About the Cape Ann Current

The Cape Ann Current is free local news for Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea. It is published by K2 Business Strategies LLC, doing business as Cape Ann Current.

What we cover

• Public meetings in all four towns: city council, select boards, school committees, planning and zoning, and more.
• Town news from each city and town hall: public works, public safety notices, budgets and elections.
• High school and youth sports, with schedules, scores and reports from the teams themselves.
• Business news: openings, closings, the chambers and local employers.
• Events across all four communities.

How the Current is made

The Current is a small newsroom that relies on AI. Most stories are written by our AI news desk, working under rules our editor sets.

• Watching sources. Software checks town and school websites, agendas, minutes, official notices, event calendars and other local news outlets every day.
• Meeting video. For public meetings, the desk works from the captions posted with the meeting video and links the video in the story's sources. Nobody from the Current attends a meeting unless the story says so.
• Writing and checking. AI tools draft each story from those records and check every name, number, date, dollar amount and vote against the source before it publishes.
• Holding what needs a person. Stories that cannot be confirmed, or that involve accusations against private people, crime, arrests or minors, are held for our editor instead of publishing.
• Audio. The Daily Brief is written and voiced by AI from stories already published on the site. Our editor approves each episode before it posts.

Every story says who produced it and lists its sources at the end. The details, including which AI tools we use, are in our standards and corrections policy.

When we publish

• The site updates every morning, and again every evening with scores, reader submissions and corrections.
• The Morning Current email goes out every morning, seven days a week, after the site updates.
• The Daily Brief audio posts in the morning once our editor approves it.

Free to read

Local news should not sit behind a paywall. The Current is supported by local sponsors and by readers who choose to become members. Sponsors have no say in what we cover.

Questions, tips or corrections: [email protected]