Journalists at Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee Fight AI Bylines

Journalists at McClatchy-owned newspapers, including The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, are refusing to allow the company to use their bylines on articles summarized by an artificial intelligence tool.

The dispute centers on a new AI tool implemented by McClatchy to generate condensed versions of reported stories. While the original reporting is conducted by human journalists, the company has sought to attach the original reporter’s name to these AI-generated summaries.

Reporters involved in the action argue that attributing AI-authored text to human writers is a misrepresentation of their work. They maintain that because they did not write, edit, or approve the specific wording of the summaries, their names should not be associated with the output.

Attribution and Accuracy Concerns

The core of the conflict involves the professional standards of attribution. Journalists at the affected publications have expressed concern that AI summaries can introduce inaccuracies or omit critical nuances present in the original long-form reporting.

By insisting on the removal of their names from these summaries, the reporters are seeking to create a clear distinction between human-authored journalism and machine-generated content.

The movement to withhold bylines is part of a larger effort within the NewsGuild-CWA to establish protections against the uncredited or unauthorized use of journalists’ work to train or power AI systems.

Corporate Integration of AI

McClatchy has integrated AI tools as part of a broader strategy to increase efficiency and adapt to digital consumption patterns, where shorter, summarized content often performs better in search results and social media feeds.

The company has previously emphasized the role of AI as a tool to assist rather than replace human reporters. However, the current dispute over bylines indicates a gap between corporate implementation and the ethical boundaries set by the newsroom staff.

This friction mirrors similar conflicts across the media industry, where newsrooms are negotiating contracts to define how AI can be used in the editorial process and who retains ownership of the resulting output.

Industry Context

The situation at McClatchy follows a pattern of resistance to AI in legacy newsrooms. Journalists have increasingly pushed for contractual language that prohibits the use of AI to generate content that is then attributed to a human staff member.

The dispute highlights a fundamental tension in the business of modern journalism: the drive for automated scale versus the requirement for individual accountability and accuracy that a byline represents.

As of May 1, 2026, the reporters at The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee continue to withhold their names from these summaries as a matter of professional principle.