Nothing in journalism in 2023 has caused more questions, concerns and possibilities than artificial intelligence.

Media outlets are asking: Should journalists use it? How should they use it? When shouldn’t they use it?

Every answer raises a new question.

So now The New York Times is facing these questions head-on by hiring someone to be in charge of it all. The Times announced Tuesday that it is hiring its first editorial director of artificial intelligence initiatives. That person will be Quartz co-founder Zach Seward.

In its announcement, Times executive editor Joe Kahn and deputy managing editor Sam Dolnick wrote, “At The Times, Zach will build on the work that a number of teams from around the building have begun over the past six months during various A.I. explorations. One of Zach’s first responsibilities will be to work with newsroom leadership to establish principles for how we do and do not use generative A.I. One reason we’re excited to have Zach in this role is that he shares our firm belief that Times journalism will always be reported, written and edited by our expert journalists. But Zach will also help guide how these new tools can assist our journalists in their work, and help us broaden our reach and expand our report.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell wrote the hiring of Seward signals “a significant commitment to the new technology as major news organizations explore its potential capabilities and risks.”

Bruell added, “The hire comes as news organizations cautiously explore generative-AI tools to assist in creating news content. The technology has the potential to help with a range of tasks that could make newsrooms more efficient, from automating publishing to drafting headlines or entire articles. Many journalists are wary that AI tools could compromise quality, leading to factual mistakes and creating risks that they’ll reuse material already published elsewhere. Others are worried about the impact on jobs, reflecting workers’ concerns across many other sectors of the economy.”

News organizations would be smart to watch Seward’s impact on how the Times uses (and doesn’t use) AI. And even though the media business is super competitive, here’s hoping the Times and Seward are open about the lessons they learn along the way to better help all news organizations and individual journalists understand the benefits and pitfalls of using (or not using) AI in their work.

In their note, Kahn and Dolnick wrote, “Zach will build a small team in the newsroom to experiment with generative A.I. tools and prototype ideas. He will help design training programs for curious journalists and will partner with colleagues across the company to determine where to incorporate generative A.I. tools into our publishing tools and digital products. He will track the industry’s quickly shifting landscape to help ensure that The Times keeps pace as the internet evolves along with users’ habits and reader expectations.”

A personal note

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A curious and confusing case

There was a curious series of events recently at the Tampa Bay Times — the newspaper owned by Poynter. On Nov. 15, the Times published an editorial suggesting that the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team should change its name to the St. Petersburg Rays to include the city where it actually plays.

It was quite a hypocritical stance considering the paper changed its name from the St. Petersburg Times to the Tampa Bay Times in 2011. The baseball team had expressed no desire to change its name before (or since) the editorial was published. No one had publicly called for a name change except for a former mayor of St. Petersburg, who wrote a guest essay in the Times that ran alongside the editorial. But the idea then caught the attention of some members of St. Petersburg’s city council as the Rays continue to delicately work with the city and county on financing for a new stadium.

Then, on Dec. 5, Tampa Bay Times chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty, who also is a member of the editorial board, took the highly unusual step — unprecedented for him — of writing a column disagreeing with the Times’ editorial. Gallaty wrote, “Our board is a collection of people of which I am one. My viewpoint does not always carry the day. As the chairperson and CEO of the Tampa Bay Times, formerly the St. Petersburg Times, I believe the Rays belong to our region, not any one city. The Times’ own history, and our decades of advocacy for regional identity and growth, made the board’s call for a new, less-inclusive name rich irony, if not hypocrisy.”

Here’s what my reporting over the past several days discovered:

Gallaty was not aware of the editorial until it had already been published, which is not normal protocol for many papers. Sources at various news outlets, including The Star Tribune in Minneapolis and the Houston Chronicle, told me it’s common for the publisher or CEOs of news organizations to at least get a heads up on what the editorial board is writing, especially if the topic is controversial. Furthermore, it’s also standard for publishers or CEOs to have veto power over any editorial they disagree with.

In an interview Tuesday, I asked Gallaty if he was aware of the column before it ran, but he would only say, “I do not attend all the editorial board meetings.” He also said that while he “supposes” he does have veto power over editorials, he has never used it and would be hesitant to do so unless the editorial “threatened or hurt the institution of the (Times).”

And while Gallaty said he made his difference of opinion clear with his follow-up column, he acknowledges that the editorial board’s stance is the official position of the Tampa Bay Times. However, I learned through my reporting that the majority of the editorial board wasn’t even part of the discussions about the name change and, subsequently, disagreed with the editorial.

In the end, Gallaty was put in a tough position by not being informed by the board members responsible for the editorial before it ran — an action that might not be tolerated in many places. The phrase in Gallaty’s column that his “viewpoint does not always carry the day” suggested that his opinion was outvoted. Based on my reporting, he was never even part of a vote.

Assuming he did not see the editorial before it ran and, therefore, was unable to stop it, Gallaty instead could have written that the editorial didn’t meet the Times’ standards, and that the paper was reversing its position. But Gallaty told me, “No retraction is coming.”

Perhaps not wanting to throw those responsible for the editorial under the bus, Gallaty chose to write a counterpoint column. However well-intentioned that might have been, I’ve heard from some locals that they find the paper’s stance confusing, hypocritical and needlessly divisive.

A surprising switch

NFL announcer Al Michaels, shown here from a game in October. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

In a somewhat surprising move, longtime and well-respected NFL broadcaster Al Michaels will not be calling a playoff game this year on NBC. Why is it surprising? Because Michaels had a long career at NBC and is considered to be, perhaps, the best NFL play-by-play announcer of all time.

But there has been a shift over the past couple of years. Even though Michaels was still very much on top of his game calling NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” you had the sense NBC Sports felt Mike Tirico, who had long been Michaels’ replacement-in-waiting, should finally get his turn. So before last season, Michaels signed on with Amazon Prime Video to call “Thursday Night Football,” while being given “emeritus” status at NBC. Tirico took his spot on “Sunday Night Football,” alongside analyst Cris Collinsworth.

NBC had an extra playoff game last season, and Michaels called that game with analyst Tony Dungy. Although I felt they called a fine game, Michaels and Dungy were widely criticized for what many viewers considered a lack of enthusiasm. Could that have led to NBC’s decision to not have Michaels, 79, back for this year’s playoffs?

Whatever the reason, Tirico and Collinsworth will still be the main NBC team, but the network’s top college announcing team — Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge — will call the extra playoff game that NBC has this postseason.

New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand reports this had been in the works for a while and that it, apparently, caught Michaels by surprise. Marchand said when he interviewed Michaels last month and said that Michaels’ spot for calling a playoff game was in limbo, Michaels told him, “It’s in my deal. Where are you hearing that from? That’s part of my deal. Are you hearing something that I’m not hearing?”

Marchand wrote Tuesday, “There has long been tension between Michaels and top NBC executives, though they have done their best to hide it from public view, even giving Michaels an emeritus title when he was replaced. There was a failure to truly define what the emeritus role really meant, except for calling the playoff game.”

Michaels has one more year left on his Amazon Prime deal, and he is expected to return, but it’s disappointing he won’t be calling a playoff game this postseason. I won’t pretend to know all the details about his relationship these days with NBC Sports, but it feels like Michaels deserves to be treated with a bit more respect than NBC is showing.

Short stuff

The Poynter Institute is creating a prize named for my good friend and colleague Roy Peter Clark, perhaps America’s top writing coach.

As my colleague Jennifer Orsi explains, “The Roy Peter Clark Award for Excellence in Short Writing will recognize compelling writing in any medium with pieces of 800 or fewer words. Clark, Poynter’s senior scholar who retired in 2018 after more than 40 years at Poynter and Poynter’s Tampa Bay Times, is the author and editor of 20 books, including ‘How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times.’”

Check out Orsi’s announcement for more details.

Media tidbits

• The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin with “MSNBC Brings Back Luke Russert to Spearhead New Live Events Business.”
• Boosted by the fourth Republican presidential debate, upstart NewsNation had its best viewership week ever. The network reported that, in prime time, it delivered 288,000 in total viewers and nearly 60,000 in the 25-54 younger demographic, outpacing networks such as Fox Business, CNBC, HLN, and Newsmax in overall viewers.
• The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly with “Project Veritas chief resigns over alleged ‘evidence of past illegality.’”
• The Washington Post’s Jada Yuan with “Cord Jefferson’s rise from Gawker blogger to Oscar contender.”
• Washingtonian’s Sylvie McNamara with “How Reporters Now Train for Dangerous Assignments.”
• For The New York Times, David W. Dunlap with “With Issue No. 60,000, One Correction Comes to Mind.”
• From Atlanta News First television: “Man charged with holding Atlanta News First crew hostage appears in court.”

Hot type

• The New York Times’ Catrin Einhorn with “What’s on the Menu When Your Cat Goes Out? Probably More Than You Think.”
• The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt with “The flight of N616RH: When Shohei Ohtani’s contract saga jumped the shark (tank).”

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