The use of AI in newsrooms is nothing new, but most of it remains in the experimental stage. However, News Corp, helmed by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, clearly intends to make it real.
News Corp. recently announced a deal with the relatively low-profile AI startup Symbolic.ai.A major agreementThe company plans to integrate its AI platform into its financial news hub, Dow Jones Newswires.
Former eBay CEO and Ars Technica founder team up to create
While Symbolic.ai may not be a household name in the tech world, its founding team is quite impressive. The company was co-founded by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Jon Stokes, co-founder of the well-known tech media outlet Ars Technica.
News Corp. owns major media assets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and MarketWatch. Under the agreement, Dow Jones Newswires will be among the first to adopt the Symbolic.ai platform.
It's not just about writing; it emphasizes improving "productivity."
Symbolic.ai emphasizes that its platform was designed to "assist in the production of high-quality news and content," rather than simply to automatically generate articles. Official data claims that the tool can deliver up to 90% productivity improvements when handling complex research tasks.
In practical applications, this platform will be integrated into every stage of the editing workflow, aiming to make tasks more efficient. Its functions include:
• Newsletter Production
• Audio transcription
• Fact-checking
• Headline optimization
• SEO Recommendations
From "selling information" to "using tools"
News Corp. has adopted a fairly open and proactive approach to AI in recent years. As early as 2024, the group signed an agreement with OpenAI.multi-year cooperation agreementNews Corp. has licensed its news content to OpenAI for model training. Last November, News Corp. further revealed its intention to license its content to more AI companies.
This collaboration with Symbolic.ai signifies the group's transformation from a mere "content licensor" into a "deep user" of AI tools.
Analysis of viewpoints
The most interesting aspect of this collaboration lies in the backgrounds of Symbolic.ai's founders: Jon Stokes, a veteran tech media professional, understands the pain points of newsrooms; and Devin Wenig, with experience operating large e-commerce platforms. This combination means that Symbolic.ai may understand the media's needs better than general-purpose AIs (such as ChatGPT)—not just randomly generating illusionary fake news, but helping journalists handle the most time-consuming tasks like verbatim transcripts, data organization, and SEO headlines.
For financial media outlets like Dow Jones Newswires, which prioritize speed and accuracy, the adoption of AI is an inevitable trend. Financial news often involves a large amount of financial data and breaking news. If AI can help process 90% of the basic research, journalists can focus their energy on more valuable in-depth analysis. This also foreshadows the future competitive barrier in the news industry: there will be a huge gap in productivity between media outlets that use AI and those that don't.
