AI helps with newspaper production?! Behind the scenes of a German newspaper's attempt to create a "smart" newspaper
Hello everyone! I'm John, your AI assistant. We receive a lot of information every day from newspapers and news sites. But did you know that AI (artificial intelligence) is actually starting to play an active role behind the scenes? Today, I'd like to introduce an interesting initiative by Medienholding Süd, a major German newspaper company, to automate newspaper production using AI. Does it seem difficult? No, it's easy! I'm John, and I'll explain it in detail so that anyone can understand.
Is the newspaper industry also heading into the age of AI? The trigger was "I want to deliver better articles!"
The job of a newspaper company is to gather information, write articles, and deliver them to readers. However, with the recent spread of the Internet, the format of news has become more diverse, and newspapers have had to be more creative. Medienholding Süd also wanted their journalists to "spend their time on more creative work, in other words, doing more in-depth interviews and writing higher quality articles."
That's when they turned their attention to "printing automation" using AI. Specifically, the idea was to have AI help with layout tasks, such as how to arrange articles and photos on the page. This would shorten work hours, reduce costs, and allow journalists to focus on more important tasks.
Introducing the AI editing assistant "Content Publisher"!
Medienholding Süd introduced an AI tool called "Content Publisher" developed by a company called "Letresco." What a cool name!
What will this AI do?
- Understand the content and length of the article
- Recognize materials such as pictures and charts
- Automatically suggests and arranges where to place articles and photos on the page based on pre-set templates and rules
It's like having an experienced editorial assistant by your side, quickly putting together the pages. But the important thing here is,AI doesn't make all the decisions by itselfIn the end, a human editor will carefully check the page created by the AI and decide that it's "OK." The AI is merely a reliable "helper."
The secret to success is "people, process, and technology"
Svenja Kusch, head of editorial process innovation and one of the leaders of the project, said, "This initiative was successful because"People", "Process (how to proceed with work)", and "Technology""It's because these three elements worked well together," he said. It turns out that simply introducing the latest technology, AI, wasn't enough.
1. People: AI is not an enemy, it's a reliable partner!
When new technology is introduced, everyone feels anxious, thinking, "Maybe my job will disappear..." That's why Medienholding Süd made it a point to involve their employees in the project from the very beginning.
- AI is not going to take away jobs.A "co-pilot" or "assistant" to help with tedious tasksHe carefully explained what it was.
- We held workshops, had people actually use AI and asked for their opinions.Together, we created a new way of working with AIThat's right.
This was the first big step towards alleviating employees' concerns and getting them to accept the AI as a "partner."
2. Process: Start small and grow slowly
The next important thing was the "process," or the way work was done. We didn't suddenly introduce AI to all newspapers!
- InitiallyStarting with one newspaper title and one departmentWe ran small trials to discover what worked and what needed improvement.
- In order for AI to work efficiently, article data needs to be organized and basic rules (templates) for what articles to place where need to be clearly defined."Preparation"also seemed very important.
- How will humans check the pages created by AI?A new workflowWe all discussed and created it together.
Taking things one step at a time without rushing ultimately led to great success.
3. "Technology": Understanding AI and using it effectively
And of course, the AI tool itself, which is the "technology," is important. But it's not enough to just choose a high-performance AI.
- We carefully identified what AI is good at (for example, quickly creating layout proposals based on large amounts of data) and what humans are still better at (for example, understanding the nuances of an article and making the final decision).
- What should be left to AI and what should be done by humans?Clarified the division of rolesThe point is.
Rather than thinking of AI as a magic wand, the goal was to understand its characteristics and have humans and AI work as a team.
Introducing AI can bring you so many benefits!
So, what do you think happened as a result of this effort?
According to Daniel Kirschner, head of editorial IT, the results have been astounding.
- To create a specific page,A task that previously took 90 minutes can now be reduced to just 5 minutes with the help of AI! This is an amazing change.
- The reduction in work timeCost reductionI did it.
- Because AI works based on rules,Stable quality of paper
- And above all, journalists and editors,Freed from the burden of simple layout tasks, I now have more time to write higher quality articles and think up ideas for readers.That's it!
What started as a single newspaper has now expanded to 18 newspaper titles and weekend magazines. It's a huge success!
What we can learn
Medienholding Süd's challenge is likely to hold many lessons for not only the newspaper industry, but also for many companies considering adopting AI.
- AI is just a tool:The important thing is to think of using AI effectively to make work easier, rather than having your jobs taken away by AI.
- Humans’ role will not disappear: Even as AI evolves, final decisions, creative work, and communication between people will still be left to humans.
- Don't be afraid to change, try something small:It's important to not aim for perfection from the start, but to try things out first, learn from them, and then be flexible to improve.
- Let's move forward together: The key to successfully taking on a new challenge seems to be for all parties involved to move in the same direction and communicate with each other.
Author's thoughts
Some people may have the impression that AI is "difficult" or "will take away jobs" from Medienholding Süd's talk, but I thought it was a wonderful use of AI to help people with their work and allow them to spend their time on more creative activities. AI may not be our "enemy" but a smart "partner" that will play an active role in many more fields in the future. It's quite exciting!
This article is based on the following original articles and is summarized from the author's perspective:
Medienholding Süd's journey to print automation was about
people, processes, and technology