Portland Press Herald building chatbots that help readers choose a restaurant

Katherine Lee understands the power of harnessing new technologies to drive journalistic impact. Earlier in her career, her team’s timely adoption of social media at the Tuscaloosa News earned them a Pulitzer Prize. Now, she carries that embrace of fresh innovations to her work leading features coverage as the news and culture editor at the Portland Press Herald.

“We have to get outside our comfort zone and figure out how to use it,” Lee said of new technology.

When Lee was city editor for the Tuscaloosa News in 2011, newsroom training on social media took place before a number of skeptical reporters. A month later, a tornado struck the city, killing more than 60 people.

Lee directed the coverage of journalists out on the street, capitalizing on that training. The team used social media and traditional reporting to provide real-time updates on missing people, rescue missions and damages. Their efforts resulted in winning the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2012. 

She joined the Portland Press Herald as city editor in 2013, then served as web editor for seven years before becoming the news and culture editor about a year ago. 

“It’s really a charming city,” she said. “I love food, I love movies and books, and now I get to talk about that all day. It’s great."

Lee’s work in Tuscaloosa and varied roles in Maine inspired her embrace of emerging technology across all beats – from breaking news to arts, culture and dining.

She started learning about artificial intelligence when her husband was taking a data analysis class. He told her she did not have to know how to code a new program, that AI could do that.

“That kind of got me thinking,” Lee said. “This seems like something dangerous for journalism, but maybe there's a way to use it.”

Portland is known for its food scene, and the paper has published hundreds of stories about restaurants and chefs over the decades. She thought there might be a way to reuse that history and present it in a fresh way to readers.

The idea started taking shape after the National Trust for Local News last year announced its News Innovation Sprint, sponsored by the Google News Initiative. Twelve journalists from the state trusts in Colorado, Georgia and Maine pitched ideas in a live virtual competition.

Lee pitched a “Restaurant Chatbot” idea and won $10,000 to operationalize her concept and create an AI-powered tool that learns cuisine preferences, location, dietary needs, and occasions to deliver personalized restaurant recommendations in a fun, game-like experience. As part of her research, she looked at several similar programs at news outlets in Minnesota and California.

The feature can resurface evergreen food content and create subscriber conversion opportunities, more than a simple internet search can do. She envisions locals and tourists being able to input what they are looking for, such as a child-friendly restaurant with good cocktails, within 20 miles of Portland with outdoor seating. The chatbot would recommend several locations and provide previous stories written about the restaurants.

Lee and her two food writers, who have the background on things like which restaurants have a new chef or have closed, will check the data before the program goes live. She explained the vetting process is important to maintain public trust. While content will be organized and surfaced using AI, the data comes from the work of the journalists at the Portland Press Herald. 

Lee strongly believes there are ways to incorporate AI into journalism to make reporting better and engage with readers. The restaurant chatbot will serve as a helpful experiment in this space at a time when innovation in local news is paramount. She’s on track to launch the product this spring.

“There are lots of reasons to be wary of this technology,” she said. “But this new feature seems like a way we can actually kind of harness tech and make it work for us.”