As journalists and editors we can get stuck trying to find the right way to angle or pitch a story, the best way to organize research and ideas, or just get trapped in a bottleneck of competing deadlines and demands on your attention. In this practical session, tech journalist and Wall Street Journal contributor Alexandra Samuel will show you a range of strategies and tools for getting unstuck at all stages of the story development process, so that you can file faster—without burning out in the process.
Whether you work in print, broadcast or digital, you will get hands-on experience using AI to accelerate your work at each stage in the story development process. In this session, you will learn how to create:
A story tracker to organize story ideas and assignments, so you’re always ready to pitch or pivot
A research assistant to synthesize background materials and transcripts, so you can get underway on stories more efficiently and sustain your momentum
Your own editorial or reader feedback panel to advise you on developing or revising stories, so you get unblocked while writing or editing
What to bring:
A laptop that is logged into a paid version of ChatGPT or Claude (so you can create your own custom GPT or Claude project)
A digital folder with sample material you can work from: some story ideas, a recent story (or story in progress) and some background materials (articles, notes, transcripts)
Platforms and tools we’ll cover: (You don’t need to use all of these)
