News Corp Partners with AI Journalism Startup Symbolic.ai to Transform Newsroom Operations

AI journalism startup Symbolic.ai signs deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp | TechCrunch

Newsrooms have been experimenting with AI for several years now but, for the most part, those efforts have been just that: experiments. A relatively unknown startup, Symbolic.ai, wants to change that, and it just signed a major deal with News Corp, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch. News Corp, the major assets of which include MarketWatch, the New York Post, and the WSJ, is set to begin using Symbolic's AI platform with its financial news hub Dow Jones Newswires. Symbolic.ai, which was founded by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Ars Technica co-founder Jon Stokes, says its AI platform can "assist in the production of quality journalism and content" and that its tool has even led to "productivity gains of as much as 90% for complex research tasks." The platform is designed to make editorial workflows more efficient, providing improvements in areas like newsletter creation, audio transcription, fact-checking, "headline optimization," SEO advice, and others. In general, News Corp has shown a willingness to integrate AI into its media operations. In 2024, the company signed a multi-year partnership with OpenAI, wherein it would license its material to the AI company. Last November, the media conglomerate signaled that it was considering branching out, and licensing its material to other AI companies.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp signs major deal with AI journalism startup

TL;DR: News Corp has partnered with AI journalism startup Symbolic.ai, founded by Devin Wenig and Jon Stokes, to enhance media workflows with AI-driven tools for research, fact-checking, SEO, and content creation. This collaboration aims to boost productivity and efficiency across News Corp's major media assets. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has signed a deal with Symbolic.ai, a new AI journalism startup that will be joining News Corp's expansive media conglomerate. Symbolic.ai was founded by former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and Ars Technica co-founder Jon Stokes. According to the creators, Symbolic.ai is capable of assisting journalists in the production of quality journalism and content, and its implementation has led to "productivity gains of as much as 90% for complex research tasks." The creators say the platform is intended to make workflows more efficient, such as the creation of newsletters, fact-checking, headline optimization, SEO advice, and audio transcription. News Corp hasn't shied away from the emergence of AI, with the company announcing in 2024 that it signed a deal with ChatGPT creator OpenAI for it to license News Corp content. Then in November last year, News Corp said it was considering expanding the licensing of its content to other AI companies. For those who don't know, News Corp owns major media assets such MarketWatch, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Sky News Australia, The Times, and book publishing company HarperCollins.

This AI Startup Just Landed a Deal That Could Transform Newsrooms

Symbolic.ai, a startup that provides newsrooms and communications professionals with an all-in-one AI platform, has announced a major new partnership with News Corp, the Rupert Murdoch-founded conglomerate behind Dow Jones (which includes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, and Dow Jones Newswires) as well as major titles in the UK and Australia. As part of the partnership, every newsroom under the News Corp umbrella will have the option to use the platform. The company was founded in 2024 by Devin Wenig, who ran Thomson Reuters Markets in the late 2000s and was the CEO of eBay for most of the 2010s, along with Ars Technica cofounder Jon Stokes. During his time at Reuters, Wenig became intimately familiar with what he calls "pure journalism," referring to the act of interviewing people and developing a thesis for an article. But he noticed over time that ancillary activity (like posting on social media and reformatting stories) were taking up more and more of reporters' time. At eBay, Wenig got an early taste of the AI-powered future when he met Sam Altman. In the 2010s, the two held discussions about developing an AI-powered catalogue for eBay, and while the talks didn't get very far, Wenig was immediately taken by the potential of generative AI.