United StatesMedia and entertainment2025 – ongoingCleveland.com and The Plain Dealer
AI rewrite desk for local stories
Cleveland.com set up an AI rewrite desk in 2026 and said reporters gained about a workday a week, which drew public criticism
Problem
The Plain Dealer's newsroom shrank from about 400 people in the late 1990s to 71. The paper had closed most outlying bureaus and wanted more coverage of nearby counties.
Approach
Editor Chris Quinn posted an AI rewrite specialist job in October 2025 and filled it in January 2026. Reporters in Lorain, Lake and Geauga counties send notes and quotes, an in-house version of ChatGPT from parent Advance Local drafts the story, and an editor and the reporter check it. Stories carry a note that AI helped. Quinn wrote in February that the setup freed an extra workday per reporter each week, and the Washington Post reported reporters were expected to file four stories a day with AI help.
Results
Takeaway
The editor claimed time savings, while current and former staff told the Post that quality and morale suffered. No independent measurements of output or accuracy were published.
Categories
- Industry
- Media and entertainment
- Business function
- Production and qualityInternal work and knowledge management
- Innovation type
- Process innovationOrganization and ways of working
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Off-the-shelf tool or platform
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
CJR describes the desk: the October 2025 posting, the January 2026 hire and the in-house ChatGPT. It relays the claim by an editor that reporters file the same number of stories and gained a day of field reporting, plus criticism from journalists and the American Press Institute.
The Washington Post reported that AI drafted Express Desk stories, reporters were expected to file four stories a day and the newsroom had shrunk from about 400 people to 71. The editor claimed an extra workday per reporter, while anonymous staff said AI use hurt quality and morale, which Quinn disputed.
Full details are in the original sources.