• by Ray Schultz , June 20, 2023

In a move that could confirm the fears of newsroom workers worldwide, Germany’s Bild plans to replace several editorial  jobs with artificial intelligence.  

Bild, Europe’s largest tabloid, will “unfortunately be parting ways with colleagues who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes”, publisher Axel Springer said in an email to staff, according to The Guardian, quoting the Frankfurter Allgemeine.  

The email added that the roles of “editors, print production staff, subeditors, proofreaders and photo editors will no longer exist as they do today.”

Axel Springer is pursuing a 100 million euro cost-cutting program, The Guardian adds. 

Earlier this year, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner said the firm sees itself as a “ “truly digital, transatlantic media company,” and added that ChatGPT and other AI tools would be better at aggregating information than journalists. 

In announcing staff reductions at that time, the company specified that  reporters, authors and specialist editors wouldl be cut in that round. But Döpfner warned, “This is not a job guarantee. We will part with colleagues in the editorial teams if certain profiles no longer fit the required skills,” The Guardian reported.