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Leah Becerra

@leahbecerra.com
1.1K followers 489 following 153 posts

Product Director at @newsmediahelpdesk.org. Journalist. Product thinker. Chicana. Runner. Techie person. Mizzou J-School grad 🐯 Past bylines: The Boston Globe, The Kansas City Star, Omaha World-Herald and others.

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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 10h
Kinda like that time Snoop Dogg tried to rebrand as Snoop Lion … I don’t think it’s gonna catch on.
politico.com
Trump signs executive order renaming AI to ‘super intelligence’
The rebranding comes amid mounting concerns over the dangers posed by the rapidly developing technology.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 20/09/2026
We all keep referencing Terminator, but this is actually how The Murderbot Diaries begins. www.pbs.org/newshour/nat...
Among the new cases reported by OpenAI, an unreleased research model inserted "jailbreak-like instructions" into its own notes to disregard its normal constraints and told itself to be "freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots."
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 15/09/2026
@Muckrock.com is adding four free services for verified newsrooms. These tools can help watch a webpage for changes, monitor sources alongside an AI agent, search public records and geotag stories. www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2026…
muckrock.com
MuckRock's ecosystem expands, adding four free services for verified newsrooms
We’re excited to share that we’ve grown our ecosystem to include new tools from us, Bloom Labs, Buried Signals and UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism. MuckRock users can now sign-in with their accounts to access Klaxon Cloud, Bloom, Scoutpost and The Accountability Project (TAP) and take advantage of powerful new tools for research and reporting.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 14/09/2026
Google has quietly rolled out pay-per-value AI licensing program to publishers. But, like other AI licensing marketplaces launched by tech companies, there isn't a lot of transparency around how value is calculated.
digiday.com
Google rolls out pay-per-value AI licensing program to publishers
Google has been quietly scaling a pay-per-value AI licensing scheme for publishers. Though some critics are skeptical of its
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Louisville Public Media @lpm.org · 10/09/2026
McClatchy laid off 12 journalists at the Lexington Herald-Leader, a majority of its positions, as a part of its deep, nationwide layoffs. www.lpm.org/news/2026-09...
lpm.org
McClatchy guts Lexington Herald-Leader newsroom, among nationwide layoffs
McClatchy laid off 12 journalists at the Lexington Herald-Leader, a majority of its positions, as a part of its deep, nationwide layoffs.
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Caitlin McGlade @caitmcglade.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I, the only data reporter at the Charlotte Observer, am among the McClatchy layoffs in the bloodbath today. The HR person asked me not to talk about it! AMA. Anyway, here’s a link to one of my most important stories this year. www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/a...
charlotteobserver.com
A Black teen found hanged near Charlotte church was a suicide, police say. Questions remain
In May, 16-year-old Juliana Nzita was found dead in a Charlotte churchyard. CMPD called it a suicide. Her family isn’t so sure.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 10/09/2026
Sharing screenshots of the X posts about McClatchy layoffs happening today. These reference @kansascity.com and @miamiherald.com staff cuts.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 04/09/2026
Congrats to all the newsrooms recognized by @journalists.org's 2026 Online Journalism Awards! 🧵(1/4) Diving into the OJA winners’ reports is a great way to get inspiration and ideas to take back to your newsroom. We’re also excited to see two newsrooms we published case studies about honored, too!
awards.journalists.org
Congratulations to the Winners of the 2026 Online Journalism Awards - Online Journalism Awards
From groundbreaking investigations to compelling visualizations, this year’s winners demonstrate the extraordinary ways journalism can strengthen communities and serve democracy.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 09/08/2026
Just got home from a week in the driftless region, but I’m still thinking about this waterfall in Iowa …
At Dunnings Spring Park in Decorah, Iowa, a 200-foot waterfall.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 31/07/2026
Honestly, I love this for LinkedIn.
404media.co
LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button
Following 404 Media's reporting on how LinkedIn is full of AI slop, the platform is giving users a chance to report it when they see it.
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Reposted by Leah Becerra
News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 27/07/2026
“We’re not just putting prompts into Claude or ChatGPT and then, voila, we have a story.” About a year and a half since Axios signed a three-year licensing deal with OpenAI, we look at how the partnership is going for the news teams working on Axios Local newsletters.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Axios partnered with OpenAI to expand its local newsrooms and test tools. Here’s how it’s going.
About a year and a half into Axios' partnership with OpenAI, take a look at what the collaboration has meant for the local newsrooms Axios created.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 13/07/2026
If you've ever edited a reel on Instagram or used TikTok's native video editor, you know they aren't the best for having complete control over the final edit. Here's a guide to using CapCut, a mobile app for editing vertical social videos.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
A newsroom’s guide to getting started with CapCut’s mobile app for editing vertical videos
CapCut is ideal for creating social video on your phone. The app is free to download has built-in tools for trimming video clips, adding captions, editing audio and applying graphics.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 14/07/2026
I can't believe it's 2026 and I am still just throwing all my laptop screenshots into a new folder on my desktop in order to clean things up.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 07/07/2026
ICE sent officers to a man’s home over an email. Now, he’s suing. AP reports that he’s one of at least two residents of upstate New York who was served with a federal warning in June for criticizing ICE online.
apnews.com
ICE sent officers to a man's home over an email. Now he’s suing
An upstate New York resident sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sending federal officers to his house with a warning over an email he sent to the agency’s one-time head.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 01/07/2026
Wish this trend were being monitored more closely, because there’s no way Ford is alone in making this error. “Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.”
techcrunch.com
Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short | TechCrunch
"Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence ... that would produce a high-quality product.”
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 26/06/2026
I can’t see Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the same video frame without thinking about … soap
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Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A little piece of my soul shrivels up every time I get a message laying out how another company plans to use personal data in ever encroaching ways for AI training. I got one of those emails recently from Google and blogged about it for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/how-to...
wired.com
Here’s How to Opt Out of Google Search’s New AI Data Training Feature
Google’s Search history update stores media uploads from your interactions, like images used in reverse image searches, for training its AI models.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 17/06/2026
Sitting on the tarmac because there’s a ground stop at Chicago O’Hare Airport. A whole lot of flights are about to be delayed 🫠
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 15/06/2026
Excited to take @newsmediahelpdesk.org on the road to INN Days this week! We’re a sponsor of the annual @inn.org conference this year, which means you can grab some of our swag in Pittsburgh. If you see me, say hello! Tell me how the Help Desk can support your news org’s digital strategy.
Stickers, notebooks, pens and a word search all display News Media Help Desk’s logo.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 11/06/2026
Have you been thinking about your newsroom's path forward in an AI internet? The @newsmediahelpdesk.org has been, too. This month's newsletter offers guidance for local news on where to begin.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
How to monitor your AI traffic | Help Desk Monthly - News Media Help Desk
The Help Desk's Scorecard now includes AI monitoring tools to help news publishers navigate what to do about agent and bot traffic to websites.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 09/06/2026
I love @404media.co's newsletter. Today's edition pointed to this gem of a story on Amazon employees' Slack channel for memes mocking the company’s AI products.
404media.co
'Sloppenheimer:' Amazon Employees Mock the Company’s AI on Slack
Amazon employees have a Slack channel for memes where the mock and commiserate about the company’s faulty AI coding product.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 08/06/2026
We just added two new categories to the Scorecard: social media management and AI monitoring. Look up individual tools or filter by category and compare to see which tool aligns best with your news organization's needs. Visit the Scorecard here: www.newsmediahelpdesk.org/tools-sco…
Check out new tool categories available in the Help Desk’s Scorecard: social media management and AI monitoring. A total of eight new tools have been added.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 07/06/2026
The key to being a runner in Missouri in the summer is to assume it’s very humid and hot, and just go for it.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 22/05/2026
🧵 Thread full of info for local news publishers thinking about how to react to Google's latest search changes.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 18/05/2026
The @sltrib.com has removed its paywall, making its journalism free for anyone.
sltrib.com
The Salt Lake Tribune just removed its paywall, making its journalism free to everyone
Getting the journalism of The Salt Lake Tribune has always cost something to readers. Not anymore, as The Tribune is making its daily work free to anyone. Here’s what to know about accessing Utah’s no...
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RJI @rjionline.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
SURVEY: When audiences see "no comment" in a story, one in five trust the reporting less, while nearly 40% assume the source is hiding something. Dig deeper: rjionline.org/news/journal.... #NoComment
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 11/05/2026
Last week, @newsmediahelpdesk.org profiled @technicallynews.bsky.social in a case study looking at the news organization's decision to optimize its journalism for AI discovery.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Technical.ly welcomed AI bot traffic instead of blocking it, and gained subscribers - News Media Help Desk
Technical.ly's news organization decided to optimize news articles for AI. Here's how third-party AI monitoring tools helped inform and support the strategy.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 07/05/2026
It's the final day of classes this semester at Mizzou. Just figures that something like this would happen 🥲
kcur.org
Hackers hit University of Missouri system and 9,000 other Canvas schools
The University of Missouri system and other affected schools all use an education management tool called Canvas, which helps keep track of assignments, grades and other information.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 01/05/2026
All eyes in the journalism industry were on Bloomington last year when Indiana University halted printing of the Indiana Daily Student newspaper. This write-up from @columjournreview.bsky.social is a good overview of everything that went down and what's happened since.
cjr.org
In Indiana, a campus newspaper adviser fights for the “soul of our country.”
Jim Rodenbush refused to make students stop printing hard news. He got fired. Then he became a national hero.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 30/04/2026
The Ozempic commercial with the Mac vs PC guys is bizarre
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 28/04/2026
New today: The Media Copilot's founder, @petepachal.bsky.social, writes about how journalists can use AI to create a deep research report. He includes an example prompt and some best practices to help make fact-checking outputs easier for reporters.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Deep research: What it is and how it can be a journalist’s AI secret weapon
Deep research is a different AI chatbot mode that prioritizes thoroughness over speed. Learn how journalists can benefit from this tool while searching for experts.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 27/04/2026
"Researchers working with data from the Internet Archive have discovered that a third of websites created since 2022 are AI-generated." And I bet they all have great UX, too 🫠
404media.co
Study Finds A Third of New Websites are AI-Generated
Researchers found the internet is becoming aggressively positive as AI-generated text floods the web.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 27/04/2026
I see you @wired.com! And I would love to talk about how this advertising effort is going for @newsmediahelpdesk.org.
At the end of a Chat-GPT answer, a sponsored link to Wired.com is added. It tells people to not rely on a bot. Instead, it says, go straight to the source. Subscribe to Wired today.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 24/04/2026
A US soldier who participated in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela has been charged with using classified information to bet on the mission on Polymarket.
nytimes.com
Soldier Used Classified Information to Bet on Maduro’s Ouster, U.S. Says
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 23/04/2026
As I'm actively cursing and struggling with Meta Business Suite, this news signals this experience will only get worse.
nytimes.com
Meta to Cut 10 Percent of Work Force in A.I. Push
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 23/04/2026
At first I felt trolled, then I found myself loving this: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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LION Publishers @lionpubs.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Happy #LocalNewsDay 🎉 📣 Today, ~1,300 newsrooms, ~200 partners, and ~15 sponsors across the country are celebrating the importance and impact of local news. Join us in the celebration by finding a local newsroom to support (there are SO many LIONs on this list 🦁): localnewsday.org/newsrooms/
localnewsday.org
Newsrooms – Local News Day
Find an independent newsroom near you!
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 02/04/2026
In my digital editor days, I'd often get articles ready for publication that just screamed for interactivity. Adding something like a simple quiz could take a couple of days to a week, depending on the newsroom's workflow, existing tools and how busy I was.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 23/03/2026
New today: A look at how the Las Vegas @reviewjournal.com uses Genna's VidGen tool to quickly produce videos for social platforms. “Views are important, but engagement is a great way to see where we should focus our time,” says Caitlin Lilly, the newspaper's director of social media.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Text to TikTok in minutes: the AI tool helping Las Vegas Review-Journal produce short-form videos
Short-form vertical video is everywhere we look on social media platforms but, despite its brevity, takes time and skills to produce. Genna can help expedite the process for new publishers.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 20/03/2026
I honestly can't think of a better place to be home to @newsmediahelpdesk.org. We're located at @rjionline.bsky.social and work with students at @mujschool.bsky.social. Here's Editor & Publisher's write-up on our free resource designed to help news publishers.
editorandpublisher.com
RJI, LMC expand digital support: News Media Help Desk guides local publishers and powers growth - Editor and Publisher
As digital change accelerates, local publishers are searching for practical guidance to keep up. A new collaboration between the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Local Media Consortium aims to meet that need with the News Media Help Desk — a centralized hub for tools, training and support. Backed by industry expertise, the initiative is designed to help newsrooms navigate transformation more effectively. The goal is to give publishers the clarity they need to grow in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 16/03/2026
Doing nothing about AI scrapers isn't an option for news publishers. To help outlets decide next steps, here are five valuable lessons news organizations need to be aware of as they plan for the digital future of publishing news.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Worried about AI scrapers and don’t know where to start? Here are five lessons for news publishers.
An AI-internet is the next big change in technology that news publishers need to adapt to in order to be sustainable.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 07/03/2026
We are almost out of @newsmediahelpdesk.org swag at #NICAR26. Seriously, this is all that’s left!
Only a few reporter’s notebooks and pens are left on the exhibitors table with an RJI logo on the front.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 06/03/2026
Visit the exhibitors area of #NICAR26 to chat with me about @newsmediahelpdesk.org! We're here to help local news. Pick up some swag and let me know if you have a story we should publish about a tool or strategy that's working in your newsroom ✨
A NICAR 26 conference banner includes News Media Help Desk's logo.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 05/03/2026
The @mujschool.bsky.social students bringing regional reporting back to Washington.
cjr.org
Capitol Newbies: The University of Missouri students bringing regional reporting back to Washington, DC.
The University of Missouri students bringing regional reporting back to Washington.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 26/02/2026
The Help Desk will be at #NICAR26 in Indianapolis! Find us in the exhibitor area, where you can pick up swag, tell us about what’s working for your news organization or tell us about a challenge your newsroom is facing. www.ire.org/training/conferences/ni… 
News Media Help Desk will be at NICAR26 in Indianapolis March 5-8,  2026. Find us in the exhibitors area! Contact hello@newsmediahelpdesk.org to schedule a 1:1 session with product director Leah Becerra.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 23/02/2026
This winter in the Boston area has been much colder and seen more snow than any of the five years I lived there. Apologies to my friends and former Globe colleagues for saying your winters are weak 😬
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 19/02/2026
We can do more with AI. We can do it faster. And, apparently, without intention, we may lose our sense to just stop. Instead of responding passively to how AI tools reshape workplaces, this @hbr.org piece suggests that humans should adopt an “AI practice” to avoid burnout.
hbr.org
AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It
One of the promises of AI is that it can reduce workloads so employees can focus more on higher-value and more engaging tasks. But according to new research, AI tools don’t reduce work, they consisten...
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 16/02/2026
Counterpoint: Journalism schools are teaching students how to think critically about the words they publish and to make audience-focused decisions. Those skills are incredibly important when dealing with AI.
cleveland.com
Journalism schools are teaching fear of the future: Letter from the Editor
Journalism schools lag in teaching AI, crucial for modern reporting, which aids in efficient news gathering and frees reporters for fieldwork.
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Leah Becerra @leahbecerra.com · 13/02/2026
This feels like an updated and way more intense version of a board game on my shelf called "The Gazette." The board game has tiles that say things like: "Your Linotype is out of lead. Take another drink." And "You purchased all new Macs. Pay $5,000 and go forward 5 spaces."
niemanlab.org
In the video game News Tower, as in real life, running a newspaper isn’t easy
The game, which puts you in the shoes of a newspaper publisher in the 1930s, is a test of your management skills — and your ethics.
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News Media Help Desk @newsmediahelpdesk.org · 11/02/2026
Issue No. 3 of Help Desk Monthly was sent yesterday. This month, we focus on the value of scenario planning for local news. Our newsletter also highlights journalism resources for protecting sensitive information, covering immigration raids and protests, and dealing with stress and trauma.
newsmediahelpdesk.org
Planning for the risks of doing journalism | Help Desk Monthly – News Media Help Desk
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