AI Innovator Collaborative – September 2026: An AI-Powered Trends System That Finds Stories Before the Audience Does
- Date
- Time
- 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (EDT)EDT
- Location
- Virtual
- Hosts & partners
- Online News Association
- Source
- Online News Association
Sep 8 · Tuesday · 2026
About this event
Back to Events AI Innovator Collaborative AI Innovator Collaborative – September 2026: An AI-Powered Trends System That Finds Stories Before the Audience Does Tuesday, September 8, 2026 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (EDT) Zoom Event Details Join us for the September edition of the AI Innovator Collaborative, a monthly gathering for ONA members experimenting with AI! This month, Zack Zerndt , who as Search Product Director leads search and SEO strategy for USA TODAY Co., will share how his team built an automated Google trends alert system to deliver search-driven story opportunities directly to editors inside Microsoft Teams. Unlike most post-publication SEO tools, this changed how editors approached story selection, shifting from reactive optimization to proactive audience-alignment and resulting in meaningful traffic increases. Zack will walk through how they built their system, balancing automation with editorial judgment, and share insights on implementing similar low-cost, low-barrier approaches in newsrooms of any size. How to register: This event is open to members of the AI Innovator Collaborative, which is free for ONA members to join. See the steps here to join the Collaborative. Once you join, refresh this page and you'll see the Register Now button appear above, under the date and time for this session. You can also see and sign up for upcoming meetings on the event page for each monthly meeting of the Collaborative.
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