Salem Reporter joins 12-newsroom AI programme focused on practical tools
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The six-month Local Media Association and Google News Initiative programme will train participating newsrooms to use AI for research, story ideas and document analysis.
Salem Reporter has been chosen to take part in a six-month programme aimed at helping local news organisations put artificial intelligence to work in their operations. The initiative, run by the Local Media Association with support from the Google News Initiative, is scheduled to run from November to April and will bring together 12 newsrooms.
The Local Media Association said the participating organisations range from small publishers to larger news outlets, including several serving underrepresented communities. The cohort also includes The Seattle Times, The Colorado Sun, The Columbian and The Santa Fe New Mexican, alongside publishers such as AFRO News and The Atlanta Voice.
Participants will receive training from Google, take part in peer learning and have access to individual coaching. The curriculum is set to cover using Gemini for tasks such as research and generating story ideas, as well as Gemini Notebook for analysing documents and supporting reporting. Newsrooms will also develop practical projects and present their work at an in-person event at the end of the programme.
The initiative follows other work by the Local Media Association on AI adoption in local news. In reporting on a separate year-long project with broadcasters, the association highlighted possible applications including transcribing recordings and making public-meeting material easier to search. It also stressed the importance of safeguards, staff involvement and maintaining editorial oversight as newsrooms adopt new tools.
The programme is distinct from Google’s separate News AI pilot, which involves licensing publishers’ content for experimental features such as article overviews and audio briefings. Google said that pilot had more than 400 participating publications worldwide. The LMA initiative, by contrast, focuses on training newsrooms and developing practical uses of AI within their organisations; the available information does not indicate that Salem Reporter is part of Google’s licensing pilot.
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Source: Noah Wire Services · Original