WAN-IFRA welcomes 12 pioneering publishers to the Advanced Newsroom AI Catalyst cohort

WAN-IFRA, the World Association of News Publishers, brought together 12 news organisations in London to take part in the first advanced cohort of the Newsroom AI Catalyst, the accelerator programme supported by OpenAI. This new cohort is part of WAN-IFRA's expanding collaboration with OpenAI, following eight previous accelerators held in Europe, Latin America, South Asia, and Asia during 2024 and 2025.

"In WAN-IFRA's report about the ROI of AI, we found the majority of publishers said they were just getting started. But almost a third were growing their use of AI and 11% classed themselves as advanced. Our partnership with OpenAI and Fathm is allowing us to accelerate the development of AI in newsrooms across the spectrum of engagement with the technology. We're excited to support graduates of our first accelerators and advanced newsrooms to take the sophistication of their AI applications to the next level in this advanced accelerator," said Kevin Anderson, Director, Digital Revenue Network, WAN-IFRA

Moving from prototypes to tackle industry-wide needs

In the original accelerator, participants concentrated on developing prototypes to optimise newsroom workflows with a primary focus on experimentation and initial integration of AI tools.

The advanced cohort, by contrast, is designed for organisations that have already implemented AI and are ready to deepen adoption.

During the 12-week programme, this group will examine their maturity of AI use, newsroom AI governance, revenue strategy optimisation, and the technical integration of AI into existing processes, working under the guidance of Fathm's coaching team.

"Ouest-France has a longstanding commitment to innovation, and today we are scaling up our approach to artificial intelligence. By joining this program with other major European laureates, we can enhance our momentum, as it is through collaboration that we can ensure AI development that is thoughtful and adds value," noted David Dieudonné, Head of AI at Ouest-France.

For Angelica Öhagen, Project Manager AI and Innovation at Aftonbladet in Sweden: "Beingpart of the AI Catalyst is a great opportunity to collaborate with other leading media companies and to tackle shared challenges together. AI is already integrated into our newsroom operations, with services in daily use by both our teams and our users. Through this program, we aim to advance our existing AI chatbot by automating local data integration via APIs and exploring the potential of more agentic AI solutions for future products. We look forward to receiving coaching and inspiration from the experts involved in the program."

Ongoing support towards strengthening media outlets

Participant publishers also benefit from the Newsroom Catalyst Development Fund announced last April. Under this umbrella, they received tens of thousands of dollars in OpenAI API credits to experiment, operationalise, and extend the projects they are working on during the accelerator. Thereby, WAN-IFRA not only reaffirms its commitment to equipping news enterprises with the resources required for an efficient implementation of AI, but also supports them in creating strategies to address both current and potential challenges of a technology that is already transforming the industry.

Germán Frassa, Director of Digital Product at Prensa Ibérica in Spain, noted:"No one knows for sure what the rise of AI will ultimately mean for us - as individuals, industries, or society as a whole. But whatever it brings, it will be deeply transformative, and hiding is not an option. The AI wave must find us thinking and working hard to make the most of it to serve our users - and we can think of no better way to do so than with the support of WAN-IFRA, surrounded by colleagues and experts at the forefront of this revolution."

Added the team from The Irish Times:"We are delighted to be part of the Newsroom AI Catalyst, to accelerate our use of AI and deepen our understanding of how it can serve our audiences in more meaningful ways. It's a unique opportunity for us to learn, share and innovate with our peers in other media organisations across Europe."

The news publishers participating in the Advanced Newsroom AI Catalyst are:

Aftonbladet(Sweden)
Bonner Generalanzeiger (Germany)
DMG Media / Daily Mail(United Kingdom)
EBRA Groupe (France)
Groupe Rossel(Belgium)
Neue Westfälische Zeitung (Germany)
Ouest France(France)
Prensa Ibérica(Spain)
The Press and Journal (Scotland)
PRISA Media (Spain)
SWMH - Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (Germany)
The Irish Times(Ireland)

Rocío Valderrábano

[email protected]