'Appalling harassment and abuse' of journalists at riots | Is journalism becoming an 'elite sport'?
AI start-up Prorata signs up major news publishers and GB News, Sky News and BBC News Channel all mark milestones
Good morning and welcome to your Press Gazette newsletter on Thursday, 8 August. It’s our second week of taking a break from the daily newsletter, so another bumper round-up today. Normal service will resume next week.
Thankfully the unrest yesterday was not as bad as feared - and it was amazing to see the huge and largely peaceful anti-racism rallies. But in the past week numerous journalists have been chased, threatened and attacked which is totally unacceptable. Here’s a round-up of all the incidents I’ve found.
In last week’s newsletter I wrote about deals being struck with the likes of Time and Fortune by AI start-up Perplexity. Now we’ve got new deals with an even newer start-up - and Fortune is involved again.
Prorata.ai, which hasn’t actually launched its product yet, has also convinced the likes of the FT and Axel Springer with its pitch for a model that shares all subscription revenue 50/50 with content creators - among whom it’s divided up by how often their content is used as source material in answers.
What’s particularly interesting is that they think this revenue attribution model is so much better than what other AI platforms have that they want to license it out to the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity.
Next up a recurring but important question for our industry: is journalism becoming an “elite sport”? That’s what Sue Brooks, the ex-Reuters agency chief newly appointed as NCTJ chair, thinks as she does not feel her own career path would be replicable now. She says efforts to address this were the main reason she wanted to join the charity.
We had two stories featuring big milestones for broadcasters this week: GB News has reached 10,000 members paying at least £5 each - and also claims to have topped 100 million page views in a month for the first time in July according to internal figures.
Meanwhile, also in July, Sky News and the BBC News Channel both saw their biggest month for TV viewers since October 2022. Sky News is particularly celebrating as it was the first time since then that it has crossed the 10 million mark, while executive chairman David Rhodes set out some digital successes too.
Speaking of data - if you were one of the many who read our attempt at delving into the listenership figures of the leading political podcasts, we’ve now added some fascinating stats released by The Rest Is Politics.
And finally, a coda to our recent story about an AI B2B news aggregator with no journalists but one million subscribers. Buzzfeed sent a “cease and desist” letter claiming Trending Now’s logo infringes the copyright of its own iconic arrow in a circle - and we got caught in the crossfire, receiving our own legal letter.
Trending Now has admitted the logos are “very similar” and is considering its options.
Scroll down for a full round-up of what else we’ve published this week.
New from Press Gazette
Journalists facing ‘appalling harassment and abuse’ amid riots
Numerous journalists threatened and forced to stop reporting in week of rioting across England.
FT, Atlantic, Axel Springer and Fortune get behind AI start-up’s per-use compensation plan
New generative AI entrant sets out plan for "fair attribution" revenue-sharing model.
GB News marks milestone of 10,000 paying members
Broadcaster also says it has passed the 100 million monthly page views mark based on internal figures.
Ex-Reuters agency chief warns journalism has become ‘elite sport’ as she is named next NCTJ chair
Sue Brooks says "the best is still to come" for the industry despite recent challenges.
July is best month for BBC and Sky TV news channels since October 2022
Particular milestone for Sky News as it crosses 10 million TV viewers in a month for the first time since 2022.
Buzzfeed sends ‘cease and desist’ letter over AI aggregator’s logo
Buzzfeed also sent a similar letter to Press Gazette, saying our story was adding to Trending Now’s “infringement”
Also on Press Gazette this week
Buzzfeed commercial director Caroline Fenner joins Pink News
Sun joins Mail, Mirror, Express and Independent with ‘consent or pay’ wall
Local heroes: The independent titles making news pay in London
Comment: Digital advertising crossroads is time for ‘genuine rethink’ by publishers
Swindon Town FC news site is test case for wider network of sports outlets
Sheffield Star fielded 110 complaints over reader letter about ‘brainwashed’ Palestine campaigners
News in brief
The New York Times added about 300,000 net digital-only subscribers in Q2, taking it to a total of 10.84 million. Revenues were up 6% to $625.1m and adjusted operating profit rose by 14% to $104m. The Athletic is still losing money but less ($2.4m versus $7.8m in Q2 2023). (NYT Co)
Dotdash Meredith has reported a 12% year-on-year increase in digital advertising revenue in Q2, its second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, attributed to its cookieless targeting tool D/Cipher. Overall revenue was up 3%. (Adweek)
Monday's episode of Good Morning Britain, which featured a controversial interview with MP Zarah Sultana and another in which Ed Balls took part in interviewing his wife Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, triggered 8,201 complaints to Ofcom that day. (Evening Standard)
Ofcom has written to social media platforms telling them they must "ensure their systems and processes are effective in anticipating and responding to the potential spread of harmful video material stemming from the recent events". (Ofcom)
GB News, which has faced a "massive" advertiser boycott since its 2021 launch, has said it will "closely monitor" the anti-trust action launched by X and Rumble against the ad industry this week.
Tech website CNET has been bought from Red Ventures by Ziff Davis, which also owns Mashable, PG Mag and Lifehacker, for more than $100m. (The New York Times)
A US judge has found that Google "is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly". Google will appeal, saying: "This decision recognises that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available." (Reuters)
Bloomberg has reportedly disciplined journalists after breaking the embargo on the story about a Russian prisoner exchange involving Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, designed to ensure they safely left Russia before the story came out. Bloomberg journalist Jennifer Jacobs, who had the joint byline on the embargo-breaking story and has now reportedly left the company, said in a statement that "the idea that I would jeopardise the safety of a fellow reporter is deeply upsetting". (The New York Times)
The Guardian and Sony have appointed leadership roles for their deal in which Sony gets access to all its current, developing and archive stories for TV/film. The roles are: head of global content development for film and TV and editorial director, film and TV. (The Guardian)
A BBC Scotland drivetime programme ruled to be in breach of impartiality guidelines after the presenter conducted an interview with an NUJ representative about a strike at STV and told listeners he had visited the picket line "in my capacity as an NUJ member". (BBC)
Ex-CNN anchor Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and X saying the billionaire failed to pay him after a content deal fell through. Lemon had not signed a formal contract about the deal. (The New York Times)
Our latest podcast
Bonnier News CEO on power of bundles and personalisation
Sweden’s biggest news publisher Bonnier News has more than tripled profits in the past eight years and doubled revenue.
It now believes a subscription bundle, putting together all of its Swedish brands and harnessing AI to better personalise what users see, will be the way forward for continued revenue growth.
Bonnier News chief executive Anders Eriksson told Press Gazette UK editor Charlotte Tobitt about the business transformation he has overseen and the internal culture change needed to do so, why Nordic countries are ahead on subscriptions, and the thinking behind the bundle subscription strategy.