A Recipe for Turning a Council Meeting Recording into a Reporter's Timestamp Index
An AI transcription tool can help turn a council meeting recording into a timestamped index that lets a reporter return quickly to relevant passages.
Practical AI Procedures for the Small Newsroom
A working handbook for using AI tools on the routine work that keeps local journalism moving: meeting recordings, agenda packets, public records, newsletters and reader correspondence. Each Beat Recipe sets out the inputs, tool steps, human checks and known failure points, with a clear distinction between work a tool can assist and decisions that remain with an editor.
Reading an Agenda Packet in Layers: Where a Summary Tool Helps and Where It Skips the Footnotes
An AI summary tool can help a reporter map a large council or school board agenda packet, identify major subjects and locate documents that need closer reading.
Tracking Public Records Requests in a Shared Sheet: Deadlines, Follow-Ups and Draft Language
A shared spreadsheet can give a small newsroom a reliable overview of public records requests, including submission dates, response deadlines, follow-ups, fees and outstanding documents.
The Reader Email Triage Rule: Sorting Tips, Complaints and Press Releases Before Breakfast
An AI tool can sort incoming reader email into tips, complaints, press releases and routine correspondence, provided a person checks the classification before anything is acted on.
Drafting a Weekly Newsletter from Your Own Published Stories Without Introducing New Facts
An AI assistant can turn a newsroom's published stories into a newsletter draft, but the published articles must remain the only source of factual claims.
Writing the Fact Box for a Story About an AI Companion Platform: What You Can Verify from the Product Itself
A fact box about an AI companion platform should distinguish visible product features from claims about its ownership, operation, privacy, safety and performance.
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