Shop Talk, 2023 (Lance Turner Editor's Note)

(Shutterstock)

I spent a few days last week in Detroit for the 2023 summer conference of the Alliance of Area Business Publishers, an organization of 60 regional and local business publications in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Puerto Rico.

Arkansas Business has long been a part of AABP, whose member publications reach a combined 1.2 million business decision-makers. The organization is likely similar to whatever professional industry group you or your company may be part of. We get together to collaborate and learn from each other. And we seek inspiration in new ideas and counsel for dealing with big challenges.

This year, the new challenge — and opportunity — for AABP members was artificial intelligence.

As I wrote here in February, AI is poised to upend the world as we know it, and nothing much I’ve seen or read about AI since then has changed my thinking. In Detroit, editors and publishers were at times thrilled and mortified by the implications of technology like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and MidJourney, a generative AI that can create photorealistic images from whatever description you can type into a dialogue box.

This year’s Motor City conference clarified for me that artificial intelligence will almost certainly change how we do our jobs. Mike Reilley, author, educator and owner of the Journalist’s Toolbox, views AI as an opportunity for journalists to work faster and more efficiently. I’m not talking about having AI write a news story for me, but, rather, having it harness the technology to handle mundane or time-consuming tasks. To wit, Reilley offered editors an overview of AI-powered tools that can, say, transcribe audio recordings, quickly edit video, generate infographics, organize data and more.

Journalists who are adept at adjusting to this new tech and using it properly — meaning ethically and transparently — may have an edge. “You might not lose your job to AI, but you might lose your job to someone who knows how to use AI,” he said. I suspect that will prove true not just in journalism, but across scores of other industries, everything from law and technology to real estate and health care.

Award winners: Finally, I’m happy to report that Arkansas Business Publishing Group won five prizes in its size category at the conference’s annual Editorial & Design Excellence Awards:

► Gold for best scoop went to Contributing Editor Gwen Moritz, who broke national college sports news in October that Auburn University had tried to poach University of Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek.

► Silver for best investigative reporting went to Senior Editor Mark Friedman and Assistant Editor Kyle Massey for their October cover story, “Medical Marijuana Licensing Under Fire,” which reported on irregularities and reports of attempted bribery in the state’s medical cannabis system.

► Silver for best daily email went to Online Editor Scott Carroll for the Morning Roundup, our free business news summary email.

► Gold for best newspaper went to Arkansas Business, led by Publisher Mitch Bettis, Managing Editor Jan Cottingham, Art Director Wayne DePriest and me.

► Gold for best ancillary publication for Greenhead, our annual duck hunting magazine, led by Publisher Chris Bahn, Editor Brent Birch, Managing Editor Todd Traub and Art Director Dean Wheeler.