Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis has announced a strategic shift towards artificial intelligence to address the newspaper's financial woes.
Max Tani, media industry editor at Semafor, tweeted that Lewis informed Washington Post staffers about plans to integrate AI into reporting as part of efforts to recover from the $77 million loss incurred last year, reports Futurism.
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"To speak candidly: We are in a hole, and we have been for some time," Lewis stated in an announcement. "This is all repairable, all doable, particularly if we do it together."
The paper's chief technology officer also conveyed to staffers that the Washington Post is to have "AI everywhere in our newsroom," according to Tani. However, the specifics of this directive remain unclear, said the report.
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Lewis, a former NewsCorp executive who managed the Wall Street Journal and served as CEO of its parent company Dow Jones from 2014 to 2020, has had a tumultuous tenure at WaPo.
Handpicked by WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, Lewis began his role as publisher in early 2024.
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Notably, the announcement about the paper's new revenue-boosting strategies does not explicitly mention AI. Instead, it vaguely references experimenting with "new offerings over the next few months."
Coincidentally, the news of WaPo's AI pivot coincides with the announcement of a landmark deal between NewsCorp and OpenAI, allowing the AI firm to use content from NewsCorp's properties, which include the WSJ, the New York Post, and the Times of London.