI

AI is likely to change everything about how journalism is created and consumed. It will increase productivity, revolutionise content production and disintermediate news consumption. Automated content generation tools can help newsrooms produce more articles efficiently, while AI-powered data analysis can assist in uncovering trends and patterns relating to communities and climate change. Moreover, AI-driven recommendation algorithms can personalise content delivery to cater to readers' specific interests, potentially increasing engagement.

Many newsrooms are already experimenting with AI and have come across its myriad technical and ethical limitations. It can’t write a news story from scratch, it can’t interview people, it fills in gaps with hallucinated content, it repeats the biases of its inputs, it generally fails to cite its sources and it’s often outdated.

And yet it is changing faster than any technology ever seen, so the key will be in designing use cases for Generative AI based on its potential over the next 12 months, rather than what it’s necessarily capable of right now. And many newsrooms don’t yet have the skills or capacity to realise its full potential.

“I think the really important thing for everyone to do is to experiment and learn and understand the technology but I would be very very surprised if in the next 12 months the most successful newsrooms hadn’t radically changed.” Lyndsey Jayne, Chief Product Officer, Financial Times

People, Planet, Purpose

The advent of AI will make human-generated media and genuine human connections more important than ever. As communities grapple with the effects of the climate crisis, it will increase the demand for local journalism. And as news avoidance continues to grow, solutions journalism and positive social impact will be vital.

🫂People - not just understanding audiences, but building, supporting, championing and empowering communities by being relevant, trusted and making a difference to people’s lives. We’re at a point when developing and engaging communities has a far greater bearing on future journalism sustainability than pure scale. AI will increase the appetite for human-generated content created by diverse and inclusive newsrooms that reflect diverse audiences.

🌏Planet - trusted local media will be relied upon to report on extreme weather events, hold others to account and lead behaviour change and as such, those media companies will need to have their own environmental policies in order. Revenue models will need to be adapted away from the kind of advertising that fuels unsustainable levels of consumption. And newsroom culture needs to change so climate becomes a priority.

⭐Purpose - in a world where news avoidance is growing, journalism needs to have a strong purpose, be focused on solutions rather than issues and be designed to have a positive social impact.

I’ve taken some time out of the newsroom to look at the future of local journalism sustainability and learn about AI. Through this newsletter, I’ll share a series of experiments with AI to work out how it can be used to make local journalism better and not just drive efficiencies in newsrooms. And I’ll take a look at the newsrooms that are putting people, planet and purpose at their core, sharing what I’ve been reading and the success stories I’ve come across.

It’s a newsletter for journalists looking for a positive outlook on the industry and ideas to help shape future newsrooms and will land in your inbox once a week.

If you like what you’re reading, please do hit subscribe and share with friends and colleagues.

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AI experiment of the week

Tool: ChatGPT 3.5

Prompt: Create 10 newsletter subject lines to maximise open rates among an audience of journalists for a newsletter with the following text […]

Response:

"Welcome to The Happy Journalist: Navigating a Changing Media Landscape"
"From Newsrooms to New Realities: The Happy Journalist's Perspective"
"The Future of Journalism: Embracing Change with The Happy Journalist"
"Unlocking the Potential of Local Journalism: Climate, AI, and The Happy Journalist"
"Meet Our Optimistic Founder: The Happy Journalist's Journey"
"The Intersection of Climate, AI, and Local Journalism: The Happy Journalist's Mission"
"Climate and AI: Transforming Local Journalism's Tomorrow with The Happy Journalist"
"The 3 Ps of Local Journalism: People, Planet, and Purpose with The Happy Journalist"
"Shaping the Future of Newsrooms: Insights from The Happy Journalist"
"Join The Happy Journalist's Weekly Odyssey in Local Journalism, AI, and Climate"

These subject lines emphasize the optimism, mission, and focus of your newsletter while addressing the key topics of local journalism, climate change, and AI. They aim to engage and intrigue your audience of journalists, maximizing open rates.

Tips: ChatGPT 3.5 is a free to use Generative AI tool. Sign up at https://chat.openai.com/auth/login. Be specific with your prompts, setting parameters such as your audience, your writing style and your goals. Copy and paste your newsletter content into the prompt to get a response that accurately reflects your content. Keep refining your query until you get the results that best suit your newsletter and your audience.