Hello from the team at Press Gazette on Monday, 26 January.
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🏢 Fundamental changes in how content is distributed and consumed have been blamed on a decision to cut 45 roles on Future’s tech titles including Techradar and Tom’s Guide.
A quick translation of this is: falling referral traffic from Google, the rise of AI-enhanced zero-click search and video platforms Tiktok and Youtube are taking attention from publishers.
Future is making 15 new jobs to focus on growth areas. I would not be surprised if these are largely social media creators rather than journalists. The move comes after Future bought social-first creator-led marketing outfit Sheerluxe for £40m last week.
We heard how Reach is embracing conversational search to deepen its relationship with readers. The Express even has its own onboard AI chatbot now.
The era of ‘renting’ traffic with articles that answer simple search queries like ‘what time is the Superbowl on?’ may be over.
The game now is all about deepening publishers’ relationship with those readers determined enough to make it through the AI-written summaries to land on a publisher page.
She is an intensely private person, she said. And she is convinced that details of private phone calls could only have come to light from phone taps and bugs planted by the Mail.
We will hear soon enough from the journalists who wrote the stories as to where they came from. I would be astonished if they can’t come up with more legitimate sources. The claims appear to rest on the testimony of Gavin Burrows, the private eye paid tens of thousands by Prince Harry’s legal team who has since recanted everything.
🤏News In Brief
Vox Media and Bustle Digital Group's Inverse have each laid off staff so far in 2026. (Press Gazette)
PRs need to stop being complicit in “suppression of information” via Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), lawsuits which should be outlawed by the UK parliament. (Press Gazette)
This week’s Foresight News diary includes results from tech giants Meta, Apple, Samsung and Microsoft and the Australian Open finals. (Press Gazette)
Watch the British Journalism Awards 2025 highlights video, featuring Journalist of the Year Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News and Comment Journalism winner Fraser Nelson of The Times. (Press Gazette)
The BBC will face “profound jeopardy” over its future unless it embraces significant changes to its funding, outgoing director general Tim Davie said, as he signalled support for a licence fee overhaul. (The Guardian)
The Verge has criticised Google for continuing to replace its headlines in Google Discover with AI-generated "clickbait nonsense". The outlet reported Google said the AI headlines are a feature, not an experiment, and that they perform "well for user satisfaction". (The Verge)
One of Tiktok's biggest creators of news videos "News Daddy" Dylan Page has left the platform after it reduced his earnings from advertising and repeatedly took his videos down. Tiktok cites "community guidelines" for penalising Page. (The Tab)
The Washington Post has pulled its reporting team from covering the Winter Olympics in two weeks' time. One newsroom source told the The New York Times it had already spent $80,000 on accommodation alone. (NYT)
The paper’s foreign correspondents have also sent a letter to owner Jeff Bezos as they fear cuts: “We know what happens when newspapers slash their international sections: they lose reach and they lose relevance”. (Max Tani on X)
The Minnesota Star Tribune has put live blogs outside the paywall, given subscribers unlimited gift links, unveiled a family plan subscription and announced a non-profit fund to accept tax-deductible donations. (Media Nation)
Also in Minnesota, a judge rejected federal prosecutors’ attempt to criminally charge independent journalist Don Lemon in relation to his presence at a protest last week. (The Washington Post)
Oxford Brookes University has launched the David McClure Public Interest Journalism Fellowship to support one fellow per year with an award of £15,000. McClure, who died of cancer in 2022, was a journalist who investigated the Royal family estate. (Oxford Brookes University)
Substack has launched a TV app for Apple TV and Google TV so people can watch video posts and livestreams from the creators and publications they’re subscribed to. (On Substack)
Forbes is about to launch its own prediction platform, Forbes Predict, which is designed to boost engagement by letting readers make forecasts and track results in exchange for tokens. (Digiday)
📈Top five on Press Gazette this week:
1) Eight in ten of world’s biggest news websites now block AI training bots
Publishers told it’s “never too late” to start blocking sites from being crawled by AI bots.
2) Future plc buys beauty and fashion brand Sheerluxe for £40m
Social-first publisher deal brings cost of Future acqusitions to £1.6bn over ten years.
3) Mail has made Meghan’s life absolute misery, says Prince Harry
Prince Harry did not complain about articles ‘because of the institution I was in’.
4) Independent set to take over running Standard website
Staff will transfer on 1 March with option to take redundancy.
5) Nandy ‘minded to’ seek competition probe into DMGT’s Telegraph takeover
Culture secretary will not intervene to look at any foreign state influence in the deal.
📻Latest podcast
Prince Harry versus tabloids: The final showdown
Prince Harry is facing the publisher of the Daily Mail in what is set to be one Britain’s biggest ever privacy trials.
Costs for both sides could top £40m.
Harry has accused the Mail of commissioning burglary, phone tapping and voicemail interception. The Mail denies everything and accuses Prince Harry’s legal team of using cash payments to witnesses to bolster their case.
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford looks back to the News of the World front pages in 2008 that started the war on UK tabloids, which has raged on since then.
He also discusses the questionable evidence-gathering tactics which the Daily Mail believes undermine Prince Harry’s case and explains why the backing of co-claimant Elton John means this final legal battle is set to go the distance.