From Substack success to print magazine launch for Vittles I AI skills for journalists
And how The Economist is trying to boost engagement to ensure more of its 1.2 million subscribers stick around
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Wednesday, 21 May, brought to you in association with PA Media.
Substack pays the bills for upmarket food newsletter Vittles.
But print feeds the soul of the title’s founder Jonathan Nunn who has fulfilled a long-held ambition to launch an actual ink-on-paper magazine.
Print, Nunn says, is the new counterculture: “Suddenly you’re only limited by your imagination. You’re not limited by how the back end of a website works. You can do anything.”
There is a school of economics (subscribed to by the owners of gym chains) that passive subscribers who never actually use the thing they are paying for are a lucrative source of revenue. Maybe it is better to let sleeping dogs lie?
But The Economist’s VP of retention and engagement Tamsin Larcombe says engaged customers are more valuable ones and she wants to find ways to create more of them.
The big challenge for schools and universities is finding ways to stop students using Gen AI to write their assignments. Brown shares some tips on how best to use AI in the newsroom, noting that if journalism educators don’t embrace the new tech students will use it anyway (only without any guardrails in place).
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On Press Gazette
‘Print is new counter culture’ says Vittles founder as newsletter launches in print
Why popular food Substack-based newsletter Vittles has launched a magazine.
How The Economist is building engagement to reduce subsriber churn
More intimate, less frequent engagements can be worth many times more than reading an individual article.
The new skills journalists need in the era of generative AI
“As with a poorly written press request or FOI, the nature of the prompt is key in getting something useful out of an LLM.”
News in brief
Huge budget cuts, including job losses and a reduction in screen time, are hitting ITV daytime shows Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women. Production of GMB will move from ITV Studios to ITV News, resulting in job cuts due to duplication between them. (The Guardian)
A BBC programme which aired a claim that Gerry Adams sanctioned the killing of a spy would “probably” not have breached broadcasting regulations and was not “unfair or unjust”, the man who drew up Ofcom's rules has told a libel trial. (PA via MSN)
The BBC has defended its recent interview with Prince Harry after complaints that it was biased in his favour. It said the journalist's "tone and approach was appropriate to the context" and the interview was "duly impartial and in the public interest". (BBC)
The BBC has responded after complaints from people who thought its audio translation on the BBC News Channel of Pope Leo XIV's first speech might have been done by AI. It explained that "a poor internet connection distorted the voice coming through for audiences". (BBC)
Also on Press Gazette
‘The algorithm is a beast’: Editing for social media at Ladbible, Joe and Metro
Express rapped by IPSO over inaccurate headlines six times in three months
Man who said Guardian article ‘forced him into hiding’ has libel case thrown out
The Times gives readers ‘bonus accounts’ in bid to retain more subscribers
Coverage of UK courts threatening to become a state-sponsored monopoly
Newspaper ABCs: Sunday People sees biggest annual print circulation decline
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Former Mirror editor Alison Phillips talks to Press Gazette's Dominic Ponsford as she launches a new weekly podcast called Crime Scene with former Metropolitan Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe.