TLDR: Reach plc is increasingly relying on AI-driven Guten, powered by AWS, to enhance its journalistic output, streamline operations, and navigate the challenging transition from print to digital media. This strategic integration aims to improve content creation efficiency and audience engagement, though it has also raised concerns among journalists regarding job security and editorial integrity.
Reach plc, a prominent UK-based media conglomerate, is undergoing a significant transformation, embracing AI-driven solutions like Guten, powered by AWS, to bolster its digital presence and journalistic output. This strategic pivot comes as the company grapples with a declining print revenue, which still accounts for 75% of its operations, experiencing a 4.8% annualized decrease. In contrast, digital revenue for Q2 2025 rose to £61 million, with 43% stemming from diversified streams such as e-commerce and affiliate partnerships.
At the heart of Reach’s AI strategy are tools like Guten and Mantis. Guten, developed in collaboration with newsrooms, data science, and product teams, is designed to streamline tasks that traditionally slow down journalism. It plays a crucial role in processing content from trusted sources, such as the Press Association, and converting it into in-house formatted stories. This has significantly accelerated content production, reducing the time to process content from nine minutes to just 90 seconds. Reach aims to produce around 4,500 stories daily with its team of 1,800 journalists, relying on high story output to drive advertising revenue.
Piers North, Reach’s chief executive, has highlighted the acceleration of AI use as a key priority, acknowledging that AI is transforming the media sector. He stated that Guten has been in development and use for over two years, rolled out across all newsrooms, and supports the creation of approximately a quarter to a third of published articles. North emphasized that AI is viewed as a “tool for our journalists,” ensuring human involvement remains connected with published content.
However, the increased reliance on AI has not been without controversy. Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) at Reach plc have expressed alarm, fearing that the technology is being used to “mitigate” the loss of hundreds of journalistic jobs due to recent cutbacks. The NUJ group chapel passed a motion stating concerns that generative AI is being used to compensate for falling headcount, which they believe “poses significant risks to Reach’s journalistic reputation and integrity.” While not opposed to AI in principle, the union is calling for talks to ensure AI is used “productively but fairly” in the newsroom.
Despite these concerns, Reach maintains that AI tools like Guten “utilises AI to free up time spent on repetitive tasks” and has “supported an increase in page views and article volume, as well as [helping] to break news quicker than competitors.” Guten has been used to rewrite police press releases and agency copy, and to quickly rephrase articles from other Reach publications to avoid content duplication issues with search engines. The company requires journalists using Guten to log the URLs of AI-involved articles and tracks the differences between AI-suggested and published versions to refine future edits.
Also Read:
- Generative AI: Reshaping Trust, Equity, and Authorship in Media and Society
- AI Revolutionizes Brand Safety in Digital Commerce
Reach’s digital transformation also includes a focus on data-driven advertising and expanding its U.S. audience, which reached 10% of the online population. The company’s operating margin of 17.5% and 4.2% cost reduction demonstrate its commitment to optimizing costs to fund digital innovation. While strategic risks persist, particularly with print still accounting for a large portion of revenue and competition in the U.S. market, Reach plc is clearly investing heavily in AI and automation to secure its future in the evolving media landscape.
