Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, the largest periodical publisher in Europe—and an increasingly major presence in American media—is trying to adapt his company to the new reality of artificial intelligence. New tools such as OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT have created opportunities for media companies to cut costs by enlisting technology to do at least some of the writing, research, and copyediting. But at the same time, A.I. threatens to steal the jobs of reporters and create error-riddled articles.
Axel Springer recently culled 200 jobs at Bild—20% of its newsroom—at least partly because those jobs could now be performed by A.I. or automation. The layoffs were a step toward Döpfner’s “digital only” vision, his strategy for ushering in the A.I. era of journalism at Axel Springer and maintaining profitability.
