Readers have been asking, “What are publications doing with AI? Will AI start to impact my job [in tech PR]?” Based on our research, the answers are (a) they’re not sure yet and (b) not for a very long time.
Search platform TechNews last month introduced features that let users spot trends deep within tech editorial. Launched as IT Database in 2007, TechNews is widely used within tech PR to learn who is writing what.
This cheat sheet is a revision of the one published in August 2022. You’ll find new names among the 21 listed. Definitely new is the appearance of generative AI examples.
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Experienced B2B reporters often can’t help turning news stories into analysis, where context and POV shroud the actual news. Not so with TechTarget news writer Esther Ajao, now finishing her first year at SearchEnterpriseAI.
The Associated Press began publishing computer-generated articles eight years ago. Yet it always seems a bit futuristic — perhaps even dystopian — when a publisher turns to an algorithm to write articles.
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If you’re younger than 43 years old, Steve Lohr was reporting for the New York Times before you were born. Imagine all the stories he has written… the interviews he has conducted… and all the pitches he has seen.
Tired of writing pitches and press releases? AI writes copy these days. This month we used Copy.ai to promote the fictitious Wazoolie Pro, “a hypnotizer that convinces prospects to buy products and services they don’t need.”
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FRIDGE NOTES
“I’m leaving to build something new,” Alex posted on X today. He spent 12 years at Forbes as a reporter and a builder of databases and lists. It’s time he gets to keep the money.
Axios reported on Jan. 24 that private equity firm Blackstone will sell IDG/Foundry, publishers of InfoWorld, Computerworld and Network World (and owners of IDC) to another private equity firm called Regent, which bought streaming video channel Cheddar in 2023. Remains to be seen how the ownership change will affect IDG’s venerable IT titles, but it’s unlikely their budgets will go up.
Unionized writers have secured new protections governing the use of generative AI in member newsrooms, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The union — Writers Guild of America, East — represents Fast Company, Wired and many other prominent titles. The union won agreement that publications “will not lay off current staff employees due to the use of generative AI,” and also that “advance notice [must be given] if the company plans to make the use of generative AI systems a requirement of [editors’] jobs.”
TC’s Rebecca Bellan finds fault with Quartz for how poorly its AI rewrote a recent story of hers. Quartz doesn’t attempt to hide its use of AI. This will be the year everyone assumes that all publications use AI one way or another, and few if any people will come to care.
Dr. Diane Hamilton has posted 37 articles on Forbes’s CHRO Network page since Dec. 1. She has an active LinkedIn profile, which advertises a book she wrote. But her X feed and her personal web page both seem to be down. The Dr. happens to be founder and CEO of Tonerra, a company that specializes in content creation, among other things. Strange, then, that Tonerra has no web site of its own. If you happen to see Dr. Hamilton, ask her to call her service.
Today’s Press-Gazette has a fascinating interview with Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, who left the FT to launch The CEO Signal, a weekly newsletter built for CEOs of companies with annual revenues of at least $500M. You can apply to receive it here.
