Journatic takes over TribLocal content

In what many called a big score for so-called “content farms,” the Chicago Tribune recently announced that it was laying off about 20 reporters and editors from its TribLocal network of community news sites and outsourcing those duties to startup Journatic. The move drew some criticism from those in the industry who see Journatic as a Demand Media-like company that generates news using algorithms and freelancers. “Is this what the future of the media industry looks like? Robots and content farms?” asked GigaOm’s Mathew Ingram. But Journatic CEO Brian Timpone told Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon that his model can result in better efficiency: “What we’re doing is not traditional reporting with a single person who goes out and sources the story and researches the story and writes the story. We think that system doesn’t work in the community format,” he said. “Our business is basically elbow grease powered by algorithms and technology.”

StreetFight’s Tom Grubisich agreed, saying the Tribune was “smart” to turn to Journatic for help. “It can be a case of old and new media learning from each other as both find themselves in the still largely uncharted landscape of the digital age,” he wrote. And journalism professor Matt Waite believes that algorithms are nothing new to journalism. “Baseball games? Earnings reports? No problem. A machine can crank those out in less than a minute. A person did those before. We called it journalism. Thus, obviously, there is an algorithm for journalism. There are probably many.” But are algorithms and technology the answer for publishers that have experimented, and then floundered, with hyper-local online content? That’s hard to say. However, GigaOm’s Ingram warned that newspapers that take that approach need to be aware of what they’re getting into. “As the Washington Post recently found with one of its bloggers, asking for dozens of stories a day can tend to reduce the quality to an unacceptable level,” he wrote.

• Are robots and content farms the future of the news? (GigaOm)

• Journatic founder: ‘Being based in the community is not beneficial’ (Poynter)

• Tribune Invests In Journatic, Extends Hyper-Local Content (MediaPost)

• Journatic to provide TribLocal content (Chicago Tribune)

• Tribune Hands Off TribLocal to Data-Rich Journatic (StreetFight)

• News algorithms do exist – and that’s good (Reporters’ Lab)

• Journatic CEO: We are creating a better future for journalism (GigaOm)

• Tribune Company does deal with Journatic (Chicago Reader)