Thank you, Mattea Vecera, for experimenting with creative AI-driven solutions for the communities we serve - and for sharing your success with the team!
A profoundly wise, Packers-loving Newhouse professor once told me: people fear the things they don’t understand. As a journalism student preparing to enter the job market during the age of AI, that fear felt very real just two years ago. So instead of avoiding it, I dug in to understand how AI fits into responsible journalism (and have since become one of the most enthusiastic adopters / experimenters with these tools in our newsroom). On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to speak at our company-wide Advance Local meeting about one of several AI projects I’ve collaborated on to streamline how we do our very important work. Over the past year, I’ve been working with David Cohn on an AI-powered workflow that helps the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com produce a weekly Staten Island weekend events roundup. What used to take nearly a full day of manual work now takes about an hour, without sacrificing editorial judgment or quality. I’ve also been able to extend this reporting to social platforms, turning the roundup into timely videos that drive engagement and traffic back to our website. It’s just one of many great examples of how AI can support local journalism, freeing up time for further storytelling and service. I’m grateful to be part of this work and excited to keep experimenting with tools that help us better serve our readers!
