Seattle's KOMO-TV is using an experimental software program to grab stories from wire services and post them to its web site without human intervention. For the station, the new technology means news availability for KOMO web site users at the greatest possible speed and at a lower cost. But the process offers serious implications for newsmakers, as well as the reporters.
"This makes it all the more important that you know your target audiences and exactly what you want to say to them," says TMT partner Eric Seidel. "With this technology, news outlets are plucking national and international stories that should have local interest and/or impact. You need to make sure that if you share those same audiences, your message is squarely focused on them. Otherwise, the story you interview for likely will just end up in the backwaters of cyberspace."
Writing for the Lost Remote, a web site that tracks technology "convergence" for broadcasters, Corey Bergman describes the seconds-only process now in place at KOMO-TV: "Through a simple browser interface, the station sets the application to grab stories that match certain keyword combinations, wire categories and even the time of day from any incoming data stream. In KOMO-TV's case, it's programmed to post the latest AP wire copy on anthrax, Afghanistan and the attacks."
Selected stories are then filtered electronically to clean up copy and format text so it is consistent with the web site.
"Rather than throw people at this problem, we throw some really intelligent technology that allows us to have the very latest news on the site," said Mel Martin, news media director for Fisher Communications, the parent company of KOMO and the publisher of the new software. "We don't think letting people slave over rewriting wire copy is the answer. We can spend time on our local news, which is what counts, without worrying about keeping the national and state wires up to date."
The software application also includes a publishing tool allowing reporters and producers to move their stories to the web, cell phones, pagers and Palm Pilots just by "drag and drop."
If the experiment is successful, no doubt the application will come into general usage for broadcasters nationwide, and the software will begin selecting stories on subject matter well beyond the current war on terrorism. That prospect should make all corporate spokespersons and external communicators sit up and take notice.
According to Seidel, "With a system like this in place, you can't depend on having a live person at the 'switch' to recognize that you and your messages are important to the story. The artificial intelligence will have to say 'ah ha, this is important to those very audiences I'm programmed to reach,' and will get you through the 'filters,' keep you in the story, and get your information to your audiences."
The software is now running only as limited experiment on Fisher Communications' 12 station websites. But Bergman says other stations and broadcasting groups are interested in the technology.
