niemanlab.org: Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting "small town America"

[Dennis Donovan]

niemanlab.org - Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America”

Good Daily, which operates in 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S., is run by one person.

By Andrew Deck Jan. 27, 2025, 1:44 p.m.


On first glance, Good Day Fort Collins appears to be a standard local news round-up. One recent edition of the newsletter includes short blurbs and links to over a dozen stories about the mid-size Colorado city — a restaurant opening, a record-breaking snowfall, a leadership shake-up at a local hospital.

The newsletter attributes the stories to longtime Fort Collins news outlets, like The Coloradoan and the Loveland Reporter-Herald. Further down is a spread of events happening across the city, including an upcoming polar plunge and a figure-drawing class.

“I’m a senior citizen here in Fort Collins, and this newsletter is like a lifeline. I don’t have the attention span these days to read the paper, and Facebook is a mess,” reads one testimonial on the sign-up page from “Matthew K., retiree.” “I use Good Day Fort Collins to keep one foot in the town I grew up in, and my friends and family continue to live in,” says “Michael H., expat.”

Google those quotes, though, and you’ll find the same names and testimonials supporting hundreds of other local newsletters across the U.S. “Matthew K.” also lives in Queen Creek, Arkansas; and Post Falls, Idaho; and Marysville, Washington; and Denton, Texas. “Michael H.” grew up in each of these towns, and many more.

/snip

[highplainsdem]

1. What despicable fake journalism, ripping off real news sources.

[tanyev]

2. The article about AI generated newsletters was written by an AI staff writer?

Andrew Deck is a generative AI staff writer at Nieman Lab. Have tips about how AI is being used in your newsroom? You can reach Andrew via email ([e-mail])


The thing that made me wonder is that “nieman” is German for nobody. We are going down the rabbit hole, people.

[Alice B.]

3. Does Andrew Deck write on the topic of generative AI or,

Is Andrew Deck a product of generative AI?

Hmm.

[tanyev]

4. Ohh, maybe he's a real person that writes about AI.

Hard to tell anymore.

[Alice B.]

5. It is a rabbit hole!

[newdeal2]

6. Excellent question

A little bit of research and he seems real, but I may be wrong. Which brings up it's own set of questions - pretty soon we will be inundated with fake AI online profiles, credentials, news, and images. It's going to be really hard to trust anything on the internet.

[Alice B.]

8. I was hoping current events might drive a renaissance in journalism but...

Technology. Ugh.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism is the primary journalism institution at Harvard University.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieman_Foundation_for_Journalism

The Nieman Foundation for Journalism is the primary journalism institution at Harvard University.

FWIW, it's their website. "It (The Foundation) was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman." So "Nieman" was a real person.

[tanyev]

9. OK, thanks.

I’m getting suspicious of everything these days.