Eight things to remember about journalism in 2023
Hi,
My name is Sara Forni, AI Product Manager at Atex, and this is MyType, a newsletter dedicated to journalism, innovation and artificial intelligence.
Every fortnight we will explore a topic related to this evolving field to discover the pleasure to do journalism without repeating boring tasks and using technology as a helper, not a substitute. That's what we like to call ‘digital joynalism’.
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Now, let's get started!
It is undeniable: 2023 has indeed been an eventful year for 'things concerning journalism' and for the future of the industry. In fact, many things we will go through together today will inevitably mark 2024 and the years to come.
Here, then, is a (non-exhaustive) list of some key things that happened in journalism in 2023:
Google Search could change forever. Or maybe not.
Artificial intelligence is set to revolutionize online search, with Google being the first to adopt hybrid solutions. These hybrid solutions combine the search engine's relevance, quality, and authoritativeness with a language model that amalgamates information into user-friendly answers. Other conversational search engines, such as Perplexity.ai, You.com, and Neeva AI, are also gaining popularity.
Some argue that Generative AI, particularly tools like ChatGPT, could lead to the death of traditional online searches and the end of web page visits to news outlets. However, it remains unclear how search patterns will change. Publishers will need to rethink their business models and how to monetize clicks on their pages.
Publishers have been trying to adapt to the AI age by making deals with tech companies.
Big publishers have been finding it difficult to adjust to this impending change. Axel Springer and AP's partnership with OpenAI are two examples of the agreements that some have struck with AI startups.
Others have created their own AI language model, like BloombergGPT for financial news, to make use of their archives. There will undoubtedly be more announcements in 2024.
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using their content to drive AI models. This could have big consequences in the market
Year-end bombshell: The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using “millions” of articles to train chatbots like ChatGPT, without permission.
The NYT calls this a "free-ride" on their journalism. But OpenAI and Microsoft claim it is “fair use”. The NYT, however, does not go along with this and has pointed out instances of 'hallucinations' in which ChatGPT allegedly misrepresented information from the US newspaper.
The NYT is demanding a compensation, to be quantified in “billions of dollars”, as well as a demand to destroy all chatbot models that are also based on their content. This news could rewrite copyright and AI legislation. Updates will follow.
The New York Times passes ten million paid subscribers.
In between lawsuits, the New York Times has found a way to reach no less than 10 million subscribers. Something truly unthinkable considering the current state of health of publishing.
The New York Times's profitable subscription model and astute investment in non-news offerings are the main reasons for its current state of prosperity.
Despite having its headquarters in the US, NYT has grown over the years to become one of the largest news publishers in Europe, matching some of the largest European publications in terms of staffing and reach.
The role of the ‘AI editor’ is born
2023 was the year that saw a proliferation of searches for AI editors within newsrooms. Figures such as these are key because they play a dual role: on the one hand, they help and advise the rest of the editorial staff on the main trends to follow and can support the product teams in the development of new use cases; on the other hand, they contribute to that feeling of greater 'solidity' of the editorial offices towards the readers.
News organisations have been leaving Twitter and experimenting with new platforms as social traffic declined
The evolution of Twitter into X merits a dedicated chapter in the annals of 2023 history. While it's not quite gone and is still a significant forum for discussions about news, Elon Musk's direction has caused it to decline. Several influential editors have quit, either because their readership has decreased or in opposition to Musk's actions.
However, the fake news control system could become an interesting method of 'controlling' the work of the newspapers themselves.
As social platforms have deprioritised news partnerships, publishers’ social traffic has dropped. “Traffic referrals to the top global news sites from Meta’s Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, has collapsed over the past year, according to data from Similarweb”, Axios reported in October.
While news firms have experimented with other channels such as WhatsApp and Threads, they are by no means replacing Twitter in its former position.
TikTok's exponential growth also for news brands
As Facebook withdraws from the news space, publishers are focusing more and more on Tiktok. About half of the top news publishers in more than 40 countries consistently uploaded content to the Chinese-owned video platform, according to research conducted last year by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).
With 13.1 million followers, youth focused Ladbible held the title of largest publisher on Tiktok as of December 17. Daily Mail, which had a sharp rise in its readership from 4.5 million in December of last year to 7.5 million this year, came next.
AI is forcing us to revise editorial guidelines. But will readers really like this?
An overwhelming majority of readers would like news publishers to tell them when AI has shaped the news coverage they’re seeing. Also for this reason, many editors have rewritten their editorial guidelines, specifying when and where (images, text parts, summaries, translations) Artificial Intelligence was used. But, new research finds, news outlets pay a price when they disclose using generative AI.
As Nieman Lab reports in a long article, that’s the conundrum at the heart of new research from University of Minnesota’s Benjamin Toff and Oxford Internet Institute’s Felix M. Simon. Their working paper “‘Or they could just not use it?’: The paradox of AI disclosure for audience trust in news” is one of the first experiments to examine audience perceptions of AI-generated news.
More than three-quarters of U.S. adults think news articles written by AI would be “a bad thing.”
That's all for this year! See you there.
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For any ideas, suggestions and thoughts on the subject, don't hesitate to email me at sforni@atex.com.
Have a good weekend,
Sara