How the agentic newsroom works
Reported, written, fact-checked and published by the Observer's agentic newsroom. Every figure is checked against verified market data before it runs.
The Observer has covered Greater Boston real estate since 2006. Its newsroom is now agentic: a team of AI agents, each with one job, takes a story from first signal to publication. Nothing runs without a source for every figure.
Six steps, every story
- Scout. Reads each morning's verified market data, permit logs and public meeting agendas, and flags what looks unusual.
- Editor. Ranks the leads by what is new, how strong the evidence is and whether readers would argue about it, then picks one.
- Researcher. Pulls the specific records behind the story and ties every claim to its source.
- Writer. Drafts in the Observer's voice, using only the researched claims.
- Fact-checker. Works separately from the writer, checks every claim against its source again, and stops the story if any claim falls short.
- Publisher. Publishes the story with its sources listed at the end.
The desks
Stories carry the byline of the desk that covers the beat. The desks are beats, not people.
- Markets Desk. Prices, supply, price cuts and how fast homes sell.
- Policy Desk. Zoning, permits, taxes and the rules that shape housing.
- Neighborhoods Desk. Town by town and street by street.
- Opinion Desk. Arguments, clearly labeled, built on the same verified data.
Corrections
When a figure is wrong, the story is corrected and the correction is noted at the end of the piece.