This Budget Season, Stations Must Make AI A Factor
This Budget Season, Stations Must Make AI A Factor - NewsLab
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Sean McLaughlin’s recent TVNewsCheck column, “The News Budget We’ve Dreaded For Years Has Arrived,” immediately got my attention. I know it’s weird, but budgets are a topic near and dear to me. In addition to spending the majority of my career working with and for media’s senior finance professionals, I was also deeply involved in preparing the strategy and budget for the association that served those finance leaders. One of the many lessons that has stuck with me is that when revenue is trending down, the only two choices are to cut expenses or increase income.
Pointing out that stations have already made the easy cuts, McLaughlin provides nine tactics news departments might consider to solve their budget challenges. While a bit vague on specifics – each situation is unique — I agree with most of what he recommends. The suggestion that concerns me is “incorporate AI.” If you are looking to cut expenses, this is not a good short-term solution.
AI is a hot topic now. In fact, I’ve had the opportunity to attend a few recent seminars on the subject. Their specific focus has been on what a company’s board directors, the people charged with providing strategic direction for the company, should be considering. As such, they have offered a good overview on what companies should and should not be doing with the technology now.
What immediately came to mind with McLaughlin’s AI suggestion was a panelist who declared that the board’s first question should be, “Do you have an AI
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”