spot on news: Customized articles with own AI

Ryan Gosling zips to the Hollywood Italian restaurant "Fabulous Cuisine" on a hot summer day on his bicycle. This is not the same as: Ryan Gosling zips to the Hollywood Italian restaurant »Fabulous Cuisine« on a hot summer day on his bike. If you look closely, you can see that in the second sentence, not only is "bicycle" replaced by "bike," but also the quotation marks are different. The first sentence is aimed at a German audience, the second at a Swiss audience.

This example illustrates the capabilities of ConUnique, an AI tool that the news agency spot on news has integrated into its editorial system. It makes linguistic changes to a text in seconds, even more complex ones than in the example. "We offer our clients unique texts tailored to their desired tone or keyword selection. The modified texts strengthen the brand of the respective publisher and have the appropriate writing style for the targeted audience. Additionally, they are better found in search engines, as Google and others prefer unique content," explains CEO Tobias Lobe.

This is a crucial advantage in the market, especially for a news agency: "Traditionally, the strength of news agencies lies in the production of a large number of well-researched and written articles. However, these articles are usually offered to publishers in a standardized manner. With ConUnique, this model changes – a true unique selling proposition."

Innovations for more modern journalism

Two years ago, a new content management system was introduced in the editorial team. It consists of the sub-platforms ConCreate, ConCast, and ConUnique. ConCreate consolidates content production and includes a tool for optimizing texts according to good language criteria, as well as adapting content to different feed formats. ConCast enables the distribution of content on publishers' sites, optionally fully automated and with a monetization tool.

Four months ago, ConUnique was added as the final component of the system. "We use the latest version of ChatGPT as our AI engine because it currently delivers the best results. Additionally, we have developed a user-friendly, feature-rich interface. This allows us to edit and process texts in a targeted and systematic way, creating a seamless workflow with real added value."

The tool has been well-received by the editorial team: "I expected more skepticism, but the opposite was true," reports Lobe. The AI is not seen as a competitor, but as a support: "The final editing team, responsible for customer-specific adjustments, views the tool as an aid to maintain a clear perspective and save time."

Machine customizable: Salutation, style and structure

Riedmüller elaborates on the benefits for clients: "They can freely choose their customization, from simple variations like direct user address to more profound changes like a more emotional tone or language adapted to Gen Z. Multiple modifications are also possible, such as a text version in youth language specifically tailored to Switzerland. In this case, Ryan Gosling 'cruises' with the 'velo' to the Hollywood Italian restaurant.

The structure of the article is also adjustable. "On one hand, we have some clients for whom the traditional structure of news reports is not very suitable; on the other hand, SEO relevance increases when certain keywords are placed early in the text," explains Riedmüller.

At the end of every AI process, the human touch is still essential: "Even if the artificial intelligence leaves facts and quotes in a text untouched—as we specify in the prompts—the final editing team reviews the text. It is not entirely impossible for the AI to output terms incorrectly. Our fundamental belief is therefore: The human is at the beginning and the end," assures Lobe.

Positive customer feedback

The response to the innovation has been extremely positive so far. Lobe has been able to convince clients skeptical of AI through the way it is applied: "We are not dealing with AI-generated articles, but rather an AI adaptation of human-researched, developed, and pre-approval checked articles with significant cost advantages. Therefore, concerns often disappear quickly during discussions."

Clients have the option to customize all texts or only texts on specific topics. A low double-digit fee per article is charged for customization. "Especially publishers with limited editorial resources appreciate this solution very much, as it allows them to create distinctive and search engine-optimized texts cost-efficiently," concludes Lobe. For him and his team, this is a great motivation to make the service package even more well-known in the industry. Who knows, perhaps more publishers from Switzerland will also believe that recognizable texts sound better – or, as they say, tönen better.