Building new tools and experimenting with AI led our innovation in 2025

Hey, it’s Giovanni. 

Last year I shared how we pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling at inewsource, work that ultimately helped one of our projects become a Pulitzer finalist. In 2025, we tried new approaches to help explain complex issues in clearer, more engaging ways — from an illustrative reporting project capturing San Diego’s bird flu dilemma to a two-part multimedia investigation on labor’s rise to power in the region.

And that was only a small part of our continued foray into developing cutting-edge reader experiences. With a bit of brainstorming, research and collaboration with partners across the industry, we made our reporting more accessible, engaging and easier to understand.

Here’s a look at where that work took us this year.

Leading the way in AI journalism research and development

AI continues to evolve quickly, and its impact on the news industry is only growing. We at inewsource remain committed to finding opportunities where the technology can improve the user experience, supercharge business development and help us do the great human-centered work we already do better. 

Our approach hasn’t changed: There should always be a human in the loop, and if something is completely generative like our story narrations, we tell you. That transparency is important to us.

Here’s some ways we’re helping lead the industry in experimenting with this technology:

• AI disclosures: We joined nine other newsrooms in Trusting News’ second AI research cohort to better understand how readers feel about disclosures in stories. The experiment reminded us why openness matters, even when reactions are subtle. You can see the research we contributed to here.
  
• Revenue experimentation: Through the American Journalism Project’s AI & Product Studio, we explored new ways AI could help us identify and understand communities that may have a high propensity to support nonprofit local news. We’re now working on an open-source WordPress plugin so other newsrooms can try similar revenue experiments without starting from scratch.
  
• Technology partnerships: We continued our work with AI developers Bridged and Everlit this year to make our reading experience even more accessible (take a look at the in-story chatbot within Greg’s investigative project on sexually violent predators and continued improvements in story narration voice quality).

This work is ongoing, and we’re learning as we go, but it’s been encouraging to see how these tools can support our mission when used thoughtfully.

Rebuilding a one-of-a-kind tool from the ground up

Remember Contextualizer? It’s the little highlight feature that adds quick explanations of terms right inside a story — especially handy for government agencies, legal jargon or anything that readers often have to Google.

With a lot of trial and error — and some “vibe coding” — we created our own version that is more stable, more flexible and now fully under our control. You can see it in action in many of our stories — try clicking on North County Transit District to test it out. (Have a suggestion for a term we should include? Let us know here.)

Being able to develop custom story features and experiences for readers is a game-changer for a small newsroom like us. Now with AI-assisted coding, we can bring ideas to life that otherwise would have required developers on staff or an expensive agency.

Story breakdowns: Making news more digestible

You might have noticed some stories like our data analysis of daylighting tickets or fire hazard zone maps looking a bit different this year. Our new story breakdown format makes it easier for readers to get the most important findings from our reporting fast.

Don’t expect to see this replacing our in-depth investigations and longer accountability stories. As we continue to expand into community reporting and focus more on “news you can use,” we hope story breakdowns improve your reading experience, especially when your time is limited.

Looking ahead

Innovation can sound like a buzzword, but for us it’s pretty simple: We’re trying to make your experience with the news more interesting and fulfilling. If it helps you better understand your community and topics that matter to you, we keep it. If not, we move on and try something else.

Everything we built this year — big or small — happened because you read, support and care about this work. That means a lot to us.

We have big plans for 2026 including community guides, more illustrative storytelling, licensing Contextualizer to like-minded newsrooms and other exciting changes we can’t share quite yet. 

Consider supporting this good for all this holiday season. Every dollar you contribute will be matched up to $150,000! Your gift ensures we can continue to innovate and deliver important and accessible local news.

Many thanks for making what I do possible.

– Giovanni