Local Media Association: AI in 2026 — how newsrooms get value without losing trust

The Local Media Association published this piece in January 2026 featuring Ethan Holland, vice president at Draper Digital Media and a board member of the LMA. Holland draws the adoption curve of AI in newsrooms as resembling the early days of the internet — a moment when early skeptics look prescient for about eighteen months before the technology becomes foundational infrastructure.

Holland’s core argument is about misapplication. The most common mistake he sees is treating AI primarily as a writing tool. The actual value, he argues, lies in AI’s ability to process information: cleaning audio, editing images, analyzing video, converting unstructured public records into usable data. These are tasks that take significant reporter time but produce no journalism on their own. Freeing that time is where AI earns its place in a newsroom workflow.

The specific examples are concrete. AI can summarize long documents and analyze audio and video in ways that help reporters make sense of large quantities of material faster. For local newsrooms with small staffs covering large territories, this is not a marginal gain. It is the difference between having the capacity to investigate a story and having to pass on it.

Holland draws a clear ethical line around AI-generated likenesses. Journalists should retain control over whether their image or voice appears in synthetic media, regardless of what a given platform or employer might request. On accuracy, the accountability principle is direct: if a journalist’s name is on a piece of work, that journalist is responsible for its accuracy. AI assistance does not transfer that responsibility.

The piece closes with a position on what time savings should fund. Holland argues that efficiency gains should go back into reporting — more enterprise work, more investigative journalism — rather than reducing headcount. This is a statement of values as much as strategy, and it is one that tends to resonate with the communities local newsrooms serve.

The article is most useful for editors and news directors at local and regional outlets who are evaluating AI adoption and need a framework for internal conversations about where and how to use it.