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Automizing Magazine Jobs?

Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 at 9:49 PM

In the news: Poynter explores to what extent journalism might be taken over by robots.

"Will robots automate our journalism jobs?" Poynter.org asks in a December 19 question. The same headline supplies an intriguing answer: "In many ways, they already have." The question comes hot on the heels of several reports, including one from PricewaterhouseCoopers, showing that as many as half of human jobs could be performed by robots.

Melody Kramer of Poynter.org discusses how automation might affect journalism jobs, reflecting upon a November 2017 Quartz piece in which Sarah Kessler, deputy editor of Quartz at Work, investigated how much of her job might be automated by robots. (Read the full piece here.) She interviews Kessler and John Keefe, a Quartz Bot Studio developer. Read the interview here.

Also Notable

Most Read Print Magazines in 2017

This year, AARP The Magazine was America's most read print magazine. The title circulates bimonthly to its 22 million members and has, according to Greg Dool of Folio:, "steadily grown its print audience over the past several years, adding more than 5 million readers." AARP's success this year reflects the aging of the average print reader; according to Dool, "None of the top five magazines -- which combined encompass 56 percent of the total number of "magazine readers" across the 150+ titles measured -- has an audience with a median age younger than 47." Read more here.

AdAge's Top Magazines of 2017

AdAge has just released its picks for top magazines of 2017. Before revealing the winners, the staff touched upon some of the major industry changes this year, including industry consolidation that reduced the "Big Six" magazine publishers to the "Big Four" (with Time Inc. and Rodale having been acquired by Meredith and Hearst, respectively). AdAge's top picks all share a common publishing strategy. Writes the editorial staff: "Every honoree on our Magazines of the Year list still produces print editions that make money -- in many cases a lot of money -- while they've been building out their increasingly impressive digital businesses." To see the winners, click here.

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