NOVOCEAN
Sergei Yakupov
AI Solutions for News Media · Product Thinker · Implementation Specialist
Media Technology & Innovation · Lisbon, Portugal
AI-powered newsroom solutions · Founder & CEO, Novocean (novocean.me)
I help newsrooms use AI and automation in ways that actually work. After 25+ years in news media — as journalist, editor-in-chief, and media executive — I understand how editorial teams, distribution, and management operate. Today I combine that experience with AI, automation, and product thinking to help media organizations automate newsroom workflows, identify high-value AI use cases, improve editorial and content operations, and turn experiments into real systems teams actually use.
I also design and build tools for newsrooms — from simple utilities to complex systems that solve real editorial and operational tasks. Another core part of my work is data analysis for news media: developing dashboards and systems that collect, structure, and interpret data to help newsrooms answer real editorial and audience questions.
Experience
25+ years in news media — journalist, editor-in-chief, managing director, founder, head of sales (Russia, Belarus, EU).
12 years consulting for Eastern and Central European outlets, exile media, and international partners.
Novocean (2021–present, Lisbon). Boutique AI consultancy — agency of one; strategy, prototypes in 2–4 week sprints (aggregators, multi-platform publishers, archive intelligence, data journalism). Notable clients: Postimees.ee, Delfi.lt, G4Media.ro, LSM+. Principle: strategy before tools; open source when possible; right-sized models.
Botsever.co (2020–2024): data-driven automation, bots on large datasets, actionable insights for media.
Proven collaborations: Zinc, BCME (Latvia), DT Global Europe, Internews, Thomson Foundation, IREX, Fojo Media Institute, Delfi, Postimees, LSM+, G4Media.ro, Rise.md, iFact.ge.
Languages: English (professional) · Russian (native) · Portuguese (basic)
Core competencies
- →AI Product Development — end-to-end, MVP to production
- →Newsroom Workflow Analysis — identifying inefficiencies, scoping solutions
- →AI Quality & Evaluation — prompt engineering, feedback loops, regression
- →Technical Product Management — cross-functional, user research, delivery
- →Data Analytics — multi-platform dashboards, actionable insights
- →Content Distribution Automation — multi-platform publishing pipelines
- →Stakeholder Communication — translating technical ↔ editorial
- →Training & Enablement — workshops, playbooks, onboarding
Technical skills
- →Python, React, modern web technologies
- →OpenAI, Claude (Anthropic), Groq APIs
- →Prompt engineering & LLM evaluation frameworks
- →Vector databases & semantic search
- →RSS/HTML parsing, content aggregation pipelines
- →WordPress & custom CMS integrations
- →GitHub, Cursor
- →Analytics: Google Analytics, social platform APIs
Key capabilities
AI for Newsrooms
Identify high-value AI use cases and ship systems teams adopt — MVP to production with quality loops, prompts, evaluation, and right-sized models.
Newsroom Automation
Workflow analysis, multi-platform publishing pipelines, aggregation (RSS/HTML), and content ops that tie editorial judgement to tooling.
Data Analytics
Unified dashboards spanning 7+ platforms, proprietary editorial metrics, GA and social APIs — translating numbers into actionable newsroom insights.
Technical Development
Python, React, CMS integrations (WordPress + custom), vector search, Claude/OpenAI/Groq — prototyping in 2–4 week sprints.
Media Strategy & Training
Strategy before tools; workshops and implementation playbooks. Notable engagements: Thomson Foundation, Zinc, Internews, IREX, Fojo Media Institute.
Rapid Product Development
Content aggregators, archive intelligence (vector search toolkit), journalism tools, content suite deployments — iterative delivery for real workloads.
Portfolio projects
View full portfolioNovo CMS — AI-powered CMS for news media
In development · beta Q2 2026Newsroom OS: monitoring, publishing, data journalism, vector search
Fullscale development
Get in touch
Interested in AI-powered newsroom solutions? Let's discuss how I can help transform your media organization.