The Rupert Murdoch-owned media conglomerate News Corp announced on Thursday a partnership with Symbolic.ai to deploy the company’s AI publishing platform at Dow Jones Newswires, the financial news service that sits alongside The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch under the Dow Jones umbrella.
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Symbolic.ai was founded by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Ars Technica co-founder Jon Stokes. The startup bills itself as the first AI-native platform built specifically for professional communicators across news, corporate communications, and public relations.
The company claims its platform delivered “productivity gains of as much as 90% for complex research tasks” during early testing at Dow Jones Newswires, according to the company’s press release.
The platform handles the routine grunt work that chews up reporter time: audio transcription, document extraction, newsletter creation, and fact-checking. It also includes headline optimization and SEO guidance features designed specifically for publishing workflows.
“A future where technology streamlines research and production, freeing people to focus on the creative, analytical, and investigative work that truly sets their content apart,” Wenig said in the announcement.
News Corp CEO Robert Thomson praised the startup’s editorial DNA. “The Symbolic team’s deep editorial roots are obvious in their sincere appreciation of provenance, and their patent desire to create products that enhance, not deface, demean or devalue journalism,” Thomson said.
The partnership signals News Corp’s continued push into AI integration. In 2024, the company signed a multi-year licensing deal with OpenAI and has reportedly been in talks with Google about similar arrangements, according to TechCrunch.
Symbolic is targeting what it calls a $100 billion global market for fact-based communication and publishing. The company pitches its platform as solving the fragmented landscape of disconnected AI tools that many newsrooms currently navigate.
For media organizations watching from the sidelines, the News Corp deal offers a test case. If a publisher this large can integrate AI tools without compromising editorial standards, it could accelerate adoption across the industry.
