# Automated News Writing Software Heliograf Has Written News for the Washington Post By Joey Haar | Published 2017-02-16 | Pop Culture Source: Trend Hunter, https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/heliograf References: [wired](https://www.wired.com/2017/02/robots-wrote-this-story/) & [washingtonpost](https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/wp/2016/08/05/the-washington-post-experiments-with-automated-storytelling-to-help-power-2016-rio-olympics-coverage/?utm_term=.29805c2fddc9) [The Washington Post](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/google-genesis), one of the oldest and most venerable news establishments in the US, aims to conversely act as a beacon for the future of journalism with its Heliograf software. Implemented in late 2016 and used extensively in the weeks leading up to the recent news surrounding the US election and the new president's flurry of activity, Heliograf [automates the process of reporting](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/draft-alpha) simple, straightforward journalism, freeing up human writers to focus on bigger stories. Heliograf debuted during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where it was used for [simple updates](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ghostcontent) about things like victories and medal counts. It soon transferred to work on the election, where editors would program in stock phrases that would relate to generic things like district election outcomes. The Post sees Heliograf as a way to more efficiently provide local news to consumers. ## Trend Insights (Trend Hunter) - Score: 2.8/10 - Popularity: 22% | Activity: 55% | Freshness: 8% - Audience gender: 50% men, 50% women - Primary generations: Millennial, Gen X - Top markets: North America ## Categories [Trend Hunter](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends) > [Pop Culture](https://www.trendhunter.com/popculture) > [Media](https://www.trendhunter.com/media) ## Key Themes ### Why This Trend Is Growing - **Automated Journalism:** The development of software to automate the process of reporting simple, straightforward journalism presents disruptive innovation opportunities for media companies to improve their productivity. - **AI News Writing:** The emergence of AI news writing presents disruptive innovation opportunities for the media industry to enhance their storytelling capabilities and improve their ability to report breaking news. - **Machine-generated Content:** The increasing use of machine-generated content presents disruptive innovation opportunities for media companies to optimize their content production process and improve their audience engagement. ### Industries Being Reshaped - **Media:** Media companies can benefit from implementing automated journalism and AI news writing software, enabling them to improve their productivity and storytelling capabilities and report breaking news more effectively. - **Technology:** Increased investment in machine-generated content technology can drive innovation in the media and publishing industries, creating new opportunities for content production and distribution. - **Marketing:** Marketers can benefit from AI news writing, as it can help them with developing personalized and targeted content to engage their audiences and optimize their campaigns. ## Related on Trend Hunter - [Article-Generating AI Tools](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/google-genesis.md) - [AI-Powered News Reporters](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/chatgptpowered-news-reporter.md) - [AI-Generated News Outlets](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/quartz-intelligence-newsroom.md) - [Long-Form AI Article Writers](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/opendraft.md) - [AI Article Generators](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/karla-ai.md) - [AI-Generative Autonomous Blog Posts](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/wixs-ai.md) - [AI Sports Writers](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/ai-sports-writer.md) - [Automated Article Drafting](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/swiftwriter.md) - [Automated Social Media Posting](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/postergpt.md)