I used AI to produce headlines in the style of CNN, Daily Mail, and NYTimes

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I used AI to produce headlines in the style of CNN, Daily Mail, and NYTimes

Bard, ChatGPT, and Claude show how they can help creators (most of the time)

James Breiner

Dec 21

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You’re reading the My News Biz newsletter. My goal is to help digital media entrepreneurs find viable business models.

I’m writing this mainly for those of you who are trying to figure out how to get started using AI in the newsroom.

All of you experienced users might find my journey useful as a case study that will help bring along colleagues who haven’t yet jumped into using AI tools.

I recently finished a four-week online course on how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools in your newsroom. There were 8,000 students from 157 countries enrolled in this free course. Most seemed to be from small news organizations looking for ways to save time and money while improving quality.

Teaching the course were two expert instructors, Aimee Rinehart, senior product manager of AI strategy for the Associated Press, and Sil Hamilton, a machine learning engineer and AI researcher-in-residence at the pioneering journalism organization Hacks/Hackers.

Help with creativity

In one of the course exercises we were asked to put AI to work on a common newsroom task. For editors and journalists, among the most common tasks were: suggesting headlines, suggesting social media posts, summarizing lengthy documents, transcribing video or audio, and screening user emails and comments.

I decided to ask three different chatbots — Claude (Anthrop\c), ChatGPT, and Bard — to read a 500-word article and propose 12 headlines each: four in the style of the New York Times, four in the style of the Daily Mail, and four in the style of CNN.

I have added boldface and italic to my favorite headlines.

Here was the response of Claude (ANTHROP\C):

Here are 12 potential headlines for the article summary in the requested styles:

New York Times Style Headlines

Partnerships Emerge as Key to Journalism's Survival
As Democracy's Watchdogs, News Outlets Join Forces
United Against Extinction, Media Innovate Via Collaboration
Censorship Drives Reporters Toward Borderless Cooperation

Daily Mail Style Headlines

Print Barons Embrace Online Upstarts to Save Skins
Desperate Times Call for Unholy Media Alliances
Competitors Collude as News Hits Hardest Times
Global Pacts Let Hacks Trade Secrets Across Borders

CNN Style Headlines

Media Organizations Accelerate Collaboration in Time of Crisis
Publishers Make Strange Bedfellows to Save Public Service Mission
Data Sharing Networks Help Reporters Follow the Money
News Industry Reinvents Itself Through Cross-Border Teamwork

Here was ChatGPT 3.5's response:

New York Times Style:

"Global Media Outlets Embrace Collaboration to Secure the Future of Public-Service Journalism"

"From Crisis to Cooperation: How Media Organizations Forge Alliances for Sustainability"

"In an Age of Disruption, Media Unite to Preserve Public-Service Journalism"

"The Collaborative Revolution: Media's New Approach to Sustaining Journalism"

Daily Mail Style:

"Media Giants Join Forces: Unlikely Alliances Save Ailing Journalism"

"Media Megamergers: A New Dawn for Public-Service Journalism"

"Media Survival Tactics: How Collaboration is Reshaping the News Landscape"

"From Rivals to Partners: Media's Last-Ditch Effort to Stay Afloat"

CNN Style:

"Strengthening the Fourth Estate: How Global Media Cooperatives Ensure Journalism's Future"

"In the Face of Crisis, Media Innovates: A Look at Collaborative Models Shaping Journalism"

"When Media Unites: Examining the Shift from Competition to Collaboration"

"Media Organizations Forge International Bonds for Sustainable Journalism"

Here was Bard's response:

New York Times:

Collaboration as a Business Model for Public-Service Journalism
Media Organizations Accelerate Collaboration to Achieve Sustainability
Journalism in the Age of Collaboration
Public-Service Journalism Finds a Lifeline in Collaboration

Daily Mail:

Media Collaborate to Survive in Profit-Driven News Ecosystem
Journalists Team Up to Fight Censorship and Misinformation
Public-Service Journalism Gets a Boost from Collaboration
Collaboration is the Key to the Future of Journalism?

CNN:

Collaboration: The New Way Forward for Public-Service Journalism?
Media Organizations Join Forces to Sustain Public-Service Journalism
Collaboration Helps Journalists Overcome Challenges and Produce High-Quality Work
Public-Service Journalism Thrives When Media Organizations Collaborate

My conclusions and observations

Again, I put some of my favorite headlines created by the three chatbots above in bold italic.

All three chatbots came up with interesting suggestions. This kind of idea generation seems like a useful and helpful tool. They are just ideas, and they can be toyed with and stimulate creativity. And they were produced in just seconds.

I realized that it would be tough to get both "competition" and "collaboration" in a crisp headline. The headlines I liked best emphasized "collaboration".

Bard produced the best material with active verbs, I thought.
ChatGPT was next, but it produced headlines with a static structure: a phrase, then a colon, and then the verb. Less active.
Claude seemed to miss the keywords. The headlines seemed wordy and dull.

Caution: All of the creative work produced by these chatbots has potential errors or hallucinations and should be reviewed by an editor. Chatbots simply try to answer the question they are asked. If they don’t know, they make something up.

That said, did you have some favorite headlines?

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