There’s been considerable discussion recently about how we use AI for content production at Firecrown across all our brands. Setting aside misrepresentations, we’d like to clarify how our team leverages AI and the expectations we established months ago.
Any media company not using AI at this point is already behind, particularly in the digital space. Committing to never using AI sets a dangerous precedent.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are evolving rapidly, and keeping pace with them is an ongoing challenge.
AI is one of the most transformative technologies in history and a powerful resource for all companies, including media. We want our journalists to have access to the best technology available, and we’re not afraid to make significant investments to achieve that.
Our mission is to be informative and responsive in the markets we serve, especially during breaking news events. AI enables us to produce more content on topics our audiences care about.
Firecrown is not alone. According to The State of Journalism in 2025, a comprehensive research study by Muck Rack, 77% of journalists use AI tools to assist in developing content.
Our official policy is that any writer who publishes content, whether AI-assisted or not, is responsible for every single word.
Firecrown’s embrace of AI has caused concern among some former journalists intimidated by the technology. They’ve misunderstood our stance on incorporating AI and other automated tools into their work, rather than using these tools to make their jobs easier and more productive. This is unfortunate.
We’ve observed a significant increase in the quality of content from journalists who use AI for copy editing, ideation, and research, particularly with legal and legislative documents. AI also enables us to monitor developing events in breaking news stories.
It also enables us to publish content faster and more frequently, especially on breaking stories.
A prime example is the 700-plus-page MOSAIC regulatory document, released by the FAA with little context. Using AI tools, our team searched the entire document for relevant topics and published content within an hour of its release. Traditionally, this would have taken much longer without AI’s capabilities.
We’ve applied the same approach to major court case filings and rulings, where legal documents can be overwhelming even for the most experienced journalists.
AI, for copy editing or research, can supercharge our top journalists, enabling us to produce more content with deeper insights into subjects that captivate readers. The goal is higher-quality content, delivered faster.
We are also developing AI solutions that allow us to deliver personalized content to our readers based on their preferences and interests. Combined with editors and journalists who have deep subject matter expertise, we can explore a much wider range of topics in niches we previously had limited resources to cover. This is the power of the AI revolution, which provides our editorial teams with tools to enhance their productivity while building on their personal experiences and interests. This is one of the most exciting applications of AI in our business.
Rest assured, we will never use AI to write experiential or product reviews, though it’s invaluable for tracking and reacting to unfolding news. This aligns with practices at global leaders like Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg.
AI poses some threats to our business, and we understand concerns about its impact on business models, especially in media. Having seen media companies fail by not embracing digitization or the internet, we don’t intend to follow that path.
This journey requires our editorial teams to evolve with the times, though we recognize this doesn’t always happen. We believe transparency about where we use AI and automation is essential.
A major concern for our business is how AI is transforming Google Search, which publishers have long relied on for traffic. That reliance is waning.
As Google has introduced AI summaries and AI Mode, our search volume has sharply declined.
We’ve advised our team to assume search traffic will approach zero in the next 24 months, a sentiment echoed by other media outlets.
Over the past year, we’ve tested AI-assisted articles and found they significantly outperform non-AI-assisted ones. As generative content engines play a larger role in digital traffic, AI-assisted articles excel in nearly every metric: traffic, time on site, engagement, and more. In the digital world, platforms determine which articles get read. We must adapt.
For instance, on nearly all our digital sites, we’ve implemented tools to make our content more discoverable by generative AI engines. Sites that have adopted these tools have seen traffic increase two to three times during this period. We’re encouraged by these results and believe further investment is warranted. On sites where editorial teams have resisted, such as AVWeb, we’ve seen a dramatic traffic collapse. Our goal is to encourage these teams to use tools that best position them for success in the next digital era.
This trend isn’t unique to Firecrown; many other publishers report similar patterns.
In some cases, we’ve had to part ways with teams that resisted change. We understand this may have caused disappointment and tension, but we don’t intend to let any of our brands fail due to technophobia. The digital world can be feast or famine, and we’re forced to adapt.
AI-Written Stories
Recently, we’ve been accused of using AI to write full-fledged stories, particularly in the aviation group, with minimal human oversight.
This is false.
While we use AI tools for research, breaking down complex documents, transcription, and similar tasks, all inputs and outputs are carefully reviewed by our editorial team.
AI enables our editors and journalists to be far more productive with research, copy editing, and ideation, tasks that often consume significant time otherwise spent creating high-quality content.
Another misconception is that AI is a cost-cutting measure.
Perhaps this is true at other companies, but we’ve made substantial investments in emerging technology built specifically for publishers. On a per-user basis, the AI tools we provide our workforce are the most expensive software we license. We continue to invest in our editorial team, hiring journalists and editors who embrace the future rather than resist it.
We know some traditional journalists are upset by our adoption of this technology. This is expected. The media business model is being upended by the same technology. For Firecrown and its brands to survive, we must embrace the future.
One such tool, developed by a former Wall Street Journal editor, is being tested at other major outlets.
For instance, this tool takes an entire audio or video file and field notes, then transcribes them into text that can be quickly converted into an article under the direction of a journalist.
The easier it is to transcribe content from video and audio into written text, the more often our team can provide first-hand accounts of the products and services they experience. This is truly impactful.
Our overarching goal is to provide our content producers with AI as a tool to better serve their audiences. Initiating research, gathering real-time breaking news, and assisting with proofreading are just a few ways AI supports our team.
The AI era is here, and we plan to embrace it.
For transparency, we’re sharing how we direct our content team to use AI in their daily work, including:
When We Use AI Tools
- Locating sources for research
- Monitoring breaking news, emerging trends, or stories
- Transcribing audio or video files for stories, such as interviews and podcasts
- Translating field notes into text
- Compressing and analyzing large documents, such as court filings and regulatory reports
- Using large datasets to tell stories. Most journalists aren’t Excel experts or adept at manipulating CSV files, but AI helps.
- Project management and task assistance
- Copy editing and proofreading
- Conducting research
- Generating content ideas
- Making our content more accessible to generative search engines
- Providing tailored content, directed at specific interests and niche topics
How We Won’t Use AI Tools
- Publishing LLM outputs outright. All articles are reviewed, fact-checked, and bylined by journalists responsible for their published words.
- Using AI to plagiarize or mimic others’ work.
- Using AI-generated images, as licensing remains a challenge.
- Publishing AI-generated summaries or recaps without citing sources or misrepresenting content origins, which is unethical.
- Allowing AI content without editorial review, as it may unintentionally reinforce stereotypes, inaccuracies, or biases from training data.
We owe our loyal readers the best, fastest, and smartest content, and Firecrown is committed to delivering that across our brands.
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