The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, has emphasised the need to train its members on deploying Artificial Intelligence tools to improve publishing efficiency, content quality and profitability in the digital media space.
At the Guild’s 10th Annual Conference in Lagos, members were taken through a session on: “The AI-Powered Newsroom: AI & Prompt Engineering for Online Publishing”, by Sulaimon Durojaiye, an AI expert and publisher of The Lagos Times.
It focused on practical ways publishers can use AI to produce content faster, improve quality and increase profitability while maintaining professional and editorial standards.
Understanding artificial intelligence
Durojaiye defined AI as technology that enables computers to perform tasks that ordinarily require human intelligence.
He noted that the publishing industry has evolved from the traditional newsroom-newspaper-reader structure, with AI now capable of understanding language, recognising patterns, analysing information, generating content, solving problems, making predictions and assisting decision-making.
He said publishers do not need to be programmers to use AI effectively as he explained three important AI concepts, including Generative AI and Large Language Models.
Generative AI creates text, images, audio, video and code, while Large Language Models are systems trained on huge amounts of information to understand and generate human language.
Examples include ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.
AI is not a search engine
Durojaiye also explained the difference between AI tools and conventional search engines.
While search engines find information, return links and sources for users to investigate, generative AI can process, create, transform and analyse information.
However, he cautioned that AI can produce inaccurate information and therefore requires users to verify every piece of information obtained through the technology.
He advised publishers not rely blindly on AI-generated information, particularly when producing news reports.
Training on prompt engineering
The session also introduced participants to prompt engineering, which Durojaiye describes as the art and science of giving AI clear instructions to produce useful results.
He demonstrated the difference between a basic prompt, such as asking AI to “write a story about the budget”, and a more detailed instruction that provides the AI with a specific role, task, context, requirements and expected output.
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For instance, a publisher could instruct an AI tool to act as a senior Nigerian newspaper correspondent, analyse a supplied budget speech and produce a 600-word news report using the inverted pyramid structure, while leading with the most significant development.
Durojaiye identifies five elements of an effective prompt: Role, Task, Context, Requirements and Output.
He stresses that clearer instructions generally produce more useful results.
AI-Powered Newsroom
The training examined how AI can support different aspects of newsroom operations, including news gathering and research.
AI tools can help publishers analyse lengthy speeches and reports, summarise government documents, extract key facts, compare documents, generate interview questions and identify potential story angles.
Other applications include analysing datasets, conducting background research, converting complex materials into plain English and supporting investigative work.
However, AI will not replace the journalist’s responsibility to independently investigate and establish facts.
Durojaiye also identified applications across the wider publishing workflow, including news gathering, interviews, transcription, writing, editing, SEO, social media, newsletters and analytics.
He noted that AI should not be viewed as a single tool but as part of an entire workflow that can support different stages of publishing.
Turning one story into multiple contents
The training also examined how publishers can use AI to develop multiple content products from a single news event, including news stories, features, explainers, profiles, interviews, opinion drafts, headlines, captions, newsletters and transformed press releases.
Durojaiye stressed that while AI can accelerate content production, journalists remain responsible for facts, context and editorial judgment.
AI for SEO and audience reach
The use of AI for search engine optimisation will also form part of the training.
Durojaiye noted that publishing content is only part of the process, as publishers must also ensure that their work reaches the right audience.
AI can assist with developing search-friendly headlines, SEO titles and meta descriptions, identifying keywords and search intent, creating frequently asked questions, structuring content, suggesting internal links and developing content clusters.
“The story isn’t finished when you publish it. It is finished when the right audience can find it,” he says.
The training was designed to equip GOCOP members with practical knowledge on using AI responsibly to improve newsroom productivity while retaining human oversight, fact-checking and professional judgment.
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