As artificial intelligence continues to redefine industries, a panel of media and technology leaders brought together by TVNewsCheck explored how AI-powered technologies are reshaping news gathering, storytelling, and distribution.
“The pace of AI innovation is staggering, and its impact on newsrooms is already tangible,” said Jon Accarrino, the panel moderator and former VP for Transformation & Strategic Initiatives at Capitol Broadcasting.
Panelists included Tony Plosz, Chief AI Technology Officer at Graham Media Group; Mike Kralec, Chief Technology Officer at Sinclair Broadcast Group; and Paul Cramer, Managing Director of Media and Broadcast at Veritone.
“AI is helping us automate what we call ‘zombie processes,’” explained Cramer. “For example, we’re using computer vision (a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows computers to recognize and understand images and videos) and multimodal AI (a type of artificial intelligence that can process and integrate multiple types of data simultaneously, like text, images, audio, and video) to index news archives, which enables journalists to quickly locate and repurpose footage. This turns archives from a cost center into a revenue generator.”
Sinclair Broadcast Group has also been leveraging AI for more efficient news production. Kralec described efforts to unify metadata across systems, a move he said has taken years but is critical for cloud-based workflows. “By having the right standards in place, our newsrooms can easily access and repurpose content, improving efficiency across platforms,” he said.
The transition to AI-powered systems is not without challenges, especially for legacy operations. Plosz highlighted Graham Media’s strategy to balance traditional systems with emerging technologies. The company has created what it calls “Spark,” an internal AI platform designed to streamline newsroom processes. “Spark serves as a single pane of glass for reporters,” said Plosz. “It reduces friction by integrating multiple AI tools into one interface, allowing journalists to focus on storytelling instead of learning new platforms.”
The panel also discussed AI’s potential in storytelling and audience engagement. Kralec emphasized AI’s role in enhancing narratives through early-stage video analysis. “AI can generate insights from video during the camera-to-cloud process, giving journalists a head start in crafting compelling stories,” he said. Those insights might be used to enable hyper-personalized content, according to Cramer. “We’re moving toward a future where consumers can request custom video news packages tailored to their interests, dynamically generated by AI,” he said.
Despite these advancements, the panel agreed that training newsroom staff to effectively interact with AI systems will be essential. “Prompt engineering is the new skillset,” said Kralec, likening it to the evolution from the Dewey Decimal System to Google search.
The group identified additional skills they expect to be essential for a journalist’s success in the future:
Metadata Management and Search Optimization
AI-enhanced metadata is crucial for news gathering and archiving. Journalists will need to understand how metadata is generated and used to retrieve relevant content efficiently. Cramer mentioned that AI indexing allows journalists to “search through their index in real time to do data mining, fact-checking, and find B-roll,” reducing the time spent searching for footage.
Fact-Checking, Verification & Ethics
AI tools can assist in verifying past reports, interview transcripts, and archival content, but journalists must know how to apply fact-checking processes rigorously. Cramer pointed out that “governance and copyright” are critical issues in AI-driven newsrooms/
Multiplatform Content Adaptation
AI is helping newsrooms repurpose content across platforms. Journalists will need skills in optimizing stories for various digital formats, from long-form articles to social media clips. Journalists will also need to interpret AI-generated analytics and trend reports to make editorial decisions.
