Belgium-based news publisher Mediahuis is experimenting with automating the production of its “first-line” news.

Under an experimental projectAIagents are involved in the writing, fact checking, legal checking and editing of news stories under the plan but a human would always check the finished product before it is published.

The proposal is to allow the 2,000 journalists at Mediahuis to concentrate on producing its “signature journalism”, the publisher’s head of AI strategy Ana Jakimovska told the FT Strategies News in the Digital Age event in London on Wednesday.

Mediahuis publishes around 25 titles in Belgium (De Standaard), the Netherlands (De Telegraaf), Ireland (Irish Independent and Belfast Telegraph), Luxembourg (Luxemburger Wort) and Germany (Aachener Zeitung).

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Jakimovska said: “We’re really, really big on signature journalism, on talking to people, knocking on doors, interviewing, understanding our communities’ deep connection with the communities that we serve. But we also acknowledge that there’s a need for first line news.

“So one of the experiments… is looking at what level we can automate first line news so that we can unlock a big chunk of that potential of the 2,000 journalists that Mediahuis has to work on high level journalism, on our identity.”

Mediahuis is building a “huge database” of key sources including Parliaments, wire agencies, think tanks, companies and political leaders on social media.

Specific examples of potential international and Belgian sources included agencies AFP, Reuters and Belga, non-profit consumer protection organisation Testaankoop, Oxfam, research university KU Leuven, public service broadcaster VRT, Flemish Parliament, the European Commission, and Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever and Flemish Vooruit party chairman Conner Rousseau on social media.

Jakimovska said they are “orchestrating a set of very simple agents” starting with commissioning agents that understand each brand, which will be fed this data and tasked with deciding what news stories would be relevant to its audience – and what has “public value”.

Source: Press Gazette