Reclaiming time for journalism

Jaworzno is a city in the Southern region of Poland. Here the local newsroom of JAW.pl faced a dilemma familiar to many outlets: too much information, too little time.

Journalists spent hours scrolling through social media, official announcements and websites—often visiting the same sites just to keep up. The result was a constant trade-off: routine updates about the city council were covered, but deeper, human-centred stories struggled to find space, explains editor-in-chief Franciszek Matysik.

Through support from the Pluralistic Media for Democracy (PM4D) programme, JAW.pl has fundamentally changed that equation. But first a few facts about the editor.

The business of media publishing is very much in Franciszek Matysik’s blood. His parents founded the newspaper Co Tydzień– meaning ‘Every week’ in April 1991.

“Back then, right after Soviet times, they wanted to make our city better by offering an independent voice” explains Franciszek. He recalls a childhood guided by the rhythm of putting out a paper every Wednesday.

“I was 9 years old and already selling a newspaper on the streets. Later, I became engaged in editing, took photos and ran the website. Apart from a break for studies, I have worked in a publishing house all my life and now I have taken over from my parents ” says Franciszek Matysik.

In 2004 they founded another local newspaper in the town of Mysłowice. Today the family-controlled company own a total of five media outlets, including the online outlet jaw.pl and a television station.

Franciszek is an engineer and have always taken an interest in new technologies. In fact, his dream was to create a tech company – but small town Jaworzno of 83.000 habitants was not ripe for that, so instead he merged his childhood knowledge of running a media with his fascination of technology.

Jaw.pl launched in 2009. In the beginning internet in the region was too slow for videos, he recalls. Now, every variety of journalistic formats are everywhere and the audiences too, so jaw.pl need to create content narrated and tailored for a lot of different platforms. That’s why he ended up applying for PM4D funds.

Automation without losing the human voice

At the heart of the transformation is an AI-powered research system that automatically scans hundreds of sources daily and identifies around 200 potential story leads. Instead of manually searching for information, journalists now start their day with a centralised overview of what is happening in their community. This has shifted the newsroom’s workflow: from repetitive scanning to editorial decision-making and from information gathering to verification and reporting. In short, from time-consuming routines to higher-value journalism. Franciszek tells that by eliminating what the team describes as “scroll fatigue”, the project has freed up time that is now invested in fieldwork, relationships and investigative reporting.

The transition to AI was not without challenges. In the early phase, the newsroom saw a drop in search visibility when automated content was flagged as machine-generated. Rather than scaling back, the team adapted. They introduced: “humanisation” protocols to ensure natural language and trained the AI model on all journalists’ last 20 articles to ensure a journalist-specific writing styles, and set up editorial oversight to maintain context and relevance. “Automation should support journalism—not replace it,” says Franciszek Matysik.

Routine information, such as time table changes at the bus station or city hall buying up property and other routine administrative updates, can now be handled efficiently through AI. More complex stories still require journalists on the ground—engaging directly with people and their experiences.

“Problems are people-stories, when somebody feels something we must go and talk with them, forge a relation, check their claims about problems,” Franciszek informs.

The outlet does not label AI stories, because they are never 100 percent AI produced. “It is not fantasy. We still select the topic and think about the context and why this is important here and now.”

According to the editor-in-chief a journalists’ human story are still more popular and also more important. 80 percent of the site’s traffic goes toward human stories.

Reaching new audiences through new formats

The project also responded to a major shift in audience behaviour. Traditional text-based articles are no longer reaching younger audiences, who consume news primarily through video.

To address this, JAW.pl introduced automated multimedia production. Journalists can now convert articles into short-form videos—complete with subtitles, visuals and voiceovers—directly from the newsroom. The impact has been significant with video content reached a few million views and the audience expanding beyond the outlet’s local base. Interestingly, he also see younger users engaging with local issues in new ways.

This marks a critical step in addressing what JAW.pl identifies as a “generational news desert”—where younger citizens are effectively disconnected from local journalism due to format mismatch.

Countering disinformation in local ecosystems

The project has also strengthened the role of verified journalism in an otherwise fragmented information space.

In JAW.pl’s region, the challenge is not a lack of information, but unverified content circulating on social media and a dominance of one-sided narratives from official sources. “When there are elections, this town has three newspapers, some if which are produced by officials and handed out for free,” says Franciszek Matysik with a not-so-subtle frustrated tone.

By producing high volumes of verified, accessible content—particularly in formats that compete on social platforms—the newsroom has positioned itself as a credible alternative, ensuring that public-interest journalism remains visible and relevant.

Beyond editorial impact, the project has improved the newsroom’s sustainability.

With rising labour costs making traditional workflows increasingly difficult to maintain, automation has lowered the cost of producing multimedia content and enabled more efficient use of human resources. “We’ve probably bought ourselves another 10 years in business with this new model,” he says.

The experience of JAW.pl highlights a crucial insight: automation is not an end in itself. By removing the burden of repetitive tasks, the project has allowed journalists to focus on what matters most—people, accountability and context. In doing so, it demonstrates how technology can be used not to dilute journalism, but to strengthen it.

We’ve asked newsrooms to highlight any change or achievements resulting from interventions, activities or news articles that have been part of the PM4D programme.

Why do we not just report on how many media outlets we supported, how many received a training in AI and in advertising? When impact is documented, shared and celebrated, journalism becomes easier to fund, easier to defend and harder to ignore.

Read more impact stories: There is value in stories of overlooked people and Bridging journalism and technology to strengthen local media

The Media Pluralism Fund is operated by Journalismfund Europe and the Capacity Building and Mentorship is run by IMS. This project is co-funded by the European Commission and the King Baudouin Foundation.