In today’s media environment, small towns like New Glarus face a challenge. Local newspapers, once the bedrock of community reporting, are shrinking, closing, or shifting away from the kind of journalism they once offered. At New Glarus 360, our mission is to make sure our community has a reliable, consistent, and unbiased source of local news. To do that in this economic climate, we’ve found it both helpful—and necessary—to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) as part of our reporting process.

AI allows us to be more efficient with our work. Rather than spending time on repetitive tasks, we can focus on what matters most: asking good questions, understanding our community, and delivering stories that are accurate, timely, and relevant to New Glarus. Using AI helps us uphold our central promise—reporting the news without bias or agenda.

We’re not alone in this approach. Across the country and the world, news organizations large and small are using AI tools to help with research, drafting, and even fact-checking. What sets New Glarus 360 apart is how we use these tools with care, and always with transparency. The stories we publish are never “just AI.” Every question we ask still comes from us, and every article is reviewed, edited, and finalized by our team to ensure it reflects the unique voice and spirit of New Glarus.