Bots are busy at Norwegian publisher Bergens Tidende, reporting breaking news and taking on tasks that were unimaginable five years ago.

In an INMA ideas blog, news editor Liv Solli Okkenhaug and new digital formats and data journalism head Hanne Louise Åkernes tell of a systematic effort to improve routines, culture, competence and tools.

“A few years ago, when we both got new jobs at the same time – one as head of breaking news and the other as head of crime and health coverage – we recognised a need to elevate the status and skill level of breaking news coverage among journalists and newsroom leaders,” says Solli Okkenhaug.

Noticing that it was usually the same leaders and journalists who stepped up when breaking news hit, they worked to change this culture. “At mandatory boot camps, we asked our most experienced breaking news journalists to share their best methods.”

A custom-built education programme includes checklists, call lists, and lots of good advice on fieldwork, and is continuously updated, with journalists and managers getting an automatic message to read up on it when major events occur. Debriefing also became a mandatory task after working on potentially traumatic incidents.

“We have fostered a culture of shared resources across teams,” she says. “Additionally, all journalists rotate through the news desk, boosting their skill set.”

To give users need more than just the latest update, Bergens Tidende uses its own data, reader inquiries, and Google trends to find the questions readers need answered.

Åkernes says when she took over BT’s data journalism team, breaking news was still a passion project. They dedicated the next year to answering these questions: How can we make the job easier, both for journalists and leaders? And how can we deliver a better breaking news product to our readers?

In just a few seconds, BT’s BreakingBot alerts key personnel, creates a Slack channel, a Google Drive with relevant documents, a map and a list of property owners if relevant

“As a result, data journalist Anders Grimsrud Eriksen created a ‘BreakingBot’, which has changed our workflow radically,” she says.

A simple keystroke in Slack initiates an incident, creating a dedicated Slack channel and Google folder and inviting relevant individuals. Journalists link events to locations effortlessly, whereupon the bot compiles property owner information for the address and crafts a ready-to-publish map. It auto-publishes tailored checklists for journalists, controlling information flow.

Leveraging Schibsted’s AI tool, it automates interview summaries.

The bot is used for all incidents and is now being further developed with Schibsted colleagues. “We are not aware of any similar bots in the media world today,” she says.

“Our data journalists have also developed various widgets, combining external data and our data receivers in the field. Widgets display information about floods, closed mountain roads, the position of rescue helicopters, or wind speeds. In addition, monitors alert the newsroom of various urgent information.

Real-time updates about delayed trains or buses, closed roads, power outages, or strong winds are just a few of BT’s data-driven news widgets.

“Being informed about what is happening is still a crucial need for our users and one of the biggest drivers for recruiting younger audiences,” says Åkernes.

“In 2023, BT reached an all-time high in our key engagement metric: daily active subscribers. This success was substantially driven by breaking events such as elections, storms, fires, and major traffic incidents.”

Growth continued in 2024, with large breaking news events resulting in new engagement records with the help of the whole organisation.

“Five years ago, if someone had told us what our newsroom looks like today, we might not have believed what we saw: a bot that automatically creates maps and transcribes. Updates on lightning and power outages in real-time in the articles. An editorial team where journalists can rest after long shifts while colleagues take over and where leaders are ready to step in for each other.

“Together with our colleagues, we at BT have changed our breaking culture with the help of data, competence enhancement, and new tools, creating a more sustainable editorial team – while providing readers with news faster, more clearly, and tailored to their needs.”