Part of our Operations agents
AI agents for operations teams in media and publishing
Actionist is an AI automation tool whose agents operate the apps your newsroom operations team already uses, from re-slotting the calendar by hand to an agent flagging the gap before the deadline passes.
Editorial ops teams get back the hours lost to calendar upkeep, pre-publish checks, and proof chasing.
AI Employees for Media & Publishing Operations in 4 simple steps
Manual Time
We'll go over where you currently waste your time doing manual tasks.
Actionist Automations
We'll show you exactly how Actionist can automate these manual tasks.
Your Benefits
How much time and money you'll save by onboarding AI agents.
Easy to use
We'll show you how easy it is to enable AI across your business.
Where you spend your time
We know how your week actually goes
- The calendar reflects what will runA slipped story is flagged with a proposed re-slot, so the plan on the board matches the plan in the CMS.
- Drafts move through every edit stageEach filed draft is checked against its brief and handed on, so none waits unseen in a shared folder.
- Nothing publishes with missing metadataBylines, tags, alt text, and canonicals are checked before the slot, not found by a reader afterwards.
- Issue close runs to a checklistProof rounds and printer file deadlines are tracked page by page, so the last day is not a scramble.
- Credits and licences stay on recordAgency image credits and licence end dates are logged, so a lapsed licence is caught while the image is live.
- Built around your newsroomThese are examples of what a media operations agent can do. Build a custom agent for whatever your desk repeats.
And hundreds of other tasks you do manually..
An agent can take a lot off your team's plate. Take a look below to see the time and cost you could save by adding AI agents to your Media & Publishing Operations team's day.
Where the hours go
The editorial calendar lives in one editor's head and a half-updated board, so when a story slips nobody re-slots it until the morning it was due to run and a gap appears on the homepage.
An agent checks the board against the CMS each morning, flags the slot at risk with a proposed re-slot, and posts it to the desk channel, so the plan is agreed before the day starts.
Every story that publishes is scanned by hand for a missing byline, thin alt text, a wrong tag, or a duplicated slug, and the check happens in the last ten minutes before the slot or not at all.
An agent checks each ready piece for the fields the CMS needs, lists the gaps beside the story, and leaves the managing editor to decide what holds, so errors are fixed before readers find them.
Issue close is a day of chasing proofs from three readers, a lawyer, and a designer, tracked on a sheet that is stale by lunchtime, with the printer file deadline getting closer by the hour.
An agent keeps the closing checklist current page by page, reminds each proof holder before their cutoff, and tells the production editor which pages are still open, so closing day runs to a plan.
Reader corrections arrive in three inboxes and a form, picture credits are checked from memory, and agency image licences lapse unnoticed until a rights holder writes asking why a picture is still online.
An agent logs each correction and routes it to the owning editor, matches credits to captions, and flags licence end dates ahead of time, leaving every decision to a person.
Actionist Will Automate
What one automation looks like
A week with your Media & Publishing Operations agents
Some of the apps for your Media & Publishing Operations team
Some of the operations apps your agent operates for you. Hundreds more are in the Actionist App Store.
Your Agent wakes up Automatically whenever something happens
Your agents watch the apps you already use and act the moment something happens, usually within about a minute, handle it based on your instructions, 24/7.
Your benefits
Where the time goes back
What you do manually today
What your agent runs for you
- Calendar140 min / weekRe-slotting the board when a story slips
A slipped story is found when the slot comes round, the board is updated by whoever notices, and the desk is told in a hurry, so the homepage gap is plugged by a rewrite no one planned.
Calendar Agent0 minAgent flags the slot and proposes the moveAn agent compares the calendar with the CMS each morning and drafts a re-slot note for the managing editor to approve.
- Drafts120 min / weekTracking drafts from filed to subbed by memory
Filed drafts sit in a shared folder until someone remembers them, each editor keeps their own list, and a piece stalls for two days before anyone asks where it is.
Drafts Agent0 minAgent checks each draft and moves the cardAn agent compares every filed draft with its brief, updates the board, and lists pieces stuck in a stage for the desk.
- Publishing180 min / weekScanning each piece for missing fields
In the last ten minutes before a slot, someone opens the story and checks the byline, tags, alt text, and slug by eye, and a gap is found by a reader.
Publishing Agent0 minAgent checks each piece against the CMS fieldsAn agent reads the fields every ready story needs, lists the gaps beside the piece in Airtable, and leaves the hold decision to the editor.
- Issue close160 min / weekChasing proofs on a sheet that goes stale
On closing day the production editor messages each reader, lawyer, and designer for their proof, updates a sheet by hand, and watches the printer deadline approach.
Issue close Agent0 minAgent tracks pages and drafts the remindersAn agent keeps the closing checklist current, drafts a reminder for each proof holder, and the chief sub approves the batch.
- Corrections110 min / weekLogging corrections and checking credits from memory
Reader emails reach three inboxes, credits are checked on a hunch, and an agency licence lapses unnoticed until the rights holder writes in.
Corrections Agent0 minAgent logs, routes, and flagsAn agent logs each correction and sends it to the owning editor, matches credits to captions, and flags licence end dates two weeks ahead.
What that's worth
Calculate what your team saves
Based on typical team usage: the visible tasks plus a few other automations the agent runs: ~7 hrs / person / week of admin work automated.
How easy it is to use
We'll do all the heavy lifting for you.
From entering your website address to having a working AI team, no effort from you.
- Step 1
Enter your website
- We'll research your business
- Automatically configure everything for you
- Step 2
Actionist Auto
Optional- Watches you work
- Creates your agents, workflows and schedules
- Step 3
Marketplace
- Hundreds of apps, plus agents and workflows
- Pre-configured by other users
- Step 4
Invite your team
- We'll automatically onboard them too
- Focus on the things that matter
Enter your website URL for a personalised demo
See exactly what Actionist would automate for your business.
You stay in control
An agent working in your calendar, your CMS, and your corrections log only earns trust if you stay in control. Actionist is built so you see everything it touched, approve anything that reaches a writer or a reader, and own every record it created.
The agent reads the CMS and lists gaps, and any change to a live story, a slot, or a headline waits for an editor's approval. It never publishes, unpublishes, or edits a piece on its own.
Draft reminders, proof chases, and printer emails are queued for the section or production editor. Nothing is sent to a freelancer or a supplier unless an editor has approved it.
The agent logs each request and routes it to the editor who owns the piece. Whether to correct, and how, is decided by a person, and anything that reads like a legal complaint goes on untouched.
Drafts, calendars, picture licences, and reader messages are encrypted and never used to train any model. Every action is logged, and you can self-host on a VPS to keep it all on your own infrastructure.
More Media & Publishing teams
More use cases for Media & Publishing Operations teams
Frequently asked questions
Does my editorial operations team need to be technical to use Actionist?
How do I get started with a calendar or pre-publish agent?
How do I make customised AI agents for how our newsroom actually works?
How quickly can I set an editorial operations agent up?
Where does our editorial data live, and is it used to train AI models?
How does an agent check a legacy CMS or a print layout system that has no API?
Will the agent publish, unpublish, or edit a live story without an editor?
Can it cope with budget day or an issue closing week?
What happens when a reader correction might be a legal complaint?
See an agent check tomorrow's slots against your calendar
Book a free demo and watch an Actionist agent compare the editorial calendar with the CMS, list the gaps, and draft the desk note, end to end, for your approval.