Guardian management face staff fury while GMG chair explains sale in open letter
Plus Mail on Sunday makes 'substantial' statins libel payouts, Wired UK goes quarterly and why journalists are cautious about calling conflicts genocides
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Monday 9 December 2024, brought to you today in association with The Content Exchange.
Tortoise has won The Observer but can it win over the dressing room, to coin a footballing expression?
The deal to acquire the title has been agreed (not yet signed) but the drama continues. Guardian and Observer journalists have opted to continue their industrial action this week in protest at the deal.
And they are also expected to discuss whether to hold votes of no confidence in the current Guardian Media Group leadership.
Today we publish an open letter from GMG chair Charles Gurassa in which he explains the rationale for selling The Observer, which has been part of The Guardian family since 1993.
We also have a report from Friday's meeting between staff and Guardian/Scott Trust management in which the former vented their rage against the latter, and in which Guardian editor Kath Viner really seemed to rile some of those present with a couple of her comments.
The Mail on Sunday has paid "very substantial" damages to a doctor and academic it wrongly described as "statin deniers".
Sky News has confirmed that business presenter Ian King is leaving the channel in the spring.
There are changes at Conde Nast where Wired UK is going from print to quarterly frequency and the global editorial teams are being merged into one.
And on Genocide Prevention Day today, it is worth asking ourselves what journalists can do to prevent atrocities. We can report on what we see and hear, writes former foreign correspondent Heidi Kingstone, and help establish the facts on the ground. But she explains why reporters should be cautious about using terms like genocide to describe current conflicts.
We also have your news diary for the week ahead which includes a pre-trial hearing in the Prince Harry versus The Sun legal battle.
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On Press Gazette
Scott Trust and Guardian management face staff fury over Observer sale
One speaker told Guardian and Scott Trust leaders the process was “damaging for the reputation of The Guardian, you should all be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves” – to which there was applause and cheering.
Guardian chair says Tortoise deal will end ‘inevitable decline’ of Observer
“The Observer, in this context, has found itself left behind in a fast-evolving digital news environment, confined to a small, loyal but shrinking Sunday print reading audience. Younger audiences have little awareness of the brand or, if truth be told, interest in a Sunday print news product.”
Wired UK to go quarterly and merge teams with global editions
In a letter sent with copies of the January and February issue of the Condé Nast-owned magazine, the UK edition of the title told readers that it had “gone global” and would be “uniting our global newsroom into a single, powerful team”.
Mail on Sunday pays ‘substantial’ damages over ‘statin deniers’ articles
Zoë Harcombe PhD and Dr Malcolm Kendrick sued Associated Newspapers and the Mail on Sunday‘s head of health Barney Calman for libel over articles published in March 2019 under headlines including “Deadly propaganda of the statin deniers” and “There is a special place in hell for the doctors who claim statins don’t work”.
Comment: Why journalists are cautious about calling current conflicts ‘genocide’
“There are two key facts about genocide: one is that it is a legal term that can only be decided by the courts. That may change in time, but that is the case for now. Two, and fundamental in understanding the nature of the ‘crime of crimes’, is intent.”
News diary 9 – 15 December: Harry vs Sun pre-trial hearing, Sycamore Gap tree trial starts
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
Conde Nast has laid off at least 14 staff members including some of its top executives as well as a number of editorial, social media and events staff. (Press Gazette)
Longtime Sky News business presenter Ian King will leave the broadcaster in the spring. Private Eye reported last week King has been “mysteriously absent” from Sky since September, when Business Live moved from the City of London to the main Sky studios in Osterley, west London. (Press Gazette)
Two Romanian nationals have been charged over the stabbing of Iran International TV journalist Pouria Zeraati in Wimbledon in March. Extradition proceedings have begun. (BBC News)
Global advertising revenue is expected to pass $1trn for the first time this year, with more than half earned by Google, Facebook owner Meta, Tiktok owner Bytedance, Amazon and Chinese tech/e-commerce company Alibaba. (Financial Times)
President Joe Biden says the US believes freelance journalist Austin Tice is still alive in Syria after being taken hostage in 2012, but they need to identify his location: "We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet." (BBC News)
Also on Press Gazette:
Comment: Online ecosystem is squeezing small publishers out of business
On the picket line at Guardian: ‘Observer, Observer, James Harding don’t deserve her!’
Perplexity to share ad revenue with signed-up publishers after flurry of criticism
Future CEO says Google update has not harmed affiliate revenues
Most popular news apps in the UK: BBC News now bigger than Apple News
Time CEO Jessica Sibley says B2B shift is working for 101-year-old brand
Latest podcast
Podcast 79: How Bluesky became News-sky, Google Discover, US election lessons
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford talks about the benefits of Bluesky for publishers with the zeal of a new convert, reporter Bron Maher explains how publishers are getting new traffic from Google via Discover and Charlotte Tobitt reveals the biggest lessons for the news industry from the US presidential election.