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Nine Tells Journalists to Increase AI Use and That Usage Is Being Monitored

Crikey

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Details

Date Published
9 Apr 2026
Priority Score
2
Australian
Yes
Created
9 Apr 2026, 10:00 am

Authors (1)

Description

Nine's editorial staff, which includes The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Australian Financial Review, were told at an all-staff meeting that their use of AI must improve.

Summary

Nine Entertainment management has mandated increased integration of artificial intelligence across its flagship Australian mastheads, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The directive emphasizes that AI adoption is a board-level expectation and that individual journalist usage will be monitored to rectify perceived underperformance in tool utilization. While the report focuses on industry-wide productivity shifts and labor dynamics, it highlights the rapid institutionalization of frontier AI tools within influential media organizations, which carries implications for information integrity and the systemic oversight of AI-generated content in the public sphere.

Body

Nine editorial staff, including newspaper journalists at its flagship publications The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, have been told to increase their use of AI in an all-staff meeting this week. Managing director of publishing Tory Maguire told staff on Wednesday that the company’s board expected everyone at Nine to be using AI, and that management would be monitoring staff usage of AI to that effect.  Maguire told staff that the publishing division of Nine, which encompasses Melbourne’s Age and Sydney’s Herald, as well as the business-oriented Australian Financial Review, was underperforming in its utilisation of AI and that the relevant staff needed to increase their AI usage.