McClatchy Newspapers Share Bylines With AI, Drawing Union Grievances
McClatchy Media has begun rolling out a Claude-based tool that generates news articles in its newsrooms, forcing journalists to share bylines with the AI system or lose their credit entirely. The content scaling agent (CSA) creates article summaries and versions targeted at specific audiences, but the byline treatment varies across the company's papers depending on union status.
At the non-union Centre Daily Times in Pennsylvania, articles carry the format "Reporting by [author]. Produced with AI assistance." The unionized Sacramento Bee omits the author's name entirely, using "Edited by [editor]. Story produced with AI assistance." The Miami Herald, also unionized, uses "produced using AI based on original work by [author]."
During a staff meeting, McClatchy's chief of staff for local news said the company would use journalists' names if their contracts don't explicitly allow byline removal. Union representatives at the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, and Kansas City Star filed grievances last week, arguing that McClatchy deployed the CSA without notifying unions of the "major technological change" as required by contract.
How the Tool Works
The CSA transforms longer articles into shorter versions and creates multiple editions for different audiences. An example from the Centre Daily Times shows a two-paragraph summary followed by bullet points, with a link to the full 1,200-word human-written story.
McClatchy describes the tool internally as "a writing partner that handles the mechanical work of content adaptation so journalists can focus on what matters: judgment, voice and storytelling."
The Byline Question
The different approaches across McClatchy papers reflect tension between labor protections and AI deployment. Union contracts at some papers give workers more control over their bylines than others.
McClatchy did not respond to requests for comment.
For writers navigating these changes, understanding how AI for Writers tools operate in newsrooms matters. The specifics of Generative AI and LLM systems like Claude also shape how these tools function in practice.
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