Daily launches casual online payments | Slow ads costing publishers millions
Daily newspaper ABCs and why Labour needs to act now to update copyright law for the age of artificial intelligence
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Friday 19 July, 2024, brought to you this week in association with Conscent, a full stack solution across subscriptions, gamified engagement, analytics and billing and invoicing for news publishers.
Their latest white paper, Looking Beyond Paywalls to Drive Subscription Growth, is available to download now.
You don’t buy subscriptions for most things in life, so why are they the only way to pay for online news?
This is the question being posed by the Toronto Star, which is the latest title to experiment with casual payments as a way of paying for online journalism.
The Star is offering access to one article for $0.75 (42p) or full access to the site for a day for $1.50 (85p). It sees the payments as a gateway to enticing more subscribers. The dream for tech firm Axate is that its payments platform can become the online equivalent of the newsagent where even today, millions happily hand over comparatively small sums every day for their fix of news.
Meanwhile, we report on what the King’s Speech means for publishers. David Buttle explains why it is essential that Labour legislates to update copyright for the age of AI so that original journalism can be protected.
The latest print newspaper ABC sales show the i rising above The Daily Star for the first time. (And if you are looking for holiday reading, the i is worth 90p for the puzzles pages alone - with a great kids’ section on Saturdays).
Core web vitals are something which most online publishers now look at. These tell you how quickly editorial content is loading. But many are neglecting to check how quickly their ads load, with the result that commercial content on some major UK news websites is loading incredibly slowly and costing publishers millions. Catch Metrics have some views on what they can do about it.
Jobs of the Week:
The BBC is recruiting a senior journalist for front page curation based in London
News UK is recruiting a development producer based in London
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New from Press Gazette
Toronto Star launches pay-per-article and daily passes for website access
The Canadian news site is the first in the country to try Axate's casual payments.
Newspaper ABCs: i circulation higher than Daily Star for first time
Press Gazette's monthly analysis of ABC national newspaper circulation figures.
Disappointment for publishers as Artificial Intelligence Bill missing from King’s Speech
Copyright reform protecting rights-holders like publishers "urgently needed", David Buttle writes.
Slow online ads cost UK publishers £50m a year: Here’s how to fix them (promoted)
Online ads can take up to nine seconds to load on some leading UK news websites.
NUJ to take part in tribunal over claims of covert surveillance of journalists
Lawyer says if protection of journalists' sources is compromised, "who would risk being a source?"
News in brief
Sky News in the UK was among the businesses affected by a mass global IT outage this morning, leaving it unable to go live on air. The channel is now back although it is still having some IT problems and not at full capabilities. Within the last hour presenter Anna Jones closed her laptop saying it was effectively just a "prop" right now. Sky got back on live TV first, then gradually on other platforms like Youtube. (Sky News)
Although the London Stock Exchange is operating normally, its regulatory news service is "currently experiencing a third party global technical issue" meaning news is not being published on its site. (BBC News)
UK lifestyle and fashion magazine Sheerluxe has defended its creation and use of an AI person called Reem as a fashion and lifestyle editor. It said innovation is "central to what we do" but they "didn't explain it properly and we're sorry". (BBC)
Italian journalist Giulia Cortese must pay €5,000 in defamation damages to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Though she was acquitted over a tweet comparing Meloni to Mussolini, Cortese was convicted for saying the PM is 4ft tall and "I can't even see you". (The Guardian)
Five Just Stop Oil protesters were jailed yesterday after The Sun infiltrated a Zoom call and passing the information to police. The judge said: "I know that none of you think much of the Sun newspaper. However she and her newspaper did entirely the right thing by passing [the recording] on to the police.” (The Sun)
The BBC says it reached 450 million people around the world on average every week in 2023/24 - up 0.7% year-on-year but its peak remains 2022 with 492 million. The BBC World Service had an audience of 320 million, also up 0.7%. (See chart here)
Ex-minister Lord Agnew is no longer a director of the owner of Unherd (was Unherd Ventures but changed its name to Old Queen Street Ventures in May). He became chair in October and was expected to help lead it and Sir Paul Marshall in a bid to buy The Telegraph. Lord Agnew is expected to instead focus on "the next stage of GB News's development". He replaced Sir Paul Marshall on the board of GB News owner All Perspectives in April. (Sky News)
Mail Online has been told to undertake an internal review of its handling of a complaint after delays in both offering a correction and during IPSO’s investigation. IPSO’s complaints committee "put on the record its significant concerns at the publication's handling of this complaint". (Mail Online)
The editorial union representing Mashable, Lifehacker and PC Mag has agreed a new contract prohibiting publisher Ziff Davis from laying off staff or cutting salary as a result of the company deploying generative AI. (Nieman Lab)
Celebrity magazine Us Weekly is increasing its number of issues per year from 48 to 52 and increasing its pages per issue by 12. Its publisher A360 Media told Axios Us Weekly's print circulation currently stands at 1.95 million. (Axios)
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark's foundation has renewed its funding for Coalition For Women In Journalism to "continue and advance" its advocacy for women and LGBTQI journalists, especially in North America ahead of the US and Canadian elections. (CFWIJ)
The German government has banned the far-right magazine Compact, saying it "incites hatred against Jews, people with a history of migration and our parliamentary democracy in an unspeakable manner". (DW)
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.
Previously on Press Gazette
‘The first podcast election’: Political podcasts explode in run-up to polling day
Bonnier News CEO interview: Content bundles and personalisation to boost subs
Telegraph sale: DMG Media blames ban on foreign investment as it exits race – and CVC enters
From Sunak’s Nando’s order to ‘woman pulling faces’: Top publisher general election Tiktoks
Harry versus The Sun: Eight-week trial expected to start in January 2025
Australian publishers say ‘catastrophic’ if Meta follows through on news ban
Press Gazette live
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Full agenda and booking details here.