Clive Myrie tops table for BBC outside payments | Huw Edwards avoids jail
Plus the ICO fires a warning shot on cookie consent and we hear about a new toolkit that helps journalists working with care experienced people
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Tuesday, 17 September, brought to you today in association with Glide: the world's most flexible CMS for media, sport, and publishing.
Read their expert guide to find seven ways to make your next live blog more effective.
The Sun rightly enjoys a massive “we told you so” moment today as the behaviour it exposed around Huw Edwards in the summer of 2023 has turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.
The paper has nine pages of coverage of the Edwards sentencing today, but appears to have devoted more resources to a 40-minute, feature-style documentary about its investigation which has been published overnight on Youtube. It is a sign of the direction of travel for The Sun. Editor Victoria Newton said this month that video is now the "focus of everything" for the title.
Today is also a vindication for the likes of Victoria Derbyshire and other BBC colleagues who faced down criticism from Huw's powerful journalism friends and ran with the original Sun story within the BBC, moving it on to include other concerning details.
It is a story which reveals a divide between rank and file BBC staff, who appear to have been more keen on exposing Edwards, and some senior colleagues who felt this was a private matter and an example of sleazy tabloid journalism.
Earlier this month Press Gazette revealed 115 BBC journalism and production staff are being cut. This follows redundancies at BBC Newsnight which have included diplomatic editor Mark Urban and Kate Lamble, who distinguished herself with her reporting of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Today we can reveal that for the BBC's top journalist earners at least business is still brisk.
Clive Myrie, Amol Rajan, Nick Robinson and Justin Webb all supplemented their £300,000-plus salaries with more than £40,000 in payments for outside work in the past year, according to the latest data from the BBC (which only allows us to provide a lower estimate of what many staff were paid).
Note: the likes of Myrie and Rajan only disclose their earnings for their BBC day jobs and outside earnings from third-party events. Pay for work done via independent production companies for the BBC, for example presenting University Challenge (Rajan) or Mastermind (Myrie) remains a secret.
Meanwhile we have some important news from adland where the Information Commissioner's Office has fired a warning shot over the bows of companies which have yet to get their house in order on cookie-consent and marketing and issued a reprimand to Sky Bet.
And we also have a useful comment piece from journalist and former foster child Sophia Alexandra Hall about how reporters can conduct interviews with those who have experienced trauma in a way which will be both effective and not add to their woes.
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New from Press Gazette
BBC’s Clive Myrie paid at least £66,000 by police, financial services industry and others
Myrie is one of eight BBC on-air journalists to have received more than £10,000 for an outside engagement. The others are Amol Rajan, Fiona Bruce, Jeremy Bowen, Katya Adler, Nick Robinson, Ros Atkins and Zoe Kleinman.
Huw Edwards given suspended six-month sentence over indecent images charges
Edwards will also be subject to 25 rehabilitation sessions and be placed on the sex offender treatment programme for 40 days.
Sky Bet reprimanded by ICO over unlawful cookie usage
ICO also said cookie usage at 99 of the top 100 websites is now compliant.
Toolkit to help journalists overcome ‘unspoken power dynamic’ in sensitive interviews
"In my toolkit I talk about the act of giving back control to the interviewee. While our respective editorial policies keep us from handing over whole articles to our source, there are small ways you can redistribute power in the room."
News in brief
ITV has launched a consumer-facing affiliate brand, ITV Kerching - a browser extension to help people find and redeem discount codes for online retailers. The broadcaster said it has a "long history of championing personal finance and consumer affairs". (Advanced Television)
Reach has launched a four-week Get Into Journalism training programme with The Prince's Trust which will see 12 young people from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds aged between 18 and 30 to take part, with opportunities to work across its biggest titles. (Reach)
Broadcasting ratings company Barb and print/digital newsbrand audience data group Pamco are working together on a joint measurement system. After a test in October they hope to roll out the new system next year. Pamco's online audience data is collected by Ipsos.
The Sun has released a 40-minute feature documentary about its Huw Edwards investigation. Meanwhile, columnist Rod Liddle wrote today that Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis and Owen Jones owe the title an apology and should admit "actually The Sun got it right". (The Sun)
PR technology company Synapse has won a creative catalyst grant from the Government to help it use AI to better distribute announcements to journalists. Former Reach editor in chief Lloyd Embley has been made "head of journalism" for the project's duration.
Meta says it will ban Russian state-linked media outlets including RT and Rossiya Segodnya from its apps in coming days over what it called "foreign interference activity". (The New York Times)
Previously on Press Gazette
Four columnists quit Jewish Chronicle over standards, secrecy and ‘bias’
Mail Online removes ‘Britain’s grimmest’ village story after Gavin Williamson complaint
Business title Raconteur bought by US-based B2B publisher Technology Advice
Mark Edmonds: Irascible yet kind, a forensic editor with huge sense of fun
Press Gazette live
The event is open to all journalists producing work targeted at a UK audience. The criteria stipulate that reports must bring important new information to light, show journalistic skill and rigour and make a difference for the better.
The awards pit the smallest local newspapers and independent podcasters against the biggest international news organisations. The great leveller is the quality of the story being told.