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- 🤖 OpenAI launches journalism “academy”
🤖 OpenAI launches journalism “academy”
Plus: Steal these ideas for your newsroom
Paul Gewuerz
December 18, 2025
Your weekly briefing of stories from around the local news space about business, policy, trends, and more
Hello! Here’s what’s in this week’s issue:
» OpenAI launches journalism “academy”
» Turning creators into journalists
» Steal these ideas for your newsroom
» Takeover bid rejected
» A new verification tool from the AP
🎧 Small Press, Big Ideas Podcast: Turning data into revenue, inside the News Media Helps Desk, and the bridge between editorial and revenue
🤖 OpenAI launches journalism “academy”
OpenAI has launched the OpenAI Academy for News Organizations, a new learning hub offering hands on AI training, playbooks and real world use cases tailored for journalists, editors and news publishers. The program, developed with partners like the American Journalism Project and The Lenfest Institute, includes practical courses on reporting, fact‑gathering, data work and responsible AI use.
📱 Turning creators into journalists
News Creator Corps is a new US nonprofit training digital creators with established audiences to share factual information more accurately and responsibly online, meeting people where they already get their content. Its flagship fellowship offers creators newsroom level tools like fact checking and sourcing skills, helping build a network of trusted messengers and connect them with publishers and nonprofits focused on reliability.
đź‘€ Steal these ideas for your newsroom
Check out this list of “stealable ideas” for your newsroom in the style of the random lists of gift ideas that proliferate the internet this time of year. Included are some great newsletter reads, the best things the author ate this week, and (of course) some useful AI tools. If you like this list, check out this one too.
🎥 New for 2026: Daily Vertical Video for Newsrooms
LocalPod.co is launching a done-for-you vertical video service built specifically for local publishers.
LocalPod turns your existing reporting into a short, high quality daily short form videos using templated text overlays and community sourced local b-roll.
We post every video directly to your social channels, giving you consistent visibility and opening up new audience growth and revenue opportunities.
👉 Now booking limited Q1 pilot partners at a discounted rate.
đź“ş Takeover bid rejected
The E.W. Scripps Co. board unanimously rejected Sinclair Broadcast Group’s unsolicited takeover bid, saying the $7 per share proposal isn’t in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. Scripps’ leadership emphasized its commitment to shareholders, employees and the communities it serves, while remaining open to other opportunities that could enhance shareholder value.
🔍 A new verification tool from the AP
The Associated Press has launched AP Verify, a unified verification dashboard that combines AI powered tools with traditional methods to help newsrooms authenticate photos, videos and text quickly and accurately. Already used across AP’s global operations, the platform brings features like geolocation, object detection, reverse image search and an AI chatbot into one interface to streamline verification workflows
Small Press, Big Ideas
A podcast about the business of local news
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS
I had a busy week on the Small Press, Bid Ideas podcast.
👉 First I spoke with my friend Johnny Levy, CEO (and soon to be owner) of DataJoe to find out how his company essentially turns data into revenue for newsrooms.
Johnny views DataJoe’s mission as being an entrepreneurial data partner for newsrooms, and he delivered a ton of value in our episode.
👉 Next up I spoke with Leah Becerra and Randy Picht from the Reynolds Journalism Institute to talk about the new resource that they just launched in collaboration with the LMC: the News Media Help Desk.
The project, funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation, just launched after a months long development process. The Help Desk is a free, centralized digital support hub that helps local newsrooms navigate technology challenges through vetted tools, case studies, and on demand services.
👉 I spoke with Daralyse Lyons, Chief Revenue Officer of the Bucks County Beacon in Pennsylvania, about her journey in local media.
Daralyse, who has a rare hybrid background in finance and journalism, shares how collaboration, creativity, and community focus are keeping local journalism alive and why Bucks County, PA, is a microcosm of national political and social trends.
đź’° Multiply Your Ad Space With LocalPod
Readers aren’t the only audience. LocalPod.co gives you listeners too: automated podcasts that multiply ad space, expand reach, and generate new income streams.
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