Google ‘wortwandler’ and you’ll find it means ‘word converter’… but let’s stay with the original, introduced to us by Florian Schiller of OVB Media.

In an INMA Ideas Blog this week, we learn that their proprietary AI tool – created to help optimise editorial processes – is already saving them US$500,000 (A$757,000) a year.

Schiller, who is managing director of OVB in Bavaria, Germany, says the transformation within their ] newsroom has not just been about adopting new technologies. It’s been about redefining the essence of local journalism.

“Our goal to enhance the production efficiency of seven daily local editions, with a print circulation of 45,000 newspapers in southern Germany, led us to a fundamental venture: developing and implementing Wortwandler, our proprietary AI tool designed to help with and optimise editorial processes,” he says.

Wortwandler was born out of a necessity to address a significant bottleneck in the production workflow – the redaction of articles received from OVB’s vast network of freelancers. “These contributions are vital, comprising over 60 per cent of our local print content, yet the editorial process was painstakingly slow and resource-intensive.”

Schiller says the objective was clear. To harness AI to streamline this process, thereby enhancing efficiency and elevating the quality of publications.

Enhancing editorial efficiency

The primary goal with Wortwandler was to dramatically reduce the time spent on article redaction. By automating routine editing tasks, we aimed to free our journalists to focus on more impactful aspects of producing the print edition.

“We recognised the potential of AI not only in speeding up processes but also in ensuring consistency and accuracy in editing all articles from our network of freelancers. Wortwandler was envisioned as a tool that could improve the overall textual quality of our publications, making them more engaging and trustworthy for our readers,” he says.

“An essential aspect of this project was to shift the newsroom culture to view AI as an ally in journalism. By demonstrating the tangible benefits of Wortwandler, we aimed to dispel fears and encourage our team to embrace AI as a crucial tool in their journalistic endeavours.”

Development of Wortwandler was an internally driven initiative spearheaded by a dedicated team of an AI specialist and a developer, who worked closely with the print desk. This partnership resulted in 12 specialised use cases tailored to OVB’s diverse article types.

Within six weeks, including a rigorous two-week beta test phase, Wortwandler evolved from concept to a functional tool ready for integration into the editorial workflow.

“Wortwandler’s successful rollout across all editions was completed in a remarkably short period, demonstrating our team’s adaptability and the tool’s ease of integration into new workflows,” says Schiller.

He says the introduction of Wortwandler has been a success. The time to process articles from receipt to final placement has been reduced to just ten minutes – a tenfold improvement. “This efficiency gain not only enhanced the reliability of our page-planning but also allowed our editors to devote more attention to improving in-house articles and layouts.”

The efficiencies realised through Wortwandler enabled OVB to realign its team structure, dissolving a specialised 15-person redaction team. This strategic move results in cost savings of over US$500,000 annually, highlighting the significant financial benefits of integrating AI into our operations.

“Wortwandler’s success has not only improved our operational efficiencies and content quality but has also paved the way for a broader acceptance and integration of AI within our newsroom.

“From initial scepticism to widespread enthusiasm, Wortwandler’s journey reflects our newsroom’s evolving relationship with technology – a shift from viewing AI with apprehension to embracing it as an indispensable tool for the future of journalism.”