How a scrappy New York news outlet is taking a stand against AI-generated content
Robots are taking over the news — but not if a scrappy, nonprofit outlet devoted to stories about America’s largest city has anything to say about it.
THE CITY, a New York-based digital media outlet dedicated to what it calls “rigorous accountability reporting with a focus on systemic issues,” announced Friday a rebrand as The City Reporter. The new name, the 7-year-old outlet said, is a specific rebuke of a rise in artificial intelligence-generated news stories.
“With this new name,” the site’s top editors, Carroll Bogert and Richard Kim, wrote, “we’re proudly investing in our identity as reporters, people who investigate stories and verify facts.”
The news represents the latest clash between journalists and the rise of artificial intelligence in newsrooms nationwide. Earlier this week, for example, employees at The New York Times announced legal action against the paper and accused the outlet of using an AI tool to “surveil and monitor union members.” And, as Straight Arrow has reported, journalists working for the McClatchy newspaper chain are protesting a new initiative that puts real reporters’ bylines on stories created by artificial intelligence.
Ben Fractenberg, the visual producer at The City Reporter, told Straight Arrow the rebrand made clear the organization’s commitment to local reporting in a media landscape where news is increasingly nationalized due to economic forces.
“There’s been so many local papers that have closed nationally, so I’m really honored and proud to be part of this effort,” Fractenberg said.
Reporters rebuke AI-generated news
At THE CITY — that is, The City Reporter — newsroom leaders said the name change was a nod to boots-on-the-ground journalists “in an era of robots and algorithmic news.”
“A chatbot doesn’t know how to conduct an interview that is both compassionate and skeptical,” Bogert and Kim wrote. “It can’t stand outside the immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza, talking with people as they’re whisked away by federal agents.”
That doesn’t mean they’re shunning AI entirely. The outlet acknowledged, for example, that reporters can use AI to “sift through thousands of pages of public records,” but that only human journalists “have the experience to ferret out information that powerful people don’t want us to know.”
Fractenberg told Straight Arrow that the rise of AI-generated content — including images — makes the role of photojournalists more important than ever.
“AI can’t be at a breaking news scene,” he said. For example, he said, a chatbot is incapable of capturing photographs of federal agents detaining people after immigration court hearings. “Only photojournalists can get those vital images.”
The City Reporter’s top editors also acknowledged the name change could help its image. By improving its search engine optimization, the new branding could make the outlet’s articles easier to find online.
“We hope when you tell your friends ‘I learned it in The City Reporter,’ we’ll be immediately recognizable as a news outlet that prioritizes journalists and their skill in serving New Yorkers,” the outlet’s top editors wrote.
AI pushback mounts in newsrooms nationwide
As The City Reporter’s leadership doubles down on work created by humans, outlets nationwide are grappling with how to utilize — and limit — AI in newsrooms.
The NYGuild, which represents unionized staff at The New York Times, announced this week that rank-and-file workers were taking legal action against the company, alleging leaders were “using AI technology to monitor and surveil the performance” of its employees in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.
“Workers everywhere are under attack from the unethical use of artificial programs by bosses,” Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of NY, said in a news release. “Sadly, New York Times management has proven themselves to be no different, rejecting both transparency and accountability for how artificial programs are being used against the very workers who help make the company successful.”
Workers filed two grievances and an unfair labor practice charge against the company on behalf of the Tech Guild, which represents some 1,500 technology workers. Company workers accuse managers of using AI tools to monitor the performance of technology workers in violation of their union agreement.
“Management has continually refused to provide information to the Tech Guild on the company’s use of AI, despite being required by federal law to provide information that relates to either bargaining or contract enforcement,” according to a NYGuild media release. “The Times refused to respond to three requests for information from The Tech Guild and NYGuild, violating labor law.”
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokesperson for The Times, told Straight Arrow the company disagreed with the union’s characterization of its AI use. She said the union failed to detail the specific contract provisions it accuses the company of violating.
“It also misstates how these tools work and how we use them,” she said in an email. “These are not surveillance tools, and we have no work quotas.”
The dispute at The Times comes as journalists across the country are resisting the launch of an AI tool by the newspaper conglomerate McClatchy Media, which owns dozens of newspapers including the Kansas City Star, the Sacramento Bee, the Miami Herald and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.
As Straight Arrow reported this week, reporters at the Centre Daily Times newspaper in State College, Pennsylvania, launched a union bid after their bylines were slapped onto AI-written articles. The daily newspaper was an “early test newsroom” for a “Content Scaling Agent” developed by McClatchy. The tool uses the Claude AI chatbot to repackage news articles at varying lengths for different audiences.
Many news organizations prohibit the publication of AI-generated articles. Others, such as The Associated Press, use AI to produce routine content, such as corporate earnings reports and sports box scores. Bloomberg and The Washington Post use it to create summaries that accompany news stories.
Straight Arrow uses AI to help produce features such as Media Miss and Media Landscape, which analyze coverage from multiple news outlets. However, editors review all AI content, and AI is never used to write news articles.
McClatchy maintains its AI tool helps newsrooms improve efficiency and cut costs. But some reporters have refused to use the tool, which they say has actually cost them time as they work to fix errors introduced by AI.
“We’re seeking a fairer and more equitable contract, and one of our priorities is having greater control of our bylines when it comes to AI-produced content,” Josh Moyer said in an email. “The Centre Daily Times has been a great place to work, and we’re working to make it better.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
