AI for Journalists and Content Creators

April 17, 2025

How are public media newsrooms using AI today—and how can your organization start? In this webinar, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and Ernesto Aguilar from KQED share how their team is strategically experimenting with AI tools, workflows, and policy – all while centering public media’s mission and editorial standards.

This conversation covers real-world examples of AI in use at KQED, including headline generation, transcription workflows, and ethical implementation through internal collaboration. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling up your AI strategy, this session offers tools, prompts, and practical inspiration.

Topics covered include:

KQED’s AI policy guidelines and how they’re evolving
How KQED’s AI working group supports ethical experimentation
A Slack bot that helps journalists brainstorm headlines
A transcription tool that identifies show highlights
A metadata and headline generator for newscasts
Strategies for building a culture of experimentation

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Panelists

Ernesto Aguilar

Born in East Houston, Ernesto Aguilar’s life was transformed by public media. His career has traversed daily newspapers and alternative weeklies to public radio news and program director roles. At KQED, he oversees radio broadcast content and DEI initiatives in the organization’s Content division. He is former co-chair of the KQED DEI Council. In his spare time, he writes OIGO, a newsletter on public media and diverse audiences. Prior to KQED, Aguilar served stations as executive director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. He was also part of the founding committee of Public Media for All, an initiative aimed at organizing radio stations around actionable DEI outcomes. A Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education Fellow, Sulzberger Executive Leadership Fellow, and Public Media CEO/COO Bootcamp graduate, Aguilar has a B.A. in journalism, with minors in sociology and Women’s Studies from the University of Houston.

Ethan Toven-Lindsey

Ethan Toven-Lindsey is the VP of news for KQED. Before he came to KQED, he worked at WBUR and NPR on the midday newsmagazine Here & Now, in Boston, where he was the show’s senior managing editor. In 2009, Ethan won a Peabody Award for his work as a correspondent for Oregon Public Broadcasting, on a year-long project called Hard Times, documenting how people were responding to the financial crisis. Ethan received his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in 2000, with a major in English literature.