Court coverage could become police monopoly, warns agency chief
Why The Times is giving away online subscriptions and the latest UK national newspaper circulation figures
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday, 19 May, brought to you in association with Wright’s Media, the premier global content licensing agency with 25 years of industry experience guiding publishing clients.
In Germany in the 1930s newspapers became so boring that circulation began to plummet*.
It turned out that when only the official version of the truth was allowed readers rather lost interest.
It's a lesson today's publishers should bear in mind when it comes to court reporting, which is such a staple of news coverage.
These press releases include only one side of a court case but are being favoured by editors over agency coverage because they are free and instant.
Harris warns that this state-sponsored journalism could be the only version of court reporting left.
The dangers of this are clear: not-guilty verdicts ignored, mitigation not covered and miscarriages of justice missed. Police forces themselves will also go unscrutinised.
And we have the latest national newspaper circulation figures from ABC which show Reach titles falling fastest and one national Sunday dropping by more than 20% year on year.
*Source: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L Shirer.
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On Press Gazette
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News in brief
The Daily Mail has launched a free Substack newsletter curating its daily showbiz headlines. It comes as the brand, like many others, is shoring up its direct audience amid dramatic challenges in Google referrals due to the arrival of AI Overviews.
New York Sun owner Dovid Efune reportedly has a fresh bid for The Telegraph in the works backed by Brexit-supporting businessman Jeremy Hosking and former UK chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. Meanwhile, US-based Redbird may buy out Abu Dhabi-based IMI to retain the title after a new UK law was proposed allowing foreign government-backed investors to own up to 15% of UK newspaper titles. (Financial Times)
New court documents reveal Prince Harry accused The Sun of publishing a front-page story reporting he had been named in a sex trafficking lawsuit against rapper P Diddy "in retaliation" for his hacking claims. The Sun said the article was accurate and editorially justified. (The Guardian)
The BBC received a complaint about the conduct of sacked newsreader Huw Edwards in 2012, a Sunday Times investigation has revealed. It is not known how serious the complaint was. (The Times)
Elton John said plans to allow AI companies to take copyright creative works and journalism without permission are "criminal", after an amendment to the Data Bill was rejected. He told the BBC he would take ministers to court and “fight all the way”. (BBC)
Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf said journalists in the title’s New York office are "anxious in a way that they’d never been before" amid Trump's threats to media. She also told an audience at St Bride’s Church that she was"very concerned" about deepfakes of Martin Wolf: "this is using the FT’s most prominent voice as a scam". (NMA)
Brian Glanville, "a football writer of unique stature" who wrote for The Sunday Times for 33 years, has died at the age of 93. (The Guardian)
Former Guardian crime reporter Duncan Campbell, who took on the Police Federation and won at the High Court to expose corruption in Stoke Newington in 1997, has died aged 80. (The Guardian)
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