Artificial Intelligence,

Automation, and How They Are

Changing Business Journalism
Chris Roush
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract: Technology has produced dramatic advances

in journalism, particularly in business journalism in the
past decade as artificial intelligence, automation, and
computers are now helping reporters and editors find
and produce stories. Most of the major business jour-
nalism outlets are now exploring how they can best use
technology to improve the quality of their reporting and
deliver it faster to consumers. This article explores the
efforts of four business news organizations—two big and
two small—that find and produce business news using
technology, and it examines what that means for the
Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman ­future of business journalism.
Sr. distinguished professor at the
University of North Carolina–Chapel Keywords: artificial intelligence; automation; business
Hill School of Media and Journalism.
He served as the School’s senior
journalism; computers; journalism
associate dean from 2011 to 2015
and as the director of its master’s Introduction
program from 2007 to 2010. He is the The use of technology in journalism dramatically
founder of the Carolina Business News
changed how content has been reported, written, and
Initiative, which provides professional
training in business journalism, and he disseminated to its various audiences. The invention
created the School’s undergraduate of the printing press led to the creation of newspapers,
major in business journalism. He the first form of mass media. The telegraph in the nine-
is the author or coauthor of nine teenth century helped deliver in an instant news that
books—five corporate histories and
four books about business journalism.
previously took weeks. More than 100 years ago, stories
His textbook Show Me the Money: were primarily written on typewriters and copyedited
Writing Business and Economics Stories using pencils. Then the stories to be published in that
for Mass Communication is in its third paper were written and sent to a typesetter, who then
edition and is the leading textbook in
placed the text into metal type, letter by letter, creating
business journalism education. He also
has founded and run various websites, a page to be placed on a printing machine.
including Talking Biz News, a website Now, stories are produced on laptops and desktop
about business journalism. In 2010, computers, and editors use those same computers—as
he was named Journalism Teacher well as software that can check grammatical and style
of the Year by the Scripps Howard
Foundation and the Association for errors—to make changes to what a reporter has written.
Education in Journalism and Mass The stories are then placed in software used to lay out
Communication. a newspaper page that is transmitted electronically to

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 Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and How They Are Changing Business Journalism

a faraway printing press or downloaded increasing speed at which news is being

­immediately onto a website for reading. delivered. David Skerrett (2018) notes that
Reporters who previously needed to go technology has led to “a time of peak me-
to courthouses, police stations, and govern- dia” where consumers can no longer spend
ment agencies to obtain public records and enough time digesting all of the news and
interview officials can now receive those information that is being provided. Stories
documents using the Internet and com- about minor league baseball games are
municate by email, instant messaging, and now written by software developed by a
other methods with interview subjects. Durham, North Carolina–based company,
These changes have been particularly Automated Insights, Inc., as soon as the
dramatic in business journalism. For exam- contest ends. Software applications can be
ple, as recently as 30 years ago, business used to fact-check stories and other infor-
reporters would send letters and checks to mation, as noted by Tama Wilner (2014).
a Washington, DC, service, which would Technology is dramatically affecting
then find the Securities and Exchange other forms of mass communication as
Commission (SEC) documents that the well. For example, Jeff Beer (2018) writes
journalist was seeking and mail them back that advertising agency Wieden and Ken-
to the reporter. The process would often nedy used artificial intelligence and robot-
take weeks, delaying the dissemination of ics to help its client Nike develop a way to
­important information to employees, inves- sell custom-made shoes for its clients. “Po-
tors, and others interested in the material. litical communication has been enhanced
Today, reporters can download those docu- by the ability to analyze huge data sets such
ments from the SEC website, or company as 77 million tweets during the 2012 elec-
websites, immediately after companies file tion,” writes researchers Guo et al. (2016).
them with the government agency. Busi- Public relations and marketing firms can
ness journalists can also obtain similar re- use analytical tools such as Google Analyt-
cords about companies and industries from ics to determine which messages resonate
a number of other state and government with consumers and which ones do not.
agencies by accessing online databases. Technological advances are extremely
Business journalism has changed—and important to business journalism as report-
improved—due to technology in other ers and editors increasingly face more com-
ways. Reporters can use websites to quickly plicated issues and topics. Many business
determine who the largest investors are in a news organizations are using some form
public company. They can listen to a com- of technology to help them find and write
pany’s earnings conference call and watch important stories in minutes or hours that
on their computer the stock price react to previously would have taken weeks to un-
what its executives are telling analysts and cover—or that they would never be found
investors. They can find sources using so- at all without the software. Technology has
cial media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. helped in other ways. Randall Lane (2018),
They can use Excel spreadsheets to ana- the chief content officer of Forbes, wrote
lyze a company’s historical performance. about how the business magazine is using
Using Skype and texting applications, they an artificially intelligent publishing system
can interview sources around the world— that helps its reporters and editors write
economists, chief executive officers, invest- better headlines, choose better photo-
ors, and others. graphs, and find topics to focus on that
Overall, journalism today is replete with its readers are asking about. In the month
examples of how technology is changing that this technology was rolled out inter-
the process of reporting and disseminat- nally at Forbes, its website posted a record
ing information and is contributing to the number of visitors. John Micklethwait, the

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 Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and How They Are Changing Business Journalism

editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, wrote The need for technological applications

that a quarter of its content is now being in business journalism also comes at a
produced using some form of automation. time when the primary subjects of busi-
“News is changing shape—with technology ness news—companies, executives, and
revolutionizing the way stories are pro- economies—are also increasingly using ar-
duced,” wrote Micklethwait (2018). Bloom- tificial intelligence to improve their oper-
berg now has a real-time feed of Twitter ations and develop new products. As an
data that is being used by financial firms in example, Wall Street investment firms are
trading algorithms, and it is also using that using technology to make trades for clients
Twitter data to find news stories. immediately after important data such as
Michael Casey, a former Wall Street Jour- the unemployment rate or trade deficit are
nal columnist now at the Massachusetts released. Since the beginning of 2015, busi-
Institute of Technology, wrote about how ness news organizations such as The Wall
business journalism needs to use technol- Street Journal, The New York Times business
ogy more than before to decipher complex news desk, and tech-news sites Recode and
business issues. Without this ability, addi- The Information have posted job openings
tional financial crises such as the one that seeking reporters to cover artificial intelli-
gripped most of the world in 2007 and 2008 gence and the future of technology. In May
might occur again. Casey wrote: 2018, the Times began a series called “Fast
Forward” examining how emerging tech-
In this era of “big data,” where high-tech nologies are shaping the future of business.
analytical techniques can produce This article examines how artificial intel-
abundant, quantifiable information, ligence, automation, computer programs,
we should all have been empowered and other technology affects the world
to uncover the truth. But in reality, of business journalism by looking at how
for the average investor, journalist, four media organizations—two large enti-
or even regulator, this new trove of ties known worldwide and two that have
data has been mostly out of reach and started in the past 5 years—use technologi-
unintelligible. It should now be the cal inventions. These media companies
duty of journalists to unlock it. And use this technology to provide business
to do so, they need to harness the news content in ways that help consum-
same tools that financial institutions ers, investors, and other recipients better
and corporations use to sift, inter- understand what’s going on in economies
pret and make sense of mass digital and businesses. The use of automation and
information. The value of ­human technology in business journalism is also
sources providing information on affecting other forms of mass communi-
market players’ activities hasn’t gone cation. Dan Simon (2018) writes that the
away—think of the lasting impact increasing use of automation by business
of The Wall Street Journal’s “London news organizations in writing company
Whale” scoop on JPMorgan Chase’s earnings stories is affecting financial pub-
risky trading bets last year, a story that lic relations. He noted,
led to news that the bank had racked
up $6 billion in losses and, later, $1 The future of media relations will b­ egin
billion in regulatory fines. But those to see public relations firms and teams
stories must now be complemented extracting intellectual property from
with c­ omputer-enhanced analysis their clients and helping them build
and interpretation. To get at the truth a repertoire of newsworthy material,
will require crunching the numbers—­ rather than just pushing out what is
billions of them. (Casey 2014) handed to them. (Simon 2018)

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