Practical AI in the Newsroom with Darla Cameron of The Texas Tribune

Dec 12, 2025

Darla Cameron, Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune, discusses her innovative approach to integrating AI in journalism. She shares surprising successes and notable failures with AI tools in reporting, emphasizing the importance of trust and careful experimentation. From analyzing podcasts to enhancing audience interaction with chatbots, Darla's insights reveal how AI can reshape newsrooms while preserving journalistic integrity. She also addresses the cautious adoption of AI-generated images and highlights the need for adaptable hiring practices to navigate this evolving landscape.

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ADVICE

Use AI Narration For Accessibility

Use AI narration to expand accessibility but verify pronunciation and authenticity first.
The Tribune trains voices for Texas place names and monitors reader responses about audio quality.

ADVICE

Keep Chatbots Narrow And Honest

Build narrow, topic-specific chatbots and require them to admit when they don't know an answer.
The Tribune routes unknown questions to reporters as potential story ideas via Slack automation.

ANECDOTE

Chatbot Gave A Reporting Tip

A chatbot flagged a gap about how vouchers would affect the teacher retirement system, prompting reporters to write a new story.
The automation converted an unknown chatbot answer into a concrete reporting lead.

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The surprising places AI helps journalists, and the places it really doesn’t.

AI in journalism can feel abstract until you talk to the people actually shipping products inside newsrooms. In this episode of The Media Copilot podcast, host Pete Pachal talks with Darla Cameron, Chief Product Officer at The Texas Tribune, about what happens when AI meets real reporting, real audiences, and real constraints.

Darla comes from a background in data journalism and visual storytelling at places like the Washington Post and now leads product at a nonprofit newsroom that has been experimenting with custom tools, data explorers, and audience-driven experiences for more than a decade. In the wide-ranging discussion, she shares how the Tribune defines product as the interface between content and audience, and how AI and automation are starting to reshape that work without replacing journalists or eroding trust.

From transcription tools and meeting analysis to tightly scoped chatbots and AI-narrated stories, Darla walks through what is actually working inside the Tribune, what quietly failed, and the principles that guide every experiment.

Why This Matters

News organizations are being squeezed from all sides. Reporters are expected to cover more with fewer resources. Audiences are drifting into AI-powered interfaces that sit between publishers and their readers. At the same time, trust in institutions is fragile and any perceived shortcut can damage a brand that took years to build.

Darla offers a grounded reality check from inside a newsroom that is embracing experimentation while drawing clear lines. The Tribune has an AI policy that explicitly says AI will not replace journalists. They do not use AI to generate news stories or images. They are very deliberate about where automation helps and where human judgment is non negotiable.

For anyone working in media, product, or audience strategy, this conversation is a practical guide to using AI as an assistive layer rather than a replacement. It is about how to adapt to new tools without losing the thing that makes your journalism worth trusting in the first place.

What We Cover

Why “product” matters in a newsroom and how it links journalism, design, and audience engagement.
Real-world examples: using AI to transcribe interviews or analyze podcasts for reporting.
What The Texas Tribune’s AI policy looks like: when automation helps, and when human verification is essential.
Why the Tribune refuses AI-generated images and prefers real photography for accountability and trust.
Lessons from building chatbots and interactive tools — including what worked, what didn’t, and what the team learned.
How audience feedback guides when and how to use AI, especially in a nonprofit news model.

About the Guest

Official bio: Texas Tribune – Darla Cameron The Texas Tribune

Professional profile: LinkedIn – Darla Cameron

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Produced by Pete Pachal and Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team

Music: “Favorite” by Alexander Nakarada, licensed under CC BY 4.0