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Newsroom computer systems (NRCS) have long served as the linchpin of broadcasters’ news operations, and as such they have been slow to change compared to other pieces of technology in a television plant. With the systems being used to produce scripts and rundowns for hours of live programming each day, the difficulty of updating or replacing NRCS software — and training journalists and producers to use it — has kept many stations and networks wedded to the same NRCS for decades.
NRCS vendors have generally limited themselves to incremental upgrades, though over the past five years there has been a concerted effort to make systems more “story-centric” to better support multiplatform workflows.
The pace of change for the venerable NRCS is picking up, however, driven by industry consolidation, shifting viewing habits and the rise of new technologies like the cloud and AI. Major station groups like Nexstar and Gray have changed NRCS platforms across multiple stations in an effort to standardize technology. Others, like Sinclair, are eyeing a complete transformation of their news production workflows, including the NRCS, as they embrace public cloud technology. Vendors are updating their software to integrate the NRCS more tightly with digital production tools and make it more accessible from mobile devices, while also exploring how AI can reduce the ever-growing workload faced by today’s multiplatform journalists.
A chaotic newsroom of journalists racing to meet the needs of a demanding audience is nothing new, says Dalet co-founder and principal Stephane Guez. But he says news