Keystone-SDA receives award for text robot project
This year's EANA Award for Excellence in News Agency Quality goes to the news agency Keystone-SDA. The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) honors Keystone-SDA journalist Stefan Trachsel, who was responsible for the Lena automation project.
Lena created for federal votes automates thousands of results reports at municipal level, which customers can use as raw material for their own applications or for research. The multimedia news agency used the writing robot for the first time for the referendum on November 29, 2018.
Lena has now created over 9000 texts in German and French. Stefan Trachsel led the small team that programmed and operated Lena. Keystone SDA journalist Yoan Veya was responsible for the French version of Lena.
The award goes to projects that solve an important problem in an innovative way, are adaptable for other news agencies, take into account revenue-cost considerations and expand coverage, said Peter Kropsch, EANA President and CEO of Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA, at the award announcement.
"We are delighted that Stefan Trachsel has received this award. The Lena project demonstrates the innovation potential of the news agency, which we are determined to exploit for our customers," says Keystone SDA CEO Markus Schwab.
Keystone-SDA will use Lena again for the federal elections in the fall. Once again, texts will be produced that describe the election results of all municipalities and highlight and categorize anomalies. (SDA)
Stefan Trachsel received the prize.
