Customer Story
How Lee Enterprises generates content for 3,500+ local SMBs with Perplexity Sonar API
Perplexity Sonar API
Metrics
99% faster article drafting times for a significant ARR increase
7,000 articles generated monthly using Perplexity Sonar API
50,000+ content production hours saved annually for local advertisers
3,500 SMBs enrolled in AI-powered branded content service
“As a media company with a digital advertising agency attached, using Perplexity Sonar API to generate in-depth articles for local businesses is a perfect use case for us. It provides our SMB customers with more content while enabling us to focus on what we do best — reaching new audiences with local journalism. No other AI implementation we've explored has been this lucrative.”
Evan Savar, VP of AI & Emerging Technology at Lee Enterprises
Lee Enterprises is a publicly traded media company founded in 1890 and the fourth-largest newspaper group in the U.S. The company specializes in local news and advertising, managing 72 daily newspapers and over 350 weekly publications across 25 states. With more than 47 million unique web and mobile visitors monthly, Lee Enterprises' digital media and advertising platforms are among the fastest-growing in the industry.
The Task
Supporting SMBs with AI-generated content while ensuring quality of deliverables
Lee Enterprises offers paid media services to over 50,000 SMBs. One of the company's most effective offerings is Sponsored Content, which helps SMBs build trust and visibility with customers. While professionally written editorial content is central to that service, a single article may take two weeks to produce – which is cost-prohibitive for some businesses. Many SMBs are the backbones of their local economies and lack the time and resources to create that consistent, high-quality content. In response, Lee wanted to create a tool that enabled SMBs to easily produce and self-publish articles across Lee’s local news sites. This way, they’d share stores quickly, affordably, and in the same trusted spaces their customers already navigate to.
Evan Savar, VP of AI and Emerging Technology, hypothesized that implementing AI could accelerate content creation while expanding access to high-quality advertising solutions for SMBs. His vision? Access Lee's customer data with AI to generate compelling, locally relevant articles in minutes. That’s a faster, more scalable way to help local businesses share their stories across digital newspaper sites.
Evan tested several AI solutions, but most generated articles that contained inaccurate information about the featured SMB. He knew Lee's high content standards were one of the reasons its customers trusted the company to tell their stories. As such, he needed a solution that was:
Accurate
There’s no room for false or misleading information in the local news industry. Any hallucinations within Lee's content would not only lead to churned customers, but also could threaten the publication's reputation. Evan needed a solution that would deliver factual content on demand.
Efficient
Researching, drafting, and editing content is a time-consuming process for SMBs, often encompassing several days per article – and requiring more resources than they can afford. As Lee's customer base continued to expand alongside the need for shorter turnaround times, Evan turned to an AI solution that would shorten that workflow.
Secure
Drafting articles with AI would require Evan to provide access to Lee's proprietary data (such as company size, vertical, etc.) surrounding its SMB customers. Knowing how sensitive this information was, he needed a solution with airtight security credentials and the ability to prevent the AI from training on Lee's data.
The Solution
Drafting data-backed, fact-checked content in minutes
With Perplexity’s Sonar API answer engine, Lee Enterprises generates compelling articles for its SMB customers at scale — without sacrificing quality or security.
"What's great about Perplexity is that we can safely use our customer data to create really engaging articles," Evan explains. "Drafting times are also incredibly quick. We rarely have to wait more than a few minutes for the engine to deliver a finished piece."
Evan initially showed writers articles that Sonar had written and received very positive reactions. Having determined they were open to the solution, they integrated Sonar into the article creation process. The engine combines both Lee's proprietary data and several layers of deep research to ensure articles are informed by internal knowledge and the latest external information. All proprietary data and queries are automatically deleted in 7 days — providing ample time to wrap the project while minimizing the risk of leaks.
Next, Sonar retrieves the most relevant snippets from both sources and uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to synthesize these into coherent, context-rich content. Lee's advertising team can also drop additional queries to adjust the article's TOV or formatting. The best part? This entire process takes only a few minutes per article.
While he was incredibly pleased with Sonar’s comprehensive deliverables and turnaround times, Evan knew providing access to Lee's proprietary business data could expand the company's attack surface. Fortunately, with Sonar’s security and privacy features (like API key requirements) to protect user data and support secure integration, his sensitive data is always safe, regardless of who's using the tool to draft new content.
"SMBs are the backbone of the economy, and they rely on us to keep their information secure," Evan explains. "With Perplexity, we don't have to choose between compelling content and data security; we get both."
The Result
Publishing over 7,000 AI-drafted articles per month that consistently meet Lee’s quality bar
As Evan anticipated, AI implementation accelerated Lee's content workflows without sacrificing the company's long standing reputation for quality. With the Perplexity API, Lee condensed the article drafting process from three days to three minutes, saving Lee’s advertisers 18 hours per month for driving sales, engaging customers, or growing their business—while staying visible in trusted local news.
Moreover, Lee has transformed AI article generation into a flourishing premium service, for which 3,500 SMBs now pay monthly. In exchange, they receive two ready-to-post articles per month. This represents a major opportunity for recurring revenue growth. "Perplexity's AI content offering has already generated substantial recurring revenue from existing users," Evan says. "We’re embracing this technology. It’s not replacing our writers, it's helping local businesses share their stories and stay relevant in an AI-driven world. Content from trusted sources matters now more than ever."
To build on this success, Evan is already testing Perplexity Sonar’s dynamic content templates, including sports updates and event recaps. "Perplexity is so much more than an AI solution,” Evan shares. “They're a trusted partner helping us create meaningful content at scale."
