How Spain’s SPORT is exploring AI for its digital newsroom
By Joan Cañete Bayle
Director of Editorial Strategy, Prensa Ibérica
In a digital newsroom, speed can never be separated from rigour.
SPORT works every day in a news environment shaped by constant updates, the coexistence of formats, and the need to provide readers with context in increasingly short timeframes.
That pace is especially visible in a sports media outlet, where a story can evolve over several hours from a press conference, a technical decision, a preview, a live event or a subsequent analysis.
But the challenge goes beyond sport: it affects digital editorial production as a whole, where teams must organise information, adapt it to different channels, review texts, retrieve background material and maintain quality in every publication.
This is the context for MENTOR, a project developed by Ediciones Deportivas Catalanas, S.A.U., publisher of SPORT, aimed at exploring the integration of AI tools into the outlet’s digital CMS.
The initiative is focused on supporting the professional work of the newsroom.
A common challenge in digital newsrooms
Digital transformation has multiplied the demands of journalistic work.
This pressure is compounded by the emergence of general-purpose AI tools, which have opened up new possibilities for organising information, synthesising materials and streamlining support tasks.
For these capabilities to be useful in a newsroom, they need to be integrated into the editorial workflow, respect the outlet’s standards and operate under clear parameters for quality, security and professional supervision.
MENTOR responds to that need from within SPORT’s own working environment.
The project is aimed at studying how certain AI capabilities can be incorporated into the digital CMS to support specific tasks in the editorial process.
Assistance integrated into daily work
MENTOR is conceived as a support tool for journalists. Its value lies in facilitating operations that form part of content production and that, when properly assisted, can help teams work with greater agility, more context and stronger editorial consistency.
Its lines of work include functions related to content creation and review, headline suggestions, language and style correction, summary generation, transcription of audio-visual materials, translation between languages and the retrieval of context from the editorial archive.
These capabilities are especially relevant in an environment such as SPORT, where the immediacy of current events, the need for precision, the production of service content and the development of more in-depth pieces all coexist.
Having tools that help locate background material, organise resources or prepare working versions allows professionals to spend more time on the decisions that require their expertise: selecting, verifying, interpreting, prioritising and telling the story better.
Editorial judgement as the guiding principle
The usefulness of AI in a newsroom depends on how it is incorporated into the real work of teams.
In MENTOR, technology is presented as a layer of assistance within the editorial workflow: it proposes, organises, synthesises or facilitates tasks, while professional judgement guides the use of each result.
Journalists are the ones who assess whether a suggestion is appropriate, adjust the angle of a piece, verify information, apply the outlet’s tone and decide what content is ready for publication.
AI provides operational support; editorial decisions remain the responsibility of professionals.
That balance is especially important for media outlets that work with high volumes of information and demanding update cycles.
Integrating AI tools into the digital CMS brings them closer to the place where journalistic production happens, without changing the essential habits of review, editing and editorial responsibility.
A project supported by public grants
MENTOR forms part of the initiatives promoted under the grants for integrating AI into the value chains of media companies.
This line of public support is aimed at experimental development projects that use AI to improve processes, strengthen competitiveness and support the sector’s technological transformation.
In SPORT’s case, the project makes it possible to analyse support tools integrated into its own digital editorial environment. The grant supports an initiative that requires technical resources, internal coordination, testing and validation.
Innovation applied to the editorial process
MENTOR responds to a specific need: to organise the incorporation of AI into SPORT’s editorial work so that it brings value to the journalistic process.
Its interest lies not in the technology itself, but in its ability to support tasks that currently consume time and allow professionals to devote more effort to the work that defines journalism.
In a newsroom used to working with intense rhythms, multiple formats and a constant relationship with current events, improvements in the organisation of the editorial workflow can have an impact. But that impact depends on tools adapted to the outlet’s context and professional supervision.
With MENTOR, SPORT is exploring how AI can be integrated into journalistic work while keeping editorial judgement at the centre of news production.
This initiative is developed by Ediciones Deportivas Catalanas, S.A.U., publisher of SPORT, and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, with the support of Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service.
