Chicago Public Media operates two distinct news brands: WBEZ, the public radio station, and the Chicago Sun-Times, the legacy newspaper. With audio and print journalism, both membership and advertising revenue, and decades of archives in multiple formats, they're a unique case study for AI in local news.
When CEO Melissa Bell joined the organization, there was interest in AI but no dedicated resources for experimentation. Through the Lenfest AI Collaborative, they brought in their first AI engineer. A year later, Spanish translations that used to take days are now published the same day. Forty years of WBEZ audio, previously unsearchable, are being transcribed and made searchable for journalists.
In this week's episode, host Nikita Roy speaks with Chicago Public Media leaders Melissa Bell (CEO) and Aron Pilhofer (Chief Product and Membership Officer), along with Mark Chonowsky (AI Fellow) and David Chivers (lead AI advisor for the Lenfest AI Collaborative).
A note on this week's episode
David Chivers, who listeners will hear in this episode, passed away on January 1, 2026. He was the lead advisor for the Lenfest AI Collaborative and this episode was recorded the previous month. David was deeply committed to building capability in newsrooms. He was generous with his time, sharp in his insights, and always had one of those big smiles that would light up a room. He will be missed.
The conversation covers how Chicago Public Media is thinking about AI as part of a larger membership strategy, how they decide what to build versus buy with limited resources, and what it looks like to lead through a public AI failure.
In this episode:
02:55 — Where Chicago Public Media started with AI a year ago
08:08 — What AI use looks like inside the newsroom
15:42 — How product development is evolving with AI tools
27:28 — Collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft
28:26 — How AI fits into Chicago Public Media's membership strategy
36:05 — Build vs. buy with limited resources
37:44 — The Chicago Sun-Times AI-generated book list incident
42:18 — Advice for leaders navigating AI mistakes publicly
This episode of Newsroom Robots is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
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