by Kevin Rehberg, VP, Client Development
Bay City News is proving that local newsrooms can be leaders in innovation. As winner of the 2024 Local Media Association Digital Innovation Award for Most Innovative Use of AI in a News Organization (under 250,000 monthly page views), the San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit is charting a new course for how newsrooms use AI while maintaining audience trust.
The Bay City News team shared more about their winning entry and how they’re using AI to streamline reporting while building deeper trust with their audience through ethical AI best practices.
The challenge: Making local election data available in real time
Bay City News operates with a unique hybrid structure: a for-profit regional newswire and the Bay City News Foundation, a nonprofit newsroom that powers its website, Local News Matters. This setup allows the organization to diversify its revenue and the journalism it produces.
“Since we have an affiliation with the newswire, we can cross publish a lot of our work to reach an audience of 10 million through TV and radio stations, print and digital outlets,” said Kat Rowlands, Bay City News’ founder and publisher. “The nonprofit side is the vehicle through which we do a lot of our experimentation and consumer-facing, mission-driven public service journalism.”
This culture of experimentation led to a breakthrough during the 2024 election cycle when the newsroom faced the challenge of covering hundreds of races across 13 counties and providing results in real time. While it seemed to be a difficult task for a small team, Bay City News’ size also allowed them to pivot quickly.
“Larger organizations aren’t set up to do this kind of work at the county or municipal level,” Rowlands explained. “That’s where we stepped in.”
The solution: A civic engagement hub powered by AI
The Bay City News team used AI to explore solutions to their problem.
“We had hundreds of candidates and dozens of ballot initiatives to cover,” said Ciara Zavala, digital editor. “I told the chatbot about these challenges and asked it to provide some ideas and possible solutions.”
After researching options, she asked ChatGPT to generate a branded, user-friendly dashboard coded in HTML that could be plugged into WordPress. What began as a time-saving initiative became a broader civic engagement tool that consolidated results, mapped resources and helped voters easily navigate their local elections in real time.
“We laid the groundwork and now have a solution in place that’s ready for the next election,” Zavala said.
Rowlands added that while AI saved the team hundreds of hours, human oversight was a vital part of the project’s success.
“There is always a layer of editorial oversight and fact-checking. Even if something looks perfect, we want to be confident that it is accurate before we publish anything.”
A learning mindset fuels innovation and transparency
Bay City News is dedicated to experimentation, innovation and transparency with its audience. The company publicly shares how the team uses AI.
“We really believe in radical transparency,” said Chloe Lee Rowlands, technology and data journalism manager. “We include editor’s notes, publish detailed reflections and share our AI policy openly. It builds trust, both with readers and internally.”
Bay City News also gives in-depth context about the process behind each project, including what worked and what didn’t.
“A disclaimer that says, ‘AI was used in this article’ doesn’t tell you anything,” she said. “Vague disclosures can make people more skeptical.”
The team also developed a comprehensive AI policy, along with a mission-driven letter from the editor. They recently published a playbook that outlines how they built the election dashboard.
Bay City News’ approach to AI and transparency has also helped meet the company’s business goals.
“These types of innovative projects and our AI policy help build our sustainability,” said Aly Brown, grants manager and reporter. “We’ve been able to secure grants following the election project.”
Looking ahead: Continued experimentation and transparency
The team’s election dashboard is just the start of its use of AI. The company plans to work with other newsrooms and civic organizations to improve how election data is shared and accessed.
“We’re already having more conversations about the election data process and how we can create a more uniform format and collaborate with other groups,” Zavala said. “We want to continue to build on that momentum.”
No matter where their innovations lead, the company’s transparency-first approach will remain central.
“When your audience knows why and how you’re using these tools, it builds trust,” said Chloe Lee Rowlands. “For us, trust is everything.”
AAM is also helping media companies implement AI responsibly with the Ethical AI Certification. Learn more about maintaining audience trust and transparency when implementing AI with our new report, Ethical AI in Action: 8 Pillars for Transparent, Accountable AI Implementation in Media.
