Transforming the value chain of local journalism with artificial intelligence

Abstract

With their advertising and audience revenues in decline, local news organizations have been experiencing comparatively high degrees of disruption in recent years. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers opportunities for local news organizations to better cope with the economic challenges they face. However, local news organizations need to carefully prioritize where AI will create the most value. After all, they serve customers in the audience and advertising markets, with external effects on society. At the same time, they are limited by scarce resources, which constrains the implementation of AI. Therefore, based on Porter's value chain, this article pursues two goals. First, drawing on previous research, we provide a systematic overview of activities for which local news organizations see the biggest potential of AI to create value. Moreover, we highlight promising AI use cases based on benchmarking with national news organizations. Second, we discuss local news organizations’ challenges in implementing AI and how they might overcome such obstacles.