'Don't worry about page views' message pays off for Newsquest | US mags data
Plus Noel Clarke's barrister claims The Guardian played 'judge, jury and executioner' and your news diary includes the fifth anniversary of Covid pandemic
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday, 10 March.
If the news last month that US investors are planning a takeover of Rangers football club had broken five years earlier, Herald publisher Newsquest would have bombarded the internet with stories to reap as many page views as possible
Newsquest Scotland editor-in-chief Callum Baird told Press Gazette the team instead worked on one story about the news to “make it count and make it so everybody has to come back to us”. He said the takeover coverage helped add 800 paying subscribers to the standalone Rangers Review website.
Baird said that staff on The Herald and National titles are now told: “Don’t worry about page views. We want you to just drive subscriptions. We want people to come back and read your stuff. And we want real quality from you.”
Today we also have the latest circulation data for the top 50 magazine titles in the US.
Culture and current affairs magazine The Atlantic was the fastest grower, up 15% to 1.2 million paying readers. Amazingly, it managed similar growth of print and digital subscriptions.
Combined print and digital magazine circulation fell 3.6% overall among the top 50 US titles.
We don’t have directly comparable figures for the UK, but last year average circulation decline among ABC-audited magazine titles ran at 5.75%.
Actor Noel Clarke’s £10m libel action against The Guardian has kicked off at the High Court in florid style with his barrister Philip Williams saying: “The Guardian acted like archaeologists, and tried to dig up the past… they came up with a story that had more holes than a colander.”
Gavin Millar QC for The Guardian said: “The defendant will adduce evidence from 16 women who experienced the claimant’s misconduct first-hand, some of them on multiple occasions.
“There is no motive for them to lie and the claimant has not suggested any, beyond making wild allegations as to an alleged conspiracy.”
In the 1970s half the foreign desk for The Sunday Times appear to have been spies (split between the KGB, MI6 and a smattering of CIA).
Yesterday the paper delved into this world as it published a major investigation into the murder in Cairo of its foreign correspondent David Holden in 1978. It concluded he was likely to have been a KGB spy killed by the Egyptian security service.
Meanwhile, the conviction of three Bulgarian spies working for Russia in the UK on Friday makes worrying reading for UK journalists who investigate Vladimir Putin’s regime. The trio reportedly discussed the kidnapping and murder of Christo Grozev, a journalist who investigated the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for UK-based news website Bellingcat.
On Press Gazette
‘Don’t worry about page views’: Newsquest Scotland tops 40,000 online subscriptions
How Herald, National and six standalone sports sites are growing digital subscriptions.
Top 50 magazines in the US: The Atlantic is fastest growing title in second half of 2024
Collectively, combined print and digital circulation across the top 50 fell by 3.6% year-on-year.
Noel Clarke claims Guardian played ‘judge, jury and executioner’ as libel trial opens
“Since the publication, he has become ‘completely exiled’ from the film industry and is perceived as a criminal by all those who previously trusted and worked with him.”
News diary 10 – 16 March: US-Ukraine talks, five years since WHO declared pandemic
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
The Sunday Times journalist David Holden, assassinated in Cairo in 1978, was likely a KGB spy who was killed by the Egyptian authorities. A new book tries to solve the mystery of his death. (The Sunday Times)
The BBC spent £1.3m on the Huw Edwards scandal, mostly on lawyers and consultants, an FT Freedom of Information request has revealed. (Financial Times)
Three Bulgarian spies working for Russia trailed journalists Roman Dobrokhotov and Christo Grozev around the UK and Europe and discussed murdering them. Grozev investigated the poisoning of Alexei Navalny for UK-based site Bellingcat in 2020. (BBC News)
CBS has filed two motions seeking to dismiss Donald Trump's $20bn damages claim for "election interference" over the editing of an interview with Kamala Harris. The US network says the case is a clear breach of its First Amendment right to freedom of speech. (Axios)
Sky News has signed a new multi-year deal with IRN (Independent Radio News) to keep providing news to commercial radio stations across the UK. The new deal also means those stations, including LBC and Times Radio, can use Sky News video on digital platforms. (Sky Group)
Also on Press Gazette:
‘AI time dividend’ fuels booming income from face-to-face events for Informa
Rebekah and Jamie Vardy secure Daily Mail correction after IPSO complaint
Mark Allen Group blames ‘troublesome’ Bonhill deal as profit falls in 2024
Financial Times CEO John Ridding to step down after 19 years
Newsletters switch at Which? created one million prospective new subscribers
Why opening of video studios across UK is ‘really big moment’ for Reach
Latest Press Gazette podcast
Latest Podcast: How to lose £100m with GB News | Print decline in the USA | Green shoots at Reach
Press Gazette's editorial team share their insights into big stories from the world of news. GB News has lost nearly £100m but is growing its non-TV advertising revenue and heading in the right direction. Charlotte Tobitt talks about this and the implications of its big legal victory over Ofcom.
Bron Maher shares some highlights from Press Gazette analysis for US newspaper and magazine print circulation figures. There are only a handful of newspapers selling more than 100,000 print copies in the USA (but they can console themselves with the fact they have strong digital subscriber bases).
And Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford looks at the latest financial results from Reach which reveal growing page views and profits amid a backdrop of overall decline at the UK's biggest commercial news publisher.