McClatchy Media has been using AI to generate new articles on its Northwest news sites, summarizing existing reporting into listicle-style roundups — often without informing the reporters whose work is being repackaged.

Now the Washington State NewsGuild is negotiating contract language to establish what AI can and can’t do in McClatchy newsrooms.

How reporters discovered it

Kristine Sherred, food reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune and union co-chair, said colleagues first noticed the practice in summer 2024 when a photographer saw an intern’s article had been turned into a shorter, AI-generated version.

More recently, reporters have seen their stories compiled into AI-generated roundups with headlines like “Six recent criminal sentencings in Pierce County Superior Court.”

Peter Talbot, the News Tribune’s criminal justice reporter, said he often learns about these compilations only when he gets an automated email notification.

“I’ll suddenly see like, ‘Hey, there’s a roundup of the sentencing stories I’ve written from court.’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, OK.’ I guess suddenly there was an article published last week of the last dozen stories I wrote, summarized by AI, I didn’t know that was happening,” Talbot said.

The AI-generated stories tend to have lower page views and minimal comment engagement compared to original reporting, according to Talbot.

What the union wants

Idaho and Washington State NewsGuild members are negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with AI protections as a priority. Other McClatchy properties, including the Miami Herald, have already secured AI clauses in their contracts.

The union has won agreement that AI will not perform typical newsroom activities like news gathering, public records requests or impersonating reporters.

But disagreement remains over a key provision. The union proposed that any AI-generated content require direction and editorial review by humans. McClatchy countered that this would only apply when content “substantially relies” on human work.

“It is unclear what that means,” Sherred said.

The broader context

McClatchy job postings ask prospective reporters to “take advantage of opportunities to ethically harness and leverage artificial intelligence and other automation to enhance and elevate their work.”

Sherred said she uses some AI tools to support reporting, such as pulling data on restaurants applying for liquor licenses. But the company’s focus seems to be content generation.

McClatchy published an article stating that “Editors have complete control and oversight of content and can make adjustments at any time.” The company did not respond to a request for interview from Northwest Public Broadcasting.

What it means

The McClatchy situation illustrates a common pattern: companies implementing AI for content generation without clear policies on when reporters should be consulted or how their work will be reused.

Contract language matters. Vague terms like “substantially relies” leave room for interpretation that may not favor journalists’ control over their work.

For other newsrooms considering AI-generated compilations or summaries, the key questions are:

• Who decides when and how AI is used?
• Do reporters have input or at least notification?
• What editorial review happens before publication?
• How does this serve readers versus serving page-view metrics?

The answers to those questions increasingly appear in union contracts, not company policies.

The post McClatchy reporters’ union pushes back on AI-generated content appeared first on The Media Copilot.

New York lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require news organizations to disclose when artificial intelligence is used in published content, mandate human review before publication and protect journalist sources from AI access, City and State NY reported on Monday.

The New York Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Requirements in News Act (NY FAIR News Act), introduced by State Senator Patricia Fahy (D-Albany) and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D-NYC), has won endorsements from the Writers Guild of America East, SAG-AFTRA, Directors Guild of America, NewsGuild of New York and New York State AFL-CIO.

What the legislation requires

Under the proposed law, news organizations operating in New York must:

• Clearly disclose when AI is used in any published news content
• Ensure all AI-generated stories, articles, audio, visuals or images are reviewed by a human employee with editorial control before publication
• Fully disclose to journalists and media professionals how and when AI is used in the workplace
• Establish safeguards to protect confidential sources and materials from AI system access

The bill (S.8451/A.8962-A) has been referred to the NYS Senate’s Internet and Technology Committee. It must pass both the state Senate and Assembly and be signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul to become law.

Industry support

NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava said the legislation would “safeguard the public’s right to know what is being done in their name” and is “necessary to protect and expand the public’s trust, built by media workers across the country and in our union, in human-powered journalism.”

WGA East president Tom Fontana warned that AI presents a “clear and demonstrable threat to the integrity of the news” and said the legislation would require “cooperation between news media companies and the highly skilled human workers they employee to uphold journalistic standards and workplace protections.”

SAG-AFTRA chief labor policy officer Rebecca Damon called the legislation a “meaningful, enforceable protection for both journalists and consumers of news media” that would “maintain the integrity of journalism, and help ensure that AI technology is a tool that serves the people who report the news to the public, not one that replaces or exploits them.”

DGA associate national executive director Neil Dudich said the NY FAIR News Act “puts media professionals at the center of the conversation about how AI will be used in newsrooms” and establishes “clear guardrails that protect workers’ rights and their professional judgment.”

Why it matters

According to the National Association of Broadcasters, more than 76% of Americans are concerned about AI stealing or reproducing journalism and local news stories. Senator Fahy said journalism is “one of the industries at most risk from the use of artificial intelligence” and that public trust in accurate news reporting is therefore also at risk.

“To protect the public’s trust in reporting and the news they read every day and the journalists who do the work, I’m proud to introduce the NY FAIR News Act,” Fahy said.

Assemblywoman Rozic emphasized New York’s central role in the news industry: “At the center of the news industry, New York has a strong interest in preserving journalism and protecting the workers who produce it. The NY FAIR News Act promotes journalistic integrity and ensures total AI disclosure to journalists, workers, and the public alike.”

The legislation comes during a critical election year as news organizations increasingly experiment with AI tools for content creation and distribution.

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