A new community newsletter shares current events in Wichita via email -- and it’s generated by an out-of-towner using artificial intelligence, according to reporting by the Nieman Lab.
Daily Wichita markets itself as a community newsletter aiming to “make local news more accessible, highlight extraordinary people in our community, and support local organizations.”
Emails from the newsletter share summarized local news articles about issues like crime, sports and government. The newsletter typically cites its source and links to the original article.
The Daily Wichita’s founder and editor is Matthew Henderson. Social media profiles show he’s based in New York City and Philadelphia.
In January, Henderson confirmed to the Nieman Lab — a national publication covering media trends — that his business Good Daily produces 355 local newsletters in cities around the U.S. He uses artificial intelligence — specifically, large language models — to review local news articles, summarize them and create the newsletter. He runs the operation by himself, he told the Nieman Lab.
Henderson’s model came as a surprise to Landon Huslig, the founder and editor of Wichita Life update, a locally produced email newsletter. A friend forwarded him the Daily Wichita starting in December.
“I thought it was local,” Huslig said. “... I've seen other newsletters like this, but there's, like, no name attached. … But this one says Matthew Henderson.”
Henderson signed several Daily Wichita emails from December with his name. In one, he wrote: “We‘re a small team, and our company is independently owned and operated. We’re supported by our readers, advertisers, and a small but mighty crew of local community organizers, volunteers, and other local publishers.”
He added: “If our mission resonates, and you’d like to help out or join the team in Wichita, please reach out!”
Huslig said he reached out a couple of times to Henderson but never heard back.
KMUW contacted Henderson for comment but did not receive a response.
Ian Tennant is a professor at Wichita State University who studies news media business models. He says an upside of the Daily Wichita newsletter is it might send community members to local news sites if they click a link. But there’s also a downside.
“It's just scraping work that other people are doing … I don't like that aspect of it,” Tennant said.
“You're basically, you know, taking other people's work and trying to make a buck off of it.”
Daily Wichita sells advertising space in its newsletters for $99 a month.
Local news outlets whose work is often summarized and cited in the Daily Wichita have mixed feelings about the newsletter. Michael Schwanke, anchor and assistant news director at KWCH, said he isn’t concerned because the original news articles are typically cited and linked in Daily Wichita.
“When it becomes a big problem is when AI uses those articles and generates its own content for a site like this,” Schwanke said. “And readers or viewers at a certain point wouldn't be aware if they're actually watching locally produced content or if they're watching AI-produced content.”
Allison Campbell is the editor-in-chief at Wichita State University’s student-run newspaper The Sunflower, which has seen at least two of its pieces summarized and shared in the newsletter. The Sunflower sells its own newsletter ads, and Campbell said it’s frustrating to compete for advertising dollars with an out-of-state AI-company that’s using student work to create its newsletter.
“I feel really strongly for my staffers who are freshmen, but also the ones who are seniors and are going to graduate,” Campbell said. “Because it's intimidating to enter the industry and see, ‘OK, I'm up against an AI model, you know, that's going to pluck and pull my work and summarize it in one to two sentences.’”
The Daily Wichita has 2,000 subscribers in Wichita and 8,500 in all of Kansas, it says.
Olathe, Overland Park, Topeka and Lawrence also all have daily newsletters run by Henderson.
The newsletter also asks readers to share job postings and community events – features Huslig shares through Wichita Life, as well. But Huslig said he doesn’t expect Daily Wichita to grow into a substantial competitor.
“I think the reader can kind of sniff out, like, ‘OK, this isn't super authentic to Wichita’ – or at least I hope so,” Huslig said. “And so it's like, I don't see anybody actually sponsoring this newsletter at this level. … I don't think an actual Wichita business is going to get much out of this.”
Huslig said he thinks AI can be used to make some processes more efficient and is inevitable in many areas. But he says consumers will continue to prefer his product for its humanity.
“The reason people read the Wichita Life update isn't because I'm breaking news,” he said. “They read it because of my voice, like my sarcasm -- bad jokes that I include, or dad jokes”
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