By Orr Hirschauge & Adi Barill,
co-founders of Alchemiq
Different eras and publication types imagined different ideal journalists. The generative AI era marks the first time that the production mode of journalism itself is shifting.
What does this mean for the profession? And while more technical, mechanical, and routine work is automated, which journalistic skills will become the most valuable?
‘Rat-like cunning’
In his 2020 book, “News and How to Use It,” Alan Rusbridger, former editor in chief of The Guardian and chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, revisits a list of qualifications published in 1969 by Sunday Times foreign correspondent Nick Tomalin.
Tomalin wrote: “The only essential qualities for real success in journalism are rat-like cunning, a plausible manner, and a little literary ability.”
Rat-like cunning, he explained, is “needed to ferret out and publish things that people don’t want to be known.”
A plausible manner is “useful for surviving… helpful with the entertaining presentation of it.”
He added several other traits he considered “helpful, but not diagnostic”:
- “Total recall.”
- “A good digestion and a steady head.”
- “Enough idealism to inspire indignant prose, but not enough to inhibit detached professionalism.”
- “A paranoid temperament.”
- “A knack with telephone, trains, and petty officials.”
- “The capacity to steal other people’s ideas and phrases is also invaluable.”
- “The strength of character to lead a disrupted life without going absolutely haywire.”
Tomalin was killed four years later by a Syrian missile in the Golan Heights.
The Dunleavy school
A very different, though not entirely unrelated, picture emerges from “Paper of Wreckage” (2024), Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo’s history of the New York Post. They cite reporter Richard Esposito’s description of the skills he learned from working with Steve Dunleavy, a relentless tabloid reporter known for his raw, high-pressure style.
“How to get a picture from a widow, or how to get a mother whose son might have killed somebody to get you into her apartment.”
“The first thing was always wear a shirt, tie, and jacket. Make people feel you’re respecting them.”
“To bring flowers to someone’s house and say ‘I’m sorry you’ve had a tragedy in your life.’”
Eric Fentman, an associate editorial page columnist and editor, adds an assessment that captures Dunleavy’s entire ethos: “His strength as a journalist was his willingness to do anything for a story. And his weakness was his willingness to do anything for a story.”
Mail Men
A third set of qualities appears in “Mail Men: The Unauthorized Story of the Daily Mail” (2017) by Adrian Addison, also cited by Rusbridger. Addison describes the attributes expected of MailOnline’s online-only journalists, typically young and early in their careers, working in a high-output newsroom driven by engagement metrics.
“Part scavenger, part subeditor and headline writer, part reporter and picture taster, part ad man,” he writes. They would also be “a wiz with Photoshop and video too,” and possess another “vital skill”: “to be able to spot a Kardashian in a crowd.”
These lists differ because the publications themselves differ: up-market and down-market, print and digital, broadsheet and tabloid. They also reflect the industry’s evolving priorities.
Yet, all of them feel modest compared to the shift created by generative AI. For the first time in roughly two centuries, the production mode of journalism is changing. AI systems can now draft, summarise, monitor, cluster, verify, and package information – tasks that once defined the craft itself, even if AI performs them imperfectly.
In comes AI
What does this mean for the profession? As more technical, mechanical, and routine work is automated, which journalistic skills will become the most valuable? What qualities does a modern journalist need in the AI era?
Speaking on the Lessons in Leadership panel at WAN-IFRAs Newsroom Summit in Copenhagen, newsroom leaders explored how journalists can thrive amid constant technological change.
While curiosity was mentioned as one of the defining traits of today’s journalists, some disagreed. Gard Steiro, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of VG (Verdens Gang), Norway, said that curiosity alone is not enough. Journalists also need knowledge, experience, and industry connections.
A key part of the discussion focused on whether journalists must already have experience with AI tools, especially since older, more experienced reporters may feel less comfortable with new technologies. How will this affect veteran journalists?
Dmitry Shishkin, Strategic Editorial Advisor at Ringier Media, Switzerland, emphasized that while skills will always evolve, aptitude, adaptability, and flexibility matter far more in the long term. Journalists must be willing to adjust to new situations rather than say, “I won’t do this because it’s not in my job description.” Flexibility,” he stressed, “is essential.”
The panel then asked, How do we evaluate whether someone is flexible enough?
Steiro explained that in Norway, VG often puts new hires through a trial period, which allows the newsroom to understand whether a candidate can adapt before being fully hired.
What humans do best
Phoebe Connelly, MSc, London School of Economics, and formerly Senior Editor for AI Strategy and Innovation at The Washington Post, added another perspective. Many journalists still search for information in the same limited set of sources – the same newspapers, and the same familiar channels. Newsrooms, she argued, must teach journalists new ways to discover information and ideas.
She added that today, journalists must understand where their audiences are and how to tailor content to both the audience and the platform, a constant and rapidly changing challenge.
In every era, journalism has reinvented its core traits. AI is pushing the industry to clarify what only humans can do: curiosity, judgment, adaptability, and creativity.
No machine can replace that.
About the authors: Orr Hirschauge & Adi Barill are co-founders of Alchemiq, an AI-powered global news agency made for journalists.