{"id":7994339,"date":"2026-04-07T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7994339"},"modified":"2026-04-07T07:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:37:35","slug":"mcclatchy-ai-tool-revolt-sacramento-bee-miami-herald-charlotte-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/journalism\/mcclatchy-ai-tool-revolt-sacramento-bee-miami-herald-charlotte-observer\/","title":{"rendered":"McClatchy Journalists Revolt Against AI: \u2018It\u2019s a Betrayal\u2019 | Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

When it came to using their names, journalists at the Sacramento Bee drew a line in the sand against their newsroom\u2019s latest AI tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 30 staffers in the paper\u2019s union sent a letter to Bee management on March 27 stating they would withhold their bylines from stories created by their parent company McClatchy\u2019s \u201ccontent scaling agent,\u201d a generative AI product that produces new pieces using the reporters\u2019 existing work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don’t want the public to think we have anything to do with it,\u201d Ariane Lange, an investigative reporter at the Bee and the vice chair of its union, told TheWrap. \u201cWe think it’s a betrayal of the public’s trust, and it undermines our credibility, and also it’s frankly kind of insulting they\u2019re asking us to be hacks.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201ccontent scaling agent,\u201d which Lange said has been promoted by management as a way to boost the outlet\u2019s traffic and productivity, allows Bee editors to produce summarized and repurposed versions of its reporters\u2019 work under new headlines. Lange said editors can use the tool to produce versions of stories geared toward specific audiences, as well as roundups of multiple stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy, the 168-year-old newspaper chain behind prominent, Pulitzer Prize-winning local outlets like the Bee, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer, began deploying the tool last month across a number of its 30 markets. While no story has run with a reporter\u2019s byline at the Bee, the deployment of the \u201ccontent scaling agent\u201d is the latest development in McClatchy\u2019s increasing adoption of generative AI, following its yearslong use of AI-generated summaries. The company\u2019s embrace of AI has spurred disputes with unions<\/a> representing some McClatchy employees and has rankled staffers<\/a> elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The uproar inside McClatchy comes as newsrooms wrestle with how best to incorporate this transformative technology into workflows while upholding journalistic standards. Business Insider has experimented<\/a> with publishing AI-generated stories (with a human editor) while a Fortune editor \u2014 the subject of a much-discussed Wall Street Journal profile<\/a>  \u2014 has cranked out more than 600 articles in eight months using AI. The top editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has advocated<\/a> using AI to draft reporters\u2019 stories, while Axios\u2019 leadership framed efficient AI usage last month as a \u201cmoonshot\u201d<\/a>  to propel the company forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, news organizations have leveraged AI to aid in investigative journalism, using the technology to analyze large data sets or produce visualizations, as well as to help hold lawmakers accountable, as evidenced by Cal Matters\u2019 Digital Democracy<\/a> tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the misuse of AI has also led to unreliable<\/a> and sometimes bogus stories<\/a>, heightening concerns about credibility and job security. The New York Times\u2019 contract negotiations with its union<\/a> stalled earlier this year over AI, and ProPublica\u2019s union authorized a strike<\/a> last month partly over management\u2019s refusal to agree to a ban on AI-related layoffs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gina Chua, the Executive Director of the Tow-Knight Center at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, told TheWrap that while AI can present several applications for journalists to report more efficiently, there remains a \u201cspectrum\u201d of concerns for reporters, ranging from how they\u2019re serving their communities to how long they hold their jobs. As companies adopt the technology, they should consider the impact on how audiences discover and engage with the information produced by AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a company to implement a whole new process, Chua said, history shows that it\u2019s better to do it with employee buy-in rather than impose it on reluctant staffers. \u201cChange is always difficult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you need to make changes, you have to find ways to move people along,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a public perception perspective, a Pew Research survey<\/a> from last year found that 51% of people felt AI would negatively impact the news we get, with outlets flirting with breaking the trust they have with readers with even a single misstep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur managers describe this to us as an experiment,” Lange, the Bee reporter, said, \u201cand we responded, \u2018Yeah, it is an experiment, and the imperiled guinea pig is our credibility.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A McClatchy spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the tool or make any executives available to discuss its use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the rollout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy started a quiet rollout of the content scaling agent earlier this year at several papers, including the Herald<\/a> and the Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania, summarizing<\/a> stories<\/a> using the tool while linking to the full story within the text. The tool was eventually rolled out to more newsrooms; a Charlotte Observer editor demonstrated the tool in a March 18 meeting with staff, according to a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labeling of the tool may vary from paper to paper, apparently dependent on union agreements, Lange said. At the Herald, where the union contract outlines reporters\u2019 control over their bylines, stories were labeled as \u201cproduced using AI based on original work by\u201d the reporter whose story was summarized. The Daily Times, which is not unionized, has cited \u201creporting by\u201d the reporters of the original story, though the story itself was \u201cproduced with AI assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lange said she first heard about the Bee\u2019s use of the agent on March 20 when she learned some of her colleagues had been asked to work on the tool. The Sacramento Bee\u2019s union that same day asked for a meeting with management, believing its top editors had violated a contract provision that required advance notice of a new generative AI tool. <\/p>\n\n\n

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But as the paper\u2019s executive editor Chris Fusco and Scott Lebar met with teams to discuss the tool and take questions about it, the fear that it could undermine the paper\u2019s credibility persisted, prompting 31 journalists in the paper\u2019s 35-member union to send the March 27 letter to management invoking another contract provision that allows a reporter to withhold their byline from a story in advance if they protest its use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fusco met with the Bee\u2019s union leaders, including Lange, on April 1 to affirm the paper would not add a reporter\u2019s byline to stories produced using the tool and instead spoke about byline alternatives. The two sides also discussed an alternative where reporters could write another story themselves, Lange said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One March 31 story<\/a> ran with a byline label \u201cedited by Sacramento Bee staff\u201d and \u201cproduced with AI assistance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lange said she appreciated Fusco\u2019s adherence to the union\u2019s contract, but such an action alone did not address Bee staffers\u2019 larger concerns over McClatchy\u2019s AI adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn some level, it is a fight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy\u2019s AI embrace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The local news giant has adopted some form of automation to produce journalism over the last several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It introduced the \u201cMiami Herald Bot\u201d in 2021<\/a> to write stories about home purchases on Miami\u2019s sprawling real-estate beat, and it later developed another bot that produced hurricane-related stories<\/a>. After advancements in generative AI technology in 2022, McClatchy leaned in further by producing AI summaries of stories that didn\u2019t necessarily require reporters\u2019 bylines, such as a Bee story<\/a> from June last year that compiled ongoing housing projects in the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy\u2019s page outlining how it uses AI<\/a>, last updated in spring 2025, lists five applications: boosting workflow, data analysis, AI-generated stories on basic data like weather and traffic, summarizing stories and how stories are displayed on their websites. The company said all work using AI is reviewed by humans first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy staffers are also encouraged to use internal AI tools to help them write headlines optimized for search engines, said Michael Lycklama, a high school sports reporter at the Idaho Statesman, which is not currently using the content scaling agent. Nearly all of McClatchy\u2019s reporting job listings<\/a> also demand candidates know how to \u201cleverage AI tools\u201d for help in \u201cfinding efficiencies\u201d as they report.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt seems to kind of just be AI for AI\u2019s sake,\u201d said Lycklama, the chair of the Statesman\u2019s union. \u201cAnytime we ask, \u2018Well, how do we know this is working?\u2019 and, \u2018What even is working?\u2019 we can’t really get an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some AI tools McClatchy has used have also been found to plagiarize. Nota, an AI company contracted by McClatchy, scrapped its network of local news websites<\/a> last week after Poynter reported that it had mistakenly scraped content from some of Nota\u2019s clients, including the McClatchy-owned Kansas City Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McClatchy\u2019s AI adoption also sparked some union fights. The Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which is negotiating a union contract on behalf of the Statesman and a collection of newspapers in Washington state, battled McClatchy earlier this year over the company\u2019s desire to produce AI-generated stories without human involvement and retain the right to create AI impersonations of reporters \u2014 or \u201cdeepfakes\u201d \u2014 for photos, podcasts and videos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryan Clark, an opinion writer at the Statesman and the vice president of the PNW Newspaper Guild, told TheWrap the union had reached a tentative agreement with McClatchy on an AI clause that prevented deepfakes and demanded human involvement if AI content relies \u201csubstantially\u201d on a reporter\u2019s work. Such language would also likely limit the content scaling agent\u2019s deployment at the Guild\u2019s McClatchy-owned papers, Clark said, acknowledging the union\u2019s \u201cconcerns\u201d with the tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat it consistently said in negotiations was it wanted to maintain as much flexibility as possible for this emerging technology,\u201d Clark said about the AI negotiations. \u201cWe thought there were lines in the sand that should be non-negotiable matters of basic journalistic ethics and things like that, and I think we were largely successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where it goes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the PNW Newspaper Guild has struck new AI protections, concerns about AI still exist within Sacramento\u2019s borders \u2014 and beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the Charlotte Observer\u2019s union met with newsroom leaders last week to address staff concerns with the tool, according to a person familiar with the matter, and both sides established that Observer reporters\u2019 use of the tool is optional. Union leaders at the Miami Herald\u2019s union are also discussing concerns about the tool\u2019s impact on the newsroom, according to another person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lange, the Sacramento Bee union vice chair, said her newsroom isn\u2019t entirely opposed to the use of AI in cases where it appears ethical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she said she and her colleagues worry newsroom editors may be overburdened by balancing these tools while editing reporters\u2019 work, and she worries the agent\u2019s presence on the website could risk damaging reporters\u2019 relationships with their sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’ve written about some really tough things in my career \u2014 domestic violence, sexual assault, horrible traumas,\u201d Lange said. \u201cI don’t want to have to explain to a trauma victim that they can trust me with their story, but I cannot guarantee that it won’t be fed into a glorified chatbot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Sacramento Bee staffers refuse bylines over a new AI tool as colleagues at the Miami Herald and Charlotte Observer harbor concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10244,"featured_media":7994605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-full-width-with-ads","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":513131,"post_id":7831473}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"","nb_breaking_template":"","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":0,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-07T13:15:46Z","apple_news_api_id":"5296d8f6-30a8-4cb3-900d-647bbf97a684","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-07T14:37:41Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AUpbY9jCoTLOQDWR7v5emhA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[514391,280144],"tags":[297806,389823,404,6555,373018,433226],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[513131],"class_list":["post-7994339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-journalism","category-tech","tag-a-i-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-mcclatchy","tag-miami_herald","tag-sacramento-bee","tag-wrappro"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"Corbin Bolies","is_pro_article":true,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/media-platforms\/journalism\/","text":"Journalism"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7994339"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7994898,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7994339\/revisions\/7994898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7994605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7994339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7994339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7994339"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=7994339"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=7994339"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7994339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}