BBC local radio station showed 'systemic failure' | Tortoise reduces losses
And Estates Gazette saved from closure, Byline Times sells shares for marketing drive and former Computer Weekly journalist given OBE
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday 6 January, 2025.
Good morning and Happy New Year.
Avid readers of X could be forgiven for thinking they have woken up in 2014, given the widespread coverage currently being given by Elon Musk and his sycophants to the Rotherham sex abuse scandal.
Worry not, it is 2025 and no, the mainstream media did not cover up the scandal of child abuse in northern towns (as Musk and others have suggested).
Andrew Norfolk of The Times was named Journalist of the Year by Press Gazette in December 2014 for what the judges said was: "An investigation which began with a front-page story in January 2011 and culminated in the Jay report which revealed council and law enforcement failures which contributed to 1,400 children being abused in Rotherham alone."
They added: "It has been journalism which has made a difference, which gave a voice to people who no-one was listening to and which proved that sometimes journalists can step in when police, local and central government have all failed.”
Here are the stories we've covered since we gave this newsletter its Christmas break after 20 December (scroll down for a big round-up of media news from elsewhere):
UK B2B publishing stalwart Estates Gazette has been saved and is now part of the Mark Allen Group stable of titles. The digital information side of the business will be sold separately and only a handful of staff are moving across with the magazine, which had been scheduled for closure by owner RELX.
Tortoise Media's latest accounts have been published, showing falling losses but also a dip in turnover as it made redundancies in 2023. The business, which completes its takeover of The Observer in the next few months, has lost more than £20m to date but is showing signs of turning the ship around after a switch to higher margin corporate events.
We have a round-up of media New Year's Honours, which include an OBE for the Computer Weekly journalist who first gave a voice to victims of the Post Office scandal.
Byline Times is seeking to raise £200,000 by offering shares after issuing a prospectus which values the £1m turnover business at £9m.
And a local BBC radio station affected by the network’s slimming down has been found to have demonstrated "elements of systemic failure" in its coverage of anti-immigration disorder in August.
The BBC begun plans to axe 139 jobs in local radio in 2022 and instead increased its website coverage. Local radio coverage is now increasingly generic programming syndicated regionally and nationally.
Critics say cuts to the service have removed a media lifeline for older listeners in particular to compete with commercial news publishers for online clicks.
We also have your news diary for the week ahead, which includes the return of Parliament today and publication of MPs' expenses data on Thursday.
On Press Gazette
BBC local radio station showed ‘systemic failure’ on night of disorder
BBC Radio Devon’s coverage of violent clashes between right-wing protesters and police in Plymouth city centre on 5 August was found to have given listeners “little sense of what was happening and little evidence of the BBC having a presence on the scene”.
Tortoise reports falling turnover but reduced losses after 2023 cutbacks
Tortoise reduced its editorial and production team to 44 in 2023 (from 52 in 2022) and increased the commercial team to 14 (from 12). Overall headcount fell by eight to 64 and it spent £520,000 on redundancies.
Estates Gazette magazine saved by Mark Allen Group bid
“Mark Allen Group, as a successful independent family company with an excellent track record of success and in making things happen, will be focused on re-energising the historic Estates Gazette magazine and ensuring it has a future.”
Byline Times seeks £200,000 for marketing by selling shares to readers
The 2,331 shares on sale are being offered at £85.81 each, valuing the title at £9m.
Ex-Computer Weekly journalist given OBE for Post Office reporting
Rebecca Thomson has been awarded an OBE for services to justice because of her early work on the scandal that saw hundreds of subpostmasters wrongly prosecuted because of the Horizon IT system.
Lady in the lake murder: Why reporter has returned to the crime 27 years on
Jeremy Craddock's new book explores a notorious Lake District murder and the ethics of crime reporting.
News diary 6 – 12 January: Parliament debates Letby trial, Welby finishes duties
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
Former defence and education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson has won a complaint against a Birmingham Live article that described a village in his constituency as the “grimmest” in the UK. (Press Gazette)
Tortoise’s Louise Tickle and freelance Hannah Summers have won the right to challenge a decision to ban the naming of the judges involved in the family court proceedings of murdered girl Sara Sharif. (Press Gazette)
Vogue editor-in-chief Dame Anna Wintour is among those to have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden. (Sky News)
Members of the Creative Rights in AI Coalition, who include the FT, Guardian, Newsquest, DMG Media, Telegraph and AP, say they do not support the UK Government's proposed “new exception to copyright”. News Media Association CEO Owen Meredith wrote last month that we must hold "companies to a higher standard rather than changing the law to accommodate their hitherto illicit behaviour". (Creative Rights in AI Coalition)
Apple has said it won't try creating a search engine rivalling Google: it would be "economically risky" due to rapid AI changes, Apple is "focused on other growth areas", and doing so would "require building a platform to sell targeted advertising". (The Verge)
The Atlantic is hiring around a dozen new reporters and editors to beef up its politics coverage, The New York Times reports. Two recent hires have been from The Washington Post, and the NYT says the magazine is "in discussions" with other Post journalists. (The New York Times)
Hedge fund manager Crispin Odey is seeking damages of at least £79m from the Financial Times over four 2023 articles that included allegations he had sexually assaulted several women. (The Times)
The trial of a woman accused of illegally aborting her baby collapsed because of "appalling and sloppy" BBC reporting for a TV bulletin. The judge said: “This was the BBC. This was not a Facebook post or a Snapchat and not viewed by a couple of people." (The Independent)
Director and actor Justin Baldoni is suing The New York Times over its reporting on a PR campaign he and his publicity team are alleged to have waged against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively. (BBC News)
The Palestinian Authority has temporarily banned Al Jazeera from operating in the parts of the West Bank it controls, accusing the broadcaster of "inciting sedition" and "interfering in internal Palestinian affairs", according to The New York Times. (The New York Times)
Jason Cowley - who last month stepped down as editor of The New Statesman - is joining The Sunday Times as a commentator, book reviewer and features writer.
The editor-in-chief and two deputy editors at Coindesk were reportedly fired last month by parent company, crypto exchange Bullish. It followed a newsroom controversy that began when Bullish reportedly demanded site staff delete an unflattering article about crypto billionaire Justin Sun. (Fortune)
News Corp has sold its Australian TV subscription business Foxtel to DAZN in a US$2bn deal. Chief executive Robert Thomson said: "This transaction also allows News Corp to focus on our other growth pillars of Dow Jones, Digital Real Estate and Book Publishing." (News Corp)
Esquire UK editor-in-chief Alex Bilmes will step down in March after 14 years in the role. Hearst UK chief executive Katie Vanneck-Smith thanked him for "diligently steering the helm" of the magazine. (Women’s Wear Daily)
Former Spectator and Quillette associate editor and The Daily Sceptic founder Toby Young has been nominated for a peerage by the Conservative Party. (UK Government)
Gannett, which publishes USA Today and numerous local newspapers in the US, is launching a content bundle in partnership with Reuters this quarter, Axios reports. It comes after Gannett ended its partnership with rival news agency the AP last year. (Axios)
Also on Press Gazette:
Diversify or die? 23 media leaders reveal how to make news pay in 2025
Channel 4 News editor: ‘We defy expectations because we move quickly’
Comment: What we have learned about journalism in the AI era two years on
Top 50 news websites in the world: AP and NBC see more than 50% monthly surge
‘Opt-out’ AI rights would let tech companies ‘shirk responsibilities’ on copyright
How AI search tool Perplexity is sharing ad revenue with publishers
Ad-blockers mean publishers missing out on ad revenue from one in five readers
How publishers can avoid affiliate marketing pitfalls and find new revenue (sponsored)
Trust, quality and data: Key ad revenue themes for publishers in 2024 (sponsored)
Latest podcast
Podcast 80: What we learned in 2024 about the business of news
The Press Gazette team look back on the big themes of 2024 for news publishers and reveal what they have learned. They also share their predictions for 2025 which include: more paywalls in the national media, an economic upturn all around and big changes in the tech platforms which readers use to discover their news.