Reuters Embraces Content Automation
Reuters is partnering with Graphiq Inc. and Wibbitz Ltd. to automatically generate simple graphics and video clips to accompany relevant, human-reported Reuters news content on third-party sites. Graphiq Inc., based in Santa Barbara, California, has integrated its free-to-use visualizations platform with Reuters News Agency to automatically insert simple graphics and visualizations it creates into thousands of Reuters articles wherever they run on 3rd party sites. Alex Rosenberg, Graphiq’s GM, said Graphiq works with hundreds of publishers, including TechCrunch and now Reuters, to put dynamically generated infographics into articles. The company’s systems ingest data from public and private sources to create instant infographics.
Tel Aviv-based Wibbitz uses natural language processing and algorithms to scan text captions and news articles to understand what a story is about. Its software-as-a-service then automatically summarizes a story, can create a voiceover or script for a story, and packages up video clips, photos, and infographics available within a publisher’s platform or Wibbitz’s own, to generate a ready-to-publish video version of a story, in minutes. Bo Rosser, Global Head of Text and Data products for Reuters News Agency, said: “As every publisher knows, content performs better online when it has a visual component to it. Besides that, we want to save our editors time. If you send an editor a story with a pre-matched infographic [or video], then they do not have to spend time hunting down further content.” She said new technologies are constantly evaluated by Reuters by a team there called the Emerging Technology Group which is separate from the news agency. Reuters is not alone in its use of automation to create news. AP uses software to automate local sports reporting and earnings reports. And ProPublica has used software to help conduct an investigation into which states are providing, or failing to provide, low-income high school students with the coursework they need to get into and succeed in college.
