Daily News automates sports video with AI

AI seems to be making inroads everywhere and newspapers are no exception. The New York Daily News is among the publishers to embrace the technology, in its case, leveraging AI technology to provide video coverage of New York sports teams to its approximately 200,000 daily readers.

Since last year, the publisher has been using SendtoNews’ Smart Match, an AI-powered video player feature. The paper has automated the process of publishing sports-related video content, and as a result, seen an uptick in sports video consumption since the implementation of Smart Match, according to STN. The vendor said NYDN has seen more than a 30 percent increase in both page views and unique viewers.

Unfortunately for the NYDN, automation has become more of a necessity than a luxury. In July 2018, the paper’s new owner Tronc slashed the sports staff by 70 percent — part of a 50 percent cut to the paper’s overall editorial staff. Prior to those cuts, the staff was at 32, and in its heyday NYDN had about 100 people on its reporting team.

“At this point we aren’t generating the same amount of content as we were, but we are still digging out of a huge hole trying to cover New York City sports with a team of nine,” said Andy Clayton, senior content editor, digital sports for the Daily News. “Smart Match helps to make that more manageable.”

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