Future shutters titles | Gamurs Group lays off 30 staff
Plus the Academy for Disabled Journalists issues an urgent funding call and we have your news diary for the week ahead
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Monday, 30 September, bought to you today in association with the Association of Online Publishers.
AOP Publishing Tech Talk returns to London for another year! Join us as we once again bring into focus the tech solutions driving digital publishing business forwards.
Some 30 staff at media and gaming publisher Gamurs Group have become the latest examples of career death by algorithm.
The publisher blamed changes to Google's search engine, which appears to have become more dramatic and unpredictable in recent years, for the sudden downsizing.
Meanwhile, there were more tough decisions at Future where some straggling titles have been culled because they were slowing down the herd. Magazine brands including 3D World, All About Space and Total911 have been closed as has iMore, a US-based website covering Apple, and hardware website Ananadtech.
The titles had to go because they were no-growth or low-growth, the publisher said in a trading update. The company ended the week with a market capitalisation of just over £1.1bn which is much less than the £1.3bn it has spent on acquiring businesses including Dennis Publishing (£300m), Go Compare (£594m) and TI Media (£140m).
It is a company worth less than the sum of its parts which is currently shrinking, so not a great place to be as a shareholder. Full disclosure: I found out the hard way that investing in media is not a quick way to get rich after making a Future shares investment in my ISA. The money is now instead hidden under my bed.
Overall, Press Gazette has counted at least 2,500 journalism job cuts in the UK and US this year in what seems to be an uptick in media redundancies as we head towards the end of the year - although cuts appear set to come in below the 8,000 we counted last year.
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New from Press Gazette
Future closes titles and events deemed ‘low to no growth assets’
The overall group is expected to bring in around £786m in revenue this year (down from £789m in 2023).
Gaming media group Gamurs cuts 30 staff, blaming Google ‘helpful content’ update
One affected staffer told Press Gazette: “Our rankings started to bomb, as we saw AI and Reddit and Steam come up in the rankings, and our traffic – even our evergreen traffic – just started to drop off, and stuff that should have hit wasn’t wasn’t hitting.”
Academy for Disabled Journalists issues funding SOS
“Without financial backing, we may have to close the Academy, which would be devastating not just for us, but for the disabled individuals whose voices are critically underrepresented in newsrooms.”
News diary 30 Sept – 6 Oct: UK-EU talks, Conservative Party conference, Julian Assange gives testimony
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
We have updated our 2024 media redundancies tracker. The latest additions include US national network Scripps News, which has shut with the loss of 200 jobs. (Press Gazette)
Ceefax was the BBC’s text-based TV news service which taught a generation of journalists to write stories in chunks of four paragraphs which made sense whatever scrolling page of an article the reader landed on. Ian Westbrook has marked its 50th anniversary for Press Gazette – in four paragraphs.
Daily Mail chief digital officer Matthew Wheatland has given evidence to the US antimonopoly trial against Google. Google owns the biggest ad server (DFP), ad-buying tool (Google Ads) and ads exchange (AdX), meaning it keeps 36 cents out over every dollar spent, government prosecutors allege. (Daily Mail)
Russell Findlay has been elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives. A former STV, Sunday Mail and Scottish Sun reporter, in 2015 Findlay was the subject of an acid attack at his home which he believes was prompted by his coverage of a crime boss.
Newsmax and Smartmatic have settled their defamation case after jury selection for the trial had begun. Smartmatic had alleged Newsmax aired false claims its machines rigged the 2020 election results against Donald Trump. (CNN)
London Centric, the new local Substack from former Guardian journalist Jim Waterson, has for its first article confronted London Standard proprietor Evgeny Lebedev about the extent to which the Saudi state has a direct stake in the now-weekly newspaper. Waterson added in the post that London Centric has "already had our first legal threats". (London Centric)
A bankruptcy trustee is set to liquidate and auction Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Alex Jones-owned media brand Infowars. The move follows damages awards of $1.5bn against the title over its reporting of the Sandy Hook school shooting. (Semafor)
A US judge has ruled that Fiona Harvey can sue Netflix for $170m after she was identified as the stalker in drama Baby Reindeer, which was described as "a true story". Harvey says the show falsely implied she had committed sexual assault and was sent to prison. (The Guardian)
Rightmove plc has given News Corp-owned Rea Group until 5pm today to improve on its £6.2bn offer for the company. (Bloomberg)
Previously on Press Gazette
Brand safety a ‘con’ costing news industry billions, new research says
Pay for UK journalists has grown since 2018 after period of stagnation
Weekly London Standard launches with AI Keir Starmer front page
Winning technology strategies shared by Times, Mail and Haymarket
The joy of text: Publishers use old tech to reach new readers
Michael Gove to replace Fraser Nelson as Spectator editor under new ownership
Press Gazette live
Entries are now open for the 2024 British Journalism Awards. The deadline is midnight TONIGHT.
The event is open to all journalists producing work targeted at a UK audience. The criteria stipulate that reports must bring important new information to light, show journalistic skill and rigour and make a difference for the better.
The awards pit the smallest local newspapers and independent podcasters against the biggest international news organisations. The great leveller is the quality of the story being told.
