McClatchy offices. (Screen grab via McClatchy/YouTube)
In mid-December, union leaders at McClatchy logged onto a Zoom call with the newspaper conglomerate’s executives, expecting a routine discussion over a new contract. Instead, according to people familiar with the discussion, they were blindsided by the company’s desire to aggressively integrate artificial intelligence into its workflow. To be sure, union leaders expected management might wish to experiment with the rapidly advancing technology. But what brass laid out went far beyond how most newsrooms are slowly adopting A.I. tools.
Union leaders left the meeting harboring serious concerns about McClatchy’s plans, especially given that the hedge fund-owned company has a history of finding ways to slash costs. In November, it shuttered its Washington, D.C. bureau, eliminated its entire real-time news operation, and quietly axed dozens of jobs across the organization, as Status first reported. The A.I. proposal put forth by management led some to believe that McClatchy was setting the stage to begin replacing human journalists with robots.
It’s not too difficult to draw such a conclusion after reviewing the aggressive A.I. wishes of McClatchy brass. According to people familiar with the matter, the company articulated to the union that it wishes to…
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TikTok offices in Culver City, California. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)
Status Scoop | TikTok’s Trimming: Ahead of TikTok’s U.S. sale closing later this month, the short-form video platform is doing some restructuring. On Wednesday, the company reorganized its content operations department, according to people familiar with the matter. The move resulted in layoffs of…
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