Lenfest Institute, OpenAI, and Microsoft announce $10 million AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program for US metro news organizations

Five news publishers will receive grant funding and enterprise credits for experimentation with generative AI

October 22, 2024

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, a leader in developing solutions for the next era of local news, on Tuesday announced a major new collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. to help newsrooms explore and implement ways in which artificial intelligence can help drive business sustainability and innovation in local journalism through the Lenfest Institute AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program.  

In the initial round of funding, Chicago Public Media, Newsday (Long Island, NY), The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Seattle Times will each receive a grant to hire a two-year AI fellow to pursue projects that focus largely on improving business sustainability and implementing AI technologies within their organizations. The fellowship will also provide OpenAI and Microsoft Azure credits to help these publications experiment and develop tools to assist with local news. As part of the program, the news organizations will work collaboratively with each other and the broader news industry to share leanings, product developments, case studies, and technical information needed to help replicate their work in other newsrooms. An additional three organizations will be awarded fellows in a second round of grants.  

“We are pleased to be working with both OpenAI and Microsoft on this important initiative to support local news,” said Jim Friedlich, executive director and CEO of The Lenfest Institute. “Through these fellowships — and by sharing results with the broader news industry — we will help empower local newsrooms to explore, implement and advocate for AI business solutions that uphold the highest ethical standards while strengthening their future prospects. The Lenfest Institute and OpenAI incubated the fellowship program, which is designed to promote the use of AI in creating a sustainable future for independent local journalism, and we welcome its expansion in scope and resources with Microsoft’s commitment.”  

The first slate of AI Collaborative and Fellowship members will work on projects that focus on the use of AI for analysis of public data, to better utilize news and visual archives, to build audience engagement, for creating new AI-based news tools and products, and more. The projects were chosen through an application process led by The Lenfest Institute with assistance from FT Strategies, a global media consultant, and Nota, a provider of AI tools for journalism.  

“While nothing will replace the central role of reporters, we believe that AI technology can help in the research, investigation, distribution, and monetization of important journalism. We’re deeply invested in supporting smaller, independent publishers through initiatives like The Lenfest Institute AI Collaborative and Fellowship, ensuring they have access to the same cutting-edge tools and opportunities as larger organizations,” said Tom Rubin, chief of Intellectual Property and Content, OpenAI. “Local news is a particularly vulnerable area of journalism, and we believe AI can help it thrive.” 

The selected projects are:   

• Chicago Public Media, which publishes The Chicago Sun-Times and runs public radio station WBEZ, will focus on leveraging AI for transcription, summarization, and translation to expand content offerings and reach new audiences.  

• The Minnesota Star Tribune will experiment with AI summarization, analysis and content discovery for both its journalists and readers.  

• Newsday will build AI public data summarization and aggregation tools for its newsroom, for readers,and for businesses as a marketing services offering.  

• The Philadelphia Inquirer will use AI platforms to build a conversational search interface for its archives. It will also leverage AI to monitor and analyze media produced by local municipalities and agencies.  

• The Seattle Times will use AI platforms to assist in advertising go-to-market, sales training support, and other sales analytics before rolling out learnings to other business functions and departments.  

“We need local journalism to inform and educate citizens, expose wrongdoing, and encourage civic engagement. We will work with the Lenfest AI Fellowship to drive AI innovation that can help news organizations create new products to extend their reporting, find new sources of revenue, and ultimately build a more sustainable future,” said Teresa Hutson, corporate vice president, technology for fundamental rights at Microsoft. “We hope these news organizations will be lighthouses for the industry, to provide examples of how AI can build a better future for the business of news.” 

To support the new Lenfest Institute AI Collaborative and Fellowship program and resources, OpenAI and Microsoft are each awarding $2.5 million in direct funding and $2.5 million in software and enterprise credits, for a total of up to $10 million. The two-year pilot program is in partnership with The Lenfest Institute’s Local Independent News Coalition (LINC), a group of eight of the largest independently owned metropolitan news organizations in the United States.  

LINC is one of several Communities of Practice led by The Lenfest Institute with funding from the Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. LINC includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Public Media (WBEZ and The Chicago Sun Times), The Dallas Morning News, Newsday (Long Island, New York), The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, The Minnesota Star Tribune, and The Tampa Bay Times.  

Learn more about LINC here and sign up to receive updates on the Lenfest AI Fellows experiments and lessons learned through The Lenfest Institute Solution Set newsletter.   

About The Lenfest Institute for Journalism   

The Lenfest Institute creates solutions for the next era of local news by investing in sustainable business models at the intersection of local journalism and community in Philadelphia and nationwide.  

About OpenAI   

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Its mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.  

About Microsoft  

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.