Russmedia’s experience with artificial intelligence shows how quickly newsroom experimentation can become an operational strategy. Speaking at the Frankfurt AI Forum, Lena Leibetseder, the company’s head of digital publishing, described a media group in Austria’s Vorarlberg region that has repeatedly treated technological change as a habit rather than a disruption. The company was first in the world to adopt four-colour printing, moved online early and even issued iPhone 4 handsets to staff in 2010 to encourage mobile use. That history matters because Russmedia’s latest AI push is presented not as a rupture, but as the next stage in a long pattern of digital adaptation.

Since partnering with OpenAI in 2023, Russmedia has rolled out ChatGPT across the business, extending it beyond editorial into sales, marketing, human resources and even the printing operation. Leibetseder said adoption has reached about 80% of staff, including employees who do not normally work at a computer, a notable figure for a newsroom-wide change programme. The company’s flagship site, VOL.AT, now draws 14.5 million visits and 2.4 million unique readers a month, with most traffic coming from mobile devices, underlining the scale of the audience that Russmedia is trying to serve more efficiently.

The company has also moved away from scattered pilots and towards dedicated AI infrastructure. One team, the Russmedia Data Team, was set up in September 2024 to turn ideas into usable prototypes and hand them over for further development. A second unit, the VOL.AT AI Studio, was placed physically inside the newsroom after managers concluded that distance from journalists was slowing collaboration. The arrangement is deliberate: staff can walk over with problems, test ideas and refine products in real time. Russmedia has already used that model to build tools that automate paper inventory checks, convert incoming press releases into draft articles and surface editorial planning information through Microsoft Teams.

Leibetseder framed the work as a lesson in change management rather than a showcase of technology. She argued that useful AI tools have to be built with journalists, not simply for them, and that sceptical staff can become a company’s most persuasive advocates once a product actually helps them. She also said visible backing from senior editors is essential if AI is to be treated as normal newsroom practice rather than a side project for enthusiasts. Russmedia has been open about its own setbacks, including a long-running attempt to build a text-shortening tool for print layouts that has not yet worked as hoped.

Her broader warning was against trying to chase every new model and feature at once. Too many tools, she said, create confusion, fatigue and diminishing returns. Instead, Russmedia has tried to focus on a small number of practical use cases and improve them steadily. That message sits alongside wider signs of the company’s ambitions: it was shortlisted in several categories at the INMA Global Media Awards in 2025, including artificial intelligence and newsroom transformation, and earlier presentations by chief technology officer Dominic Depaoli at media innovation conferences in Antwerp and Helsinki suggested the AI programme has been evolving for more than two years. For Leibetseder, the point is not to build ever more sophisticated AI for its own sake, but to make journalists feel supported enough to use it confidently.

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Source: Noah Wire Services