Cadwalladr dropped ahead of Observer takeover | Press unites against AI copyright grab
And Mail Online extends its premium paywall to North America
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Wednesday 26 February.
The final edition of The Observer under Scott Trust ownership will come out on Easter Sunday, 20 April.
Time will tell whether the title can rise again under new owners Tortoise Media. But one high-profile journalist not making the transfer is Carole Cadwalladr, the long-serving reporter who won multiple awards for her investigations into the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.
This contravenes assurances given by Guardian Media Group that all existing Observer contractors would be given year-long Tortoise Media contracts.
The NUJ has expressed "serious concern" that her departure follows her making public criticism of the Observer deal.
Sadly for Cadwalladr, even though she worked for The Guardian for 20 years, she has no employment rights because she never had the status of an employee (merely a contractor).
She can at least console herself that her own Substack newsletter, launched in November, already has more than 50,000 free subscribers and more than 1,000 paying ones. She currently also has a hit BBC true crime podcast in the form of "Stalked".
The Tortoise takeover of The Observer has been a messy business but the launch of a major new stand-alone quality online news title for the UK with more than 100 staff and fresh investment of £25m has to be welcomed.
Today we also have further details of an extremely rare outbreak of consensus amongst the UK national press. Every title from the FT to the Daily Star agrees that UK government plans to facilitate a major copyright grab from the AI industry would be a disaster for British journalism.
And the Daily Mail has expanded its premium online paywall into the US. With 130,000 online subscribers, and a further 90,000 paying to read the digital edition, the Mail's success will provide encouragement for Observer bosses that new paying online news readers are out there.
On Press Gazette
Carole Cadwalladr dropped by Tortoise ahead of Observer takeover
As part of a deal with the NUJ to avert further strike action, Guardian bosses assured the union that contractors like Cadwalladr would be offered year-long Tortoise Media contracts.
News titles from Guardian to Daily Mail unite in opposition to AI copyright grab
The “Make it Fair” front pages coincide with the final day of a government consultation into the proposal, which would automatically allow AI businesses like OpenAI to ingest UK creators’ content until those creators explicitly opt out.
Daily Mail rolls out premium paywall into US and Canada
DailyMail.com is 13th most popular news website in the US according to Press Gazette’s top-50 ranking.
News in brief
The government is considering weakening its plan for an opt-out copyright regime for AI, The Guardian has reported. An official told the paper "there are ways to protect certain sectors which are particularly important", but "abandoning the plans altogether is not seen as an option”. (The Guardian)
Entrepreneur Dale Vince will receive £40,000 from Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers after settling a libel claim about an October article by columnist Dan Hodges that falsely claimed he supports Hamas. (BBC News)
The Trump administration has said it will start deciding which publications' reporters may join the presidential press pool. The decisions have for "decades" been handled by the White House Correspondents' Association, The New York Times reported. (The New York Times)
A federal judge has meanwhile declined to immediately restore the Associated Press’ access to the White House after it was barred by the administration for not adopting the name “the Gulf of America”. The judge advised the government to reconsider the ban, however, noting case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House”. (PBS)
The takeover of National World by Media Concierge, which was approved by shareholders earlier this month, has been delayed to the end of April after the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission sought more time to assess the deal. (Hold the Front Page)
Former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy's start-up newsletter publication Status is on track to surpass $1m in annual recurring revenue by the end of the year, he has told The Wall Street Journal. (The Wall Street Journal)
Education technology company Chegg is suing Google, alleging the company's AI Overviews in search diminish demand for original content and undermine online publishers' ability to compete. (Reuters)
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Facebook Channels providing small but engaged audience for publishers
2025 journalism job cuts tracked: More than 900 layoffs in UK and US news in January
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