Spanish software developer Protecmedia has announced “the birth of newsroom 3.0” with the launch of its AI-driven automatic newspaper layout system.

The system works from content published on the web to layout print publications in seconds.

“We believe this is the first solution that uses AI to carry out the complete layout of a newspaper directly using the news published on its website,” chief marketing officer María Arenas told GXpress.

Artificial intelligence in the Aida DXP tool enables page layout at more than 20 pages per minute, “making true web first a reality”.

Aida – for “artificial intelligence design assistant” is part of the company’s MDXP suite. Three levels of automation extend from the “drag & drop” of web parts on a design selected by the layout designer, to the automatic layout of complete news listings.

“For years, national and international newsrooms have undergone a digital revolution that has been accelerated by the health crisis,” says Arenas. “Data from the Radiocentre and Ebiquity study ‘Re-evaluating Media’ shows that, beyond beliefs about their loss of importance, the effectiveness of paper newspapers to engage with the public continues to be above online formats.

“Digital and immediacy are beginning to prevail for many readers, but paper is still synonymous with prestige and credibility for most of them.”

Protecmedia believes its new technology is the solution, as publishing companies look to reinvent themselves and find new ways to make their print editions profitable.

In Aida DXP, three progressive automation models adapt newsroom workflow. At its first level, all the elements of a website item are gathered and adapted to the design template chosen for the paper.

At its second level, the AI ​​itself – when dragging the web news to paper – selects the part that best suits it, adjusting each of the components according to a series of rules and metadata.

With a third level, a user only has to define a list of URLs with the news to be included in the publication and they will be adjusted automatically to the programmed pages, laying out up to 16 pages in 45 seconds.