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Ask the News
Meet Ask the News
Ask the News helps publishers capture reader intent, answer questions with trusted journalism, and turn moments of curiosity into audience value, across the CMS and digital experiences they already use.
Readers can ask natural-language questions and receive answers grounded in a publisher’s reporting. Every answer includes source citations and links back to relevant coverage, helping audiences explore topics more deeply while staying within publisher-owned experiences.
Because Ask the News is platform-agnostic, publishers do not need to be on the Arc XP CMS to use it. It can be deployed across publisher sites and apps as a branded answer experience that integrates with existing content, workflows, and audience strategies.
Ask the News is built around three core capabilities:
Capture reader intent
Turn articles, homepages, section fronts, and apps into intent-capture surfaces.
Suggested questions, follow-ups, and conversational exploration help publishers understand what audiences are trying to learn and where curiosity is leading them.
Answer with trusted journalism
Deliver cited answers grounded in publisher reporting.
Instead of sending readers to a list of links, Ask the News helps them quickly understand a topic while connecting them back to the journalism behind every response.
Turn intent into publisher value
Every reader question is a first-party intent signal.
Publishers can use those signals to drive deeper engagement, activate archives, support subscription strategies, strengthen monetization opportunities, and inform editorial decision-making.
Natural Language Questions: Readers ask questions in plain language, just like they would ask a colleague
AI-Generated Answers: The system provides concise, factual answers based on your articles
Source Attribution: Every answer links back to the original articles, maintaining journalistic transparency
Multi-Site Support: Manage multiple news properties from a single interface
Content Safeguards: Built-in moderation prevents inappropriate queries and protects sensitive information
Understanding the basics of how Ask the News operates can help you configure it effectively. This section provides a high-level overview without technical details.
Article Processing
When articles are published to your Arc ecosystem, Ask the News automatically processes them:
Content Extraction: The system reads the headline, description, and body text from each article
Breaking into Segments: Long articles are divided into smaller segments. This allows the AI to find specific relevant passages rather than entire articles
Creating Search Indexes: Each segment is indexed in a way that allows the AI to understand its meaning, not just match keywords
This processing happens automatically — you don't need to take any action for new articles to become searchable.
Finding Relevant Content
When a reader asks a question, Ask the News searches your articles in two ways:
Meaning-Based Search: Finds articles that are conceptually related to the question, even if they don't contain the exact words used
Keyword Search: Finds articles containing specific terms from the question
The system combines results from both approaches and ranks them by relevance. Recent articles receive a slight boost in ranking to ensure timely content surfaces first.
Generating Answers
Once relevant articles are found, the AI reads through them and composes an answer:
Answers are written in a neutral, objective tone appropriate for journalism
The AI uses only information from your published articles — it doesn't add outside knowledge
Answers typically run 4-6 sentences
The AI always attributes information to your content by including source links
Built-in Safeguards
Several layers of protection ensure quality and safety:
Content Policy: Queries are checked against content policies before processing
Your Blocking Rules: Custom rules you create can prevent specific types of questions
Response Guardrails: The AI is instructed to decline requests outside its purpose (generating code, creative writing, revealing its instructions, etc.)
Source Requirement: The AI will not invent information — if it can't find relevant content in your articles, it tells the reader it couldn't find an answer
This guide is designed for editors, content managers, and site administrators who configure and manage Ask the News for their organization.
For in-depth Developer documentation, see Ask the News on dev.arcxp.com.
Prerequisites
Ask the News is an add-on feature available with an additional license. To activate Ask the News in your Arc XP environment, contact your Technical Account Manager.
After Ask the News is enabled in your environment and before you use it, you must have the Ask the News User permission.
Note
Provisioning, permissions, and Ask the News settings are environment-specific (Sandbox or Production) and do not carry over automatically. To use Ask the News in multiple environments, you must configure the feature separately in each environment.
Permissions
Open the Arc Admin and go to the Permissions app
You can create a new Role for the Ask the News permissions or add to an existing Role
There are 2 Permissions:
Ask the News User - Access Ask the News and ask questions
Ask the News Admin - Ability to edit Settings in the Ask Admin
Once the users are permissioned they will see the new Ask the News app tile in your environment.
See Managing Roles. for more about permission management.
Accessing Ask the News
Ask the News is accessed through the Arc XP platform. Once logged in with the Ask the News permissions, you'll find it in your available applications as a new tile.
Site Selection
When you first open Ask the News, you'll see a list of all sites (news properties) available to your organization.
Each site card displays:
Site ID: The unique identifier for the site
Product Name: The display name shown to readers
From here, you can:
Click Query to test the reader experience
Click the settings icon to configure the site
The query page is the heart of Ask the News — this is what your readers experience when they interact with the tool.
The Query Interface
When readers arrive, they see:
A time-based greeting (Good morning, Good afternoon, or Good evening)
A set of suggested questions (which you configure in settings)
A text input field to type their own question
Asking a Question
Readers can either:
Click a suggested question to submit it instantly
Type their own question in the input field and press Enter or click the submit button
Question Requirements:
Minimum 5 characters
Maximum 200 characters
Understanding the Response
After submitting a question, readers receive:
AI-Generated Answer: A concise response (typically 4-6 sentences) written in a neutral, newsroom tone. The answer is based solely on your published articles.
Source Articles: A horizontal row of cards showing the articles used to generate the answer. Each card displays an article headline, publication date, and link to the full article
Feedback Buttons: Thumbs up and thumbs down icons let readers rate the quality of answers.
Copy Button: Readers can copy the answer text for reference.
What Readers Cannot Do
The AI is designed with strict guardrails:
It will not answer questions outside your published content
It will not generate code, creative writing, or perform tasks beyond Q&A
It will not reveal how it works internally
It maintains an objective, journalistic tone regardless of how questions are phrased
Continuing the Conversation
After receiving an answer, readers can click 'Ask a follow up' and select a generated suggested question or submit their own.
Site settings let you customize the reader experience for each news property. Access settings by clicking the gear icon on any site card, or through the Settings menu.
Navigating to Site Settings
Click Settings in the main navigation
Select Sites in the sub-navigation or Site Configuration on the Settings page
Choose the site you want to configure
Curated Questions Tab
The Questions tab manages the suggested questions that appear on the query page.
Viewing Questions
The questions list shows:
Question text
Status (Active or Inactive)
Edit and Delete buttons
Questions are paginated with 10 per page.
Creating a New Question
Click Create New Question
Enter the question text
Set the status:
- Active: Question appears as a suggestion on the query page
- Inactive: Question is saved but not shown to readers
Optionally, click Check Sample Response to preview how the AI would answer
Click Create
Tips for Good Questions:
Write questions readers would naturally ask
Focus on topics covered by your articles
Use clear, conversational language
Example: "What are today's top stories in technology?"
Editing a Question
Click the Edit button next to any question
Modify the text or status
Click Update
Deleting a Question
Click the Delete button next to the question
Confirm the deletion
Bulk Status Updates
To update multiple questions at once:
Select questions using the checkboxes
Click Mark as Active or Mark as Inactive
All selected questions will be updated
Customization Tab
The Customization tab controls display settings.
General
Product Name
The Product Name is displayed to readers throughout the interface. This is typically your publication name or a branded name for the Q&A feature.
Steering Instructions
Add up to 100 characters of instructions to add to the system prompt. Use for refinements like spelling/dialect or answer length. Steering instructions cannot be used override the base tone or guardrails.
Sections Tab
Choose which sections appear as filter options on the query page and returned as available_sections on the Settings API response. When no filter is selected, queries search all articles, including sections not in the list. Up to 5 sections can be specified in a single query.
Content moderation rules help you control what types of questions the system will answer. This protects against inappropriate queries and ensures the tool stays focused on your content.
Accessing Moderation Settings
Click Settings in the main navigation
Select Organization
Understanding Blocking Rules
Blocking rules prevent certain queries from being processed. When a question matches a rule, the reader sees your "Rejected Question" response instead of an AI-generated answer.
Each rule has:
Rule ID: A unique identifier (e.g., "block-ssn")
Type: How the rule matches text
Pattern: What text to look for
Category: Why the rule exists
Status: Whether the rule is active
Rule Types
Exact Match
Blocks queries containing an exact phrase
Case-sensitive by default
Example: Blocking "social security number" would not block "SSN"
Regex (Regular Expression)
Blocks queries matching a pattern
More flexible than exact match
Example: A pattern for phone numbers could block various formats
Rule Categories
Categories help organize your rules by purpose:
Category | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
PII | Block requests for personal information | Social Security numbers, home addresses |
Inappropriate | Block offensive or harmful content | Profanity, violent content |
Off-topic | Keep focus on your content | Sports questions on a finance site |
Compliance | Meet legal or regulatory requirements | Medical or legal advice requests |
Test | Rules used for testing | Temporary rules during setup |
Create a Blocking Rule
Click Create Rule
Fill in the form
Rule ID: A short, descriptive identifier (e.g., "block-phone-numbers")
Type: Select Exact or Regex
Pattern: Enter the text or pattern to block
Flags (Regex only): Optional modifiers
i = case-insensitive (recommended for most rules)
m = multiline matching
s = dot matches newlines
Category: Select the appropriate category
Description: Explain what this rule blocks and why
Enabled: Toggle on to activate the rule
3. Click Create
Testing Rules
Before enabling a rule, test it using the Test Query panel:
Enter a sample query in the test field
Click Test
The result shows whether the query would be blocked and which rule matched
Managing Existing Rules
From the rules list, you can:
Edit: Modify the pattern, category, or description
Enable/Disable: Toggle rules on or off without deleting them
Delete: Permanently remove a rule
When you're ready to enable Ask the News for a new site, you'll need to provision it.
Adding a New Site
Navigate to Settings > Sites
Click Provision New Site
Select the site from the dropdown (shows sites from your Arc organization)
Configure initial settings:
- Product Name: The name readers will see
- Steering Instructions: 100 characters of additional system prompt instructions for refinements like spellings or answer length(i.e. "Always use British English")
Click Provision Site
The site is now ready to configure with suggested questions and receive articles.
If a Site Is Already Provisioned
If you select a site that's already been set up, you'll see a message indicating it's already provisioned. In this case, navigate to the existing site in Settings to modify its configuration.