Reinventing Newspaper Production: Newskick

The Arizona State University Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), collaborated with industry experts to develop Newskick, an AI-driven tool that streamlines newspaper content formatting and publishing. This Generative AI (GenAI)-powered web platform allows editors to upload digital stories, use AI for summarization, headline generation, and image formatting, and seamlessly convert the final newspaper front page into an editable InDesign (IDML) file for print publication.

News editors face significant challenges with manual content formatting, spending hours adjusting text and images to fit the boundaries of a newspaper print template. The current workflow is repetitive and time-consuming, requiring a lot of manual processes to generate print-friendly headlines and decks while maintaining readability and journalistic standards. Additionally, they must manually crop and adjust images, generate headlines and cutlines within strict character limits, and convert layouts for print and digital formats, often relying on external software like Adobe InDesign. These manual tasks slow down production, increase the risk of errors, and reduce overall efficiency. Newskick was developed to solve these challenges by leveraging AI-powered automation to assist editors and designers in content formatting and layout management, significantly streamlining the publishing process.

Built on AWS cloud services, Newskick utilizes Amazon S3 for storage, AWS Lambda for AI-driven content generation, and Amazon Bedrock (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) for text summarization and headline creation. Amazon API Gateway ensures smooth communication between the frontend and backend, while ReactJS and Amplify provide a clean and efficient user experience.

Newskick is an intuitive web platform that automates newspaper editing by simplifying content formatting and layout management. Editors can upload articles and images into a predefined template, where AI-powered tools assist with summarization, headline generation, and text formatting. The platform also automatically crops and resizes images, ensuring seamless integration. With an interactive UI, editors can save, edit, and refine layouts before generating an IDML file for direct use in Adobe InDesign.

By automating repetitive tasks, Newskick eliminates manual formatting, allowing editors to focus on storytelling, making newspaper production faster, more accurate, and highly efficient.

Newskick is a game-changer for the publishing industry, revolutionizing traditional workflows with efficiency and AI-driven automation. By leveraging AI, the platform significantly reduces manual summarization and formatting time, accelerating content processing and production. Automated headline and text adjustments enhance accuracy and consistency, eliminating human errors. The seamless IDML file generation ensures a smooth transition to Adobe InDesign, allowing editors to fine-tune layouts for print without additional effort. Built on AWS cloud infrastructure, Newskick is highly scalable, effortlessly managing large volumes of content while maintaining speed and reliability. By removing manual bottlenecks, it enables faster publishing cycles, increased editorial efficiency, and a more streamlined content creation process, empowering journalists and publishers to focus on storytelling rather than formatting.

“The Cloud Innovation Center team has been instrumental in the development of NEWSKICK, a groundbreaking product designed to empower publishers, particularly local ones, by leveraging AI to streamline their processes and enhance revenue generation. The team’s ability to synthesize diverse inputs and prioritize features with a keen focus on user experience has been remarkable. The robust technology infrastructure, coupled with meticulous research and design, has ensured the first step toward a powerful tool. The iterative approach adopted by the team facilitated visualization and socialization of the prototype with both vendors and partners. This highly skilled team has crafted a product prototype that promises to significantly impact small and medium publishers across the news industry.”

 Sapna Satagopan, Director of Product and Innovation, NEWSWELL

The Newskick platform has the potential to revolutionize content formatting and publishing across various industries beyond newspapers. In magazines and digital media, it can automate content layouts for online news platforms and print publications, reducing manual effort. Corporate organizations can use Newskick to efficiently format annual reports, newsletters, and internal publications, ensuring consistency and professionalism. In educational publishing, the tool can streamline the creation of textbooks and academic journals, making content formatting faster and more accessible. Additionally, in advertising and marketing, Newskick can generate AI-driven layouts for brochures, promotional materials, and digital campaigns, optimizing design workflows. By leveraging Generative AI for content automation, Newskick offers a scalable, intelligent solution for industries seeking to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and creative flexibility in publishing.