Bloomberg EIC: Automation is 'crucial to the future of journalism'

Bloomberg has become the latest news organization to place bets on automation as a measure to cover so-called "commodity news" and free up time for enterprise journalism. In a memo to Bloomberg's staff Wednesday, Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait announced that the data-driven news organization is creating a 10-person team to determine how automation can be used throughout the company's portfolio of editorial products. Bloomberg, which already uses automation for news alerts, customized news and trending stories, will use automation for "many of our new initiatives," Micklethwait said in the memo: In Daybreak, it will let customers tailor their morning news; our equity Movers project relies on computers to tell us when a share has jumped or sunk; Project Cyborg is helping our editors send headlines this earnings season on hundreds of U.S. companies; and computers are helping us instantly translate stories into other languages. But we have only scratched the surface. But where does that leave Bloomberg's extensive corps of journalists, which number more than 2,000 in over 150 bureaus worldwide? Without guidance from human journalists using strong news judgement, automation is only of limited use, Micklethwait said.