Germany’s biggest newspaper denies substituting human editors with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the development of smart machines that can easily perform some tasks humans can do. 

In a recent development, the biggest-selling newspaper in Europe, Bild tabloid, said it plans to replace humans with artificial intelligence. 

A report on June 21 from Guardian and other media outlets noted that Bild’s parent publishing firm Axel Springer SE aims to substitute many editorial jobs, including editors, with AI.

However, the Bild Group’s director of communications, Christian Senft, debunked the rumors saying the restructuring plans have nothing to do with AI. 

There’s No Plan to Replace Humans with AI, Senft

According to the reports from Business News, a message from the bosses to the employees, which the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine saw read,

 “Unfortunately, part ways with colleagues whose jobs will be replaced by AI and/or automated processes in the digital world, or who find themselves do not find in this new line-up with their existing skills.”

However, Senft told Cointelegraph that the “reports are false” and “with our current measures, we have no intention of replacing journalism with AI.”

According to the director, the firm plans to restructure the program for provincial newspaper editions. As such, it aims to reduce the eighteen regional editions to twelve by year-end.  Also, it plans to terminate ten out of fifteen provincial offices it currently has, moving most functions to Berlin, 

Senft also maintained that the restructuring would make jobs such as secretariats, editors, print production staff, proofreaders, subeditors, and photo production will be, no longer needed in those regions. 

Senft agreed that their decisions would affect many workers in the “low three-digit number,” or about two hundred jobs, by decreasing the number of provisional editors. Further, he noted the announcement carried the firm will employ AI to enhance editorial work. 

In response, Senft said, “To this end, we are approaching the topic with an open mind and currently have many initiatives with which we are exploring areas of application for AI for our journalistic brands, both in the production processes of the editorial offices and in relation to the reader experience,”

About Bild’s Tabloid

The daily tabloid was established in June 1952. In the 1980s, Bild was said to have sold more than five million copies each day. 

Around 2010, Bild’s spread had fallen to 3.5 million, according to Mondo Times. Then in 2022, Media Impact reported that the print newspaper only had a little over 1 million in circulation. 

Notably, Business News reported that the newspaper still deals with the consequences of impeaching the formal editor Julian Reichelt. Reichelt was impeached after an accusation that he sexually molested a junior staff into sleeping with him.