Thursday 2nd February: Cutting through the 'ChatGPT for journalism' hype

Good morning! Today's newsletter is brought to you by Chris.

Eight tasks journalists can pawn off to robots

The always excellent Marcela Kunova has written a practical guide to ChatGPT for journalists. Not only is it a wonderful antidote to the hype and anti-hype that makes up the majority of ChatGPT coverage at the moment, it actually adds to the debate by demonstrating beyond all doubt that the tool is just that - a tool - and already has a place in the journalism industry:

"If you are doing A/B testing, challenge yourself with your headlines vs the AI. You can ask it to make the headline funny, negative, or positive, remove the jargon or make it into a specific number of words. Shame that ChatGPT really struggles with maths - always count the words in the final result and ask it to rewrite it if it made a mistake (it almost certainly did)."

It's a funny and practical look at how ChatGPT is being used already. I just took part in a breakfast panel discussing exactly this, and the big takeaway was 'absolutely use it, and use it widely - but double-check it at all costs'. We're right in the early stages of Amara's Law with AI-generated journalism, so cutting through the hype is always welcome.

Gawker's dead again

Not to go all South Park, but - you bastards! BDG Media has announced in a memo that the gossip and entertainment site is still in a 'pre-monetisation' phase. In the face of a worse than expected Q1, it is making the decision to kill Gawker - again. To be fair this hurts less than the first time, in part because it isn't at the whim of a billionaire, but also because I haven't returned to the new Gawker as often as I did its first iteration.

Grub Street Journal takes the spotlight in The Addition

Aww yeaaa! Friend of Media Voices Charlotte Henry has interviewed our own Media Voices family member about his new magazine. We spoke about Grub Street Journal - Peter's magazine about magazines and magazine-makers on the podcast before last - but in this episode of The Addition he has far more time to talk about his plans. Well worth a read (and a listen) if you care about the craft of magazines.

Publishers care not for password sharing paupers

Password sharing? Ain't no thing - at least according to publishers. In the light of Netflix cracking down on password sharing, Jack Marshall is asking if publishers are concerned about the same. The answer - at least for now - is 'no'. Cynically, you might say that's because so few people actually subscribe to newspapers - relative to those that have entertainment subscriptions - that password sharing is a rounding error, but it's interesting insight nonetheless.

NEW EPISODE: Good Housekeeping Editor in Chief Gaby Huddart on using their centenary to be future-facing

This week we hear from Gaby Huddart, Group Editorial Director at Hearst UK and Editor in Chief of Good Housekeeping. We talk about celebrating the brand’s centenary last year with their first multi-day live event, what a Good Housekeeping reader looks like today, and why it’s so important for the title to be future-facing. She also discusses how readers’ attitudes to their homes have changed over the pandemic, and the role the Good Housekeeping Institute plays in building trust.