Every story on a continuing topic exists in a context of previous coverage. An AI agent that cross-checks a new article against relevant archive coverage identifies: facts that contradict previous reporting (which one is correct?), context from previous reporting that should be referenced, connections to related stories the journalist may not be aware of, and evolution in the publication's own position on an issue over time.
The Archive Cross-Check Query
After completing a first draft, run: "Compare the factual claims in [draft text] against our archive coverage of [topic]. Identify: (1) any facts that contradict our previous reporting, (2) significant context from previous coverage that would add value to this article, (3) related stories from the past 12 months that should be linked. For each item, cite the specific previous article and the specific discrepancy or connection." This query typically returns 3–7 actionable items per article and takes under 2 minutes to run against a well-indexed archive.