Looking back at 2025 at Geneea, we made a decision: no boring brag sheet this year. (We’ll brag a little, we’re only human 😉, but that’s not the point.)
The real story of our year is something we kept hearing, seeing, and feeling everywhere across the news media world – from conversations with journalists to conference panels to hallway chats over coffee:
The industry is rediscovering the power of the personal.
Humans at the Centre – Again
We’ve always believed that publishers, editors, and journalists are irreplaceable in the news-making process. Our tools were built to support them, not replace them – especially at a time when media organizations were navigating digital transitions, production scaling, shifting audience behavior, and the occasional existential crisis.
But this year brought something new. Not only are journalists being recognized for the unique human value and perspective they bring to reporting – audiences are beginning to be seen that way, too. Readers, viewers, and listeners are gradually moving beyond being treated as “segments,” “buckets,” or “traffic sources.”
They’re people.
Building a real relationship with the audience starts with respecting how they actually want to consume the news. Some readers want a deep dive with every detail; others just want a quick summary to get up to speed. Then there are the newcomers, those who need the background and “why it matters” that an expert might take for granted. It’s the same story, but told in a way that respects their time and their preferences.
Providing this kind of personalized content is still a new frontier, but it’s the best way to move away from a generic broadcast model and toward a one-to-one connection. At the end of the day, these direct bonds are what restore trust. When people feel a sense of belonging, they stop being casual visitors and become loyal members. That’s how we move away from a reliance on unpredictable platforms and toward a more sustainable future for news through memberships and subscriptions.
Ironically, it’s AI that’s helping make this shift possible. Where it was once seen as a threat to journalism, AI is now becoming a practical tool that supports human work – freeing journalists to focus on storytelling, nuance, and trust.
Publishers are realizing that anonymous scaling isn’t a sustainable strategy. Building direct relationships with audiences is. And personalization, thoughtful, editorially grounded personalization, is one of the most effective ways to do it.
Where It All Comes Together: Talking to People
The most obvious place where the personal side of our work shines? Conferences. Lots of them. In 2025, we attended, sponsored, moderated roundtable discussions, or presented at:
- WAN-IFRA in Frankfurt, Krakow, Paris, Munich, and Copenhagen
- INMA in New York and Dublin
- CUE Days in Copenhagen
- … and several other gatherings filled with smart people, big ideas, and the occasional surprising metaphor about the future of news.
These events are incredible sources of insight: what keeps newsrooms up at night, what excites them, what audiences expect, how workflows are evolving, and where AI can genuinely help.
We learn, we share, we debate, we laugh – and we return home with an even clearer vision of what to build next.
But the most valuable conversations didn’t just happen on stage or over conference coffee. They happened with our customers. Every discussion — whether it’s a deep-dive roadmap session, a quick feedback call, or a spontaneous “What if we…?” moment — helps us understand real newsroom needs more clearly. Their challenges, experiments, and successes shape our priorities far more than any trend report ever could.
What We Built
Here are some of the new products, upgrades, and experiments born directly from these personal conversations:
- Fact Finder – a brand-new version of our RAG-based system for researching and summarizing news archives. A new demo is coming soon!
- A tool for writing articles from interviews (with Atex) – produces articles from recorded interviews and conversations that reach “near-publishable” quality with minimal oversight: structured, coherent, and genuinely useful for newsroom workflows.
- AI-based enrichment of the WAN-IFRA Knowledge Hub
- Related Articles – a completely reworked version of our read-also recommendation system
- Improved IPTC Media Topics, entity quality, and Geneea Knowledge Base, now comprehensively covering additional countries including India – strengthening our position as one of the leading metadata extraction providers globally
- Projects MCP and AI Agents (with Keboola) – development of an MCP server and custom AI agents enabling efficient AI access to the Keboola platform and deeper UI integration
- Thanks to Restabot, choosing a place for lunch is now easier. Our colleague Rado Klíč built this fun side project to scrape restaurant menus and post a nice overview into Slack – no more messy PDFs or websites.
Now for the Bragging 🎉
We are officially the first technology partner of Stibo DX, marking a big step forward in our collaboration and opening the door to deeper product and business integration.
More here: Geneea and Stibo DX announce partnership to accelerate AI innovation for newsrooms
A Few Great Partnerships That Made Our Year
We didn’t add dozens of new clients this year — we added the right ones. One of the world’s largest publishers, The Hindu, chose Geneea to help power their newsroom with automated semantic tagging, and Centre France joined us as well with a clear vision for innovation.
We also began delivering data for new projects and newsrooms across Mediahuis, supporting several additional countries within their network. And there are two more significant collaborations in the final stages – stay tuned; we can’t wait to share them when the ink dries.
And Our Grateful Thanks to Our Long-Term Partners
The Atlantic, Mediahuis, RTS, the Czech News Agency, Newton Media, Mafra, VLM, Keboola, Economia, FTV Prima, CNC … We appreciate every conversation, every challenge, and every opportunity to help you make your newsrooms more efficient – and your work more impactful.
What’s Next?
We’ll keep doing what drives us: building practical, reliable AI tools that streamline newsroom workflows so journalists can focus on what truly matters – storytelling, service, and building real relationships with their audiences.
Because the future of news is personal. And honestly? We love it that way.
