Where I've been and the great AI conversation (with basic points for journos)
Media Freedom Awards, Edinburgh International Book Fest, Booker Prize longlist, Ruby Darling, New Rewired 2025, Public Notices debate & job oppo in the Maldives
My dear wordsmiths,
Hello to my new subscribers, you are all legends in your own lunchtime! Feel free to share the love ;-)
If you are wondering where I’ve been, the answer is across the border in Yorkshire, The editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post has departed (for a fabulous new job!) so in the interim I’ve had a visa stamped in my proverbial passport and getting a bit more digitally hands on with the title which I oversee anyway. The reporters of Yorkshire have kindly not invoked any Wars of the Roses-related laws (see history), and let this Red Rose Lancashire lass into their White Rose meetings, albeit temporarily. Anyway it’s an interesting change for me - back to the choppy waters of news desk life after years away as a more senior editor. It’s a learning curve for me, geographically speaking if not job wise - I’ve been a title/titles editor for most of my career. Just not in Yorkshire. Obviously I’m still doing my actually job too.
Artificially Intelligent or is it?
While I’m more than aware that approximately three million other Substacks are talking about AI ( and with more knowledge than me), I’ve recently realised just how often I’m asked these days what it means for journalism specifically - and how divisive a subject it is. Artificial Intelligence has been with us for ages but it’s just now that it has been developing to the point of impacting normal people’s lives and awareness. It’s both a threat and an opportunity - it’s exciting but also frightening.
First of all: AI is probably not what you think. We have been biased by science fiction to form in our brains images of robots and dystopian futures where they fight with us for the control of the universe. But the “AI” we are talking about in the context of journalism is more similar to a spreadsheet than to any kind of robot.
With “AI,” we refer to “a collection of ideas, technologies, and techniques that relate to a computer system’s capacity to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.”
The Global Investigative Journalism Network
It’s largely generative AI (creating content such as text, images, audio and video) that is visibly impacting the day to day the most right now, fuelling text generators and chatbots and scraping published works - from journalism to novels - without much in the way of permission in many cases. It’s an opportunity and a threat but mainly a super power, not least in curating the experience of individuals with any brand, and a time saver.
But it’s also a cheat sheet and way of bypassing learned knowledge (with the related debate about the impact of the human brain) while being often algorithm-driven and often inaccurate - plus a perceived and real threat to the livelihoods of many. To refuse is to be called a Luddite and for you to be left behind while to embrace is not always as easy as sounds. You may not use right now but ignoring is not an option.
In journalism the most common usages are:
Data scraping, crunching and analysis: Journalists need to learn AI tools available and there are more every day. In a nutshell, it helps with the boring stuff.
Personalisation of experience for readers: For example, websites curated just for you, individualised newsletters & more.
Automation: Saving time, taking notes, transcribing audio, proofreading, draft headlines, text to speech ( AI generated audio), fact checking, newsletters.. the list goes on.
Research: Try Pinpoint for example. This is really useful AI tool for journalists - there's even a training course in how to use it. Essentially, it help journalists and academics explore and analyse large collections of documents. But there are many more AI tools where that comes from.
The biggest issues are:
Accuracy and bias: Human oversight remains essential as erosion of trust is an industry defining issue. Algorithms are already moulding consciousness and thinking, to suit.
Deep fakes passing as truth plus political and illegal misuse. See above.
Job security: It probably won’t take your job but the industry and roles available are changing rapidly. Also, see opportunity.
Theft of intellectual property: Those Google summaries are taken from somewhere.. for example. Copyrights are breached too quickly to chase. Stolen journalistic content etc.
Exciting though, isn’t it?
News, events and opportunities
Journalism/PR
NEWS: Halting public notices will ‘disenfranchise’ local communities, say NMA
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she wants to scrap ‘outdated’ rules requiring businesses to advertise in the local printed press - making it easier for new cafes and bars to open on UK High Streets . The News Media Association has warned proposals would amount to a “betrayal of local communities and the public’s right to know”.
News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith said: “Changing this would, at a stroke, disenfranchise local communities and deprive local journalism of a vital revenue stream. Local pubs, like local papers, are at the heart of their communities and the Government should rightly support them. This proposal does nothing to help either. It is not a cut to bureaucratic red tape, as framed, but a damaging assault on democratic engagement.”
EVENT: News rewired 2025
The next Newsrewired digital journalism conference will take place on Wednesday 26 November 2025 in London, UK. Will include a Keynote speech by media strategist Lucy Küng and a Spotlight talk: Newsletter and social media automation. Also, How leading publishers make new paywalls work in a reluctant market, a masterclass on Leading through AI, with Anita Zielina, How to foster young talent to bolster the sustainability and resilience of the media industry and a workshop on how to actually make change happen in your organisation. Tickets here
JOB: Want to work in the Maldives?
A contact of mine shared this job opportunity in the glorious Maldives. I mean..what an experience that would be! Here via LINKED IN
Books
EVENT Edinburgh International Book Festival - ongoing
It started Saturday but plenty left on the agenda. More than 600 events with the most exciting writers and thinkers on the planet to ignite imaginations, foster human connection, and challenge the status quo. You can get details here and here’s a take from the Scotsman.
NEWS The Booker Prize longlist
The Booker Prize longlist has been revealed and nine nationalities are represented: - Links to Booker Prizes here on Substack
Love Forms by Claire Adam
The South by Tash Aw
Universality by Natasha Brown
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Flashlight by Susan Choi
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
RUBY DARLING by Leanne Slade - new audio book release today
Narrated by Eleanor Tomlinson, Ruby Darling is the latest from Audible Original. When a run of bad luck culminates in Ruby Darling catching her adored fiancé cyber cheating, her million social media followers, her sponsorship deals, and her pristine reputation as a luxury travel influencer are in tatters. Now single, jobless, and soon-to-be homeless, Ruby is convinced that she’s cursed, until she discovers she’s in her Saturn Return – a cosmic shake-up that throws life into chaos until you find your true life’s purpose. Thankfully, there’s an app for everything these days, including one that promises to help her survive said planet returning to the exact spot it was in when she was born…
Leanne Slade is the internationally bestselling author of romantic novels The Rebound, Told You So, and The Glitch.
Thanks all, feels a bit serious this week - back on the books and writing lore in the next! Nx
Can we add the environmental cost to the biggest issues, pls. Water consumption alone is horrifyingly high for something which, though it does have useful and in some fields I dare say life-changing impact, is used by an awful lot of people for utterly trivial purposes. There needs to be more of a focus on responsible, limited use.
Thanks for a rare rational and helpful discussion of AI and writing. So much of what I see on Substack comes across as irrational and misinformed and fundamentalist.
I will never forget the moment two years ago when I did a little experiment with an early version of ChatGPT and saw that it produced a short news brief based on a medical study that was pretty damn close to what I would’ve done. (I was a sci/med reporter). I thought, oh shit, Toto, this doesn’t look like Kansas anymore.
But of course, the quality of it hinged very strongly on effective prompt engineering, my ability to explain to the model what a good news brief should look like based on 30 years of experience writing them. This is something that doesn’t get discussed often enough. There’s no magic here. Garbage in, garbage out.