Dan Wootton's next move | TalkTV ends on linear | Gary Younge assesses UK journalism
And why UK media hasn't used paparazzi pictures of Kate Middleton
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Wednesday, 6 March.
Journalists no longer get cancelled, they get Substacks.
Dan Wootton feels he has been cancelled by the mainstream media following allegations last year which were investigated and then dropped by two police forces.
Yesterday, as his departure was announced from GB News, he launched a paid-for email newsletter with plans for a daily show on Youtube.
The move follows news of ballooning losses at the right-wing channel (£42m in the year to May 2023) and the closure of News Corp-owned rival TalkTV as a linear TV channel. Wootton says GB News has become hog-tied by broadcast regulator Ofcom, which objected to an offensively sexist on-air rant from Laurence Fox on Dan Wootton Tonight.
The news speaks to two exploding media themes for 2024: the rise of Substack and the boom in online video.
Youtube and Tiktok are where the online advertising revenue is heading, following the reader eyeballs, and publishers are heading there too. The publisher revenue share on Youtube advertising, thought to be 55% plus, is making it a worthwhile place for them to be.
Substack offers journalists an off-the-shelf tech stack for a 10% revenue share on subscriptions (letting them keep anything they make from direct-sold ads and sponsorship).
We reported last month on how Ankler Media had built a multi-million dollar business publishing entertainment industry news on Substack.
Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan has also launched his own news outlet on the platform which, similarly to Wootton, promises to be "unfiltered".
Whether your politics lie with Hasan or Wootton, or you prefer your news impartial, it is encouraging to see new ways to support independent journalism emerging from the creative destruction of 2023/2024 in news media.
Talking about filtering, if you are wondering why mainstream media outlets have not used that paparazzi photo of Princess Kate which circulated online yesterday - I have an answer for you: responsible journalism.
And today we report on Gary Younge's City University lecture in which he warns that today's media commentators report from a narrow "comfort zone" based on their own social class. He should check out Substack.
New from Press Gazette
News UK pulls the plug on linear TalkTV to focus on cross-platform video content
News UK EVP, president of broadcasting Scott Taunton told staff on Tuesday that TalkTV will come off linear television in the early summer just over two years after it launched on Freeview.
Dan Wootton leaves GB News, launches ‘major new free speech brand’ Outspoken
“As the epitome of deep state Liz Truss spoke about last week, the Ofcommunists have once again shown themselves to be a muzzle that bows to the woke mob and only attacks those with whom it ideologically disagrees.”
‘Responsible journalism’: Why UK publishers have not used Kate picture
Kate has not been photographed in public since she underwent abdominal surgery on 16 January, prompting widespread speculation on social media about her health.
Journalism has become ‘internal memos of the upper class’ says Gary Younge
“It generally takes a seismic event… for the media to take an interest in the underlying structural issues that shape the lives of so many. At which point they ‘discover’ these daily realities in much the same way that teenagers discover sex – urgently, earnestly, voraciously and carelessly, with great self-indulgence but precious little self-awareness.”
News in brief
Global has named outgoing STV boss Simon Pitts as its next group chief executive. (Press Gazette)
Google has announced changes related to the EU Digital Markets Act which aims to curb big tech monopolies and comes into force this week. The changes include more prominence for price comparison sites and less prominence for services like its own Google Flights widget. (Google)
Half-year results for Time Out Group show media division gross revenue unchanged year-on-year and adjusted EBITDA up 43% to £2.5m. Overall group revenues (including Time Out Market) up 7% on like-for-like basis. (Time Out Group)
Baroness Jacqueline Foster will pay "substantial" damages and has published an apology to a student who she accused on X of displaying anti-Semitic symbols while appearing on University Challenge. She accepts her allegations were "completely false and unfounded". (Rahman Lowe Solicitors)
The New York Times Guild has filed a grievance against management over its ongoing leak investigation. (The Wrap)
Latest podcast
Podcast 66: Online advertising – how publishers can survive a tsunami of change
Online advertising used to support investigative journalism at digital-native brands such as Buzzfeed News and Vice. In the space of just a few years everything has changed, and thousands of journalists have lost their jobs as a result.
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford talks to former Business Insider editor-in-chief Jim Edwards about what is going on and how publishers should adapt to an online publishing ecosystem which is being rocked by a tsunami of disruptive change.
This week on Press Gazette
Reach results 2023: Revenue falls 5% as print outperforms digital
GB News losses up 38% to £42.4m giving channel total deficit of £76m since launch
Confidential Leveson documents can be disclosed in Harry’s Mail legal action
Mehdi Hasan says new outlet Zeteo will be ‘all-singing, all-dancing media company’
Dan Wootton/Laurence Fox ruling: Ofcom has ‘significant concerns’ about GB News