3 newsroom tasks you should be automating
In pursuit of global expansion, digital-born media organizations are turning to automation.
By Ella Wilks-Harper | Jan 22, 2018
Automation can help bring down costs and empower lean editorial teams to make the most of their resources.
In “Global Expansion of Digital-Born News Media”, researchers examined how seven internationally orientated digital-born news media organizations are leveraging digital technology, including Mashable and Blendle. Many of those interviewed were found to be more internationally-orientated than far larger organisations with more resources.
Let’s take a look at the three types of automation that publishers are tapping into…
1. Content curation
Blendle
Nicknamed the ‘iTunes of journalism’, Blendle offers users pay-per-article model and personalized content.
The Dutch news platform aggregates articles from a variety of newspapers and magazines. In the report, Alexander Klöpping, founder and CEO of the Dutch news platform told researchers how the platform is looking into how AI can help future personalization.
Access The Global Expansion of Digital-Born News Media
2. Content translation
BBC
The BBC have created a video editing tool called ‘Stitch’. The tool speeds up the process of changing English subtitles in videos. Currently, 900 videos per week are translated across 37 languages saving a lot of time.
Vice
Vice has also been innovating with automated translation. After noting the editorial challenges of distributing content in multiple languages across countries, VICE integrated its Content Management System with Google Translate. Using the Google Cloud Translation API, VICE created ‘GoogleFish’ which seamlessly allows their editors to quickly preview articles in their own language.
3. Content discovery
Mashable
Mashable built Velocity, an in-house tool which helps predict what content will go viral. It does this by collecting data on how Mashable’s audience engages with published articles.
Anne-Marie Tomchak, editor-in-chief, Mashable UK explained in the report how the tool can help inform editorial decision-making:
“One iteration of it is a data analytics tool where you can mine the Internet, millions of URLs every day. You are actually news gathering, you can see what’s picking up steam with Velocity’s predictive technology. So I can see what stories are resonating and try to then harness that Mashable editorial around a story.”