Guardian signs OpenAI deal | Reach warned by ASA | New newspaper for London
Plus we have your news diary for the week ahead
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday 17 February.
The Guardian has become the latest major publisher to sign a deal with OpenAI to license the use of its content for training data and in AI summaries based on current events.
Time will tell whether it has sold its future for a mess of pottage or if this (and the many other publisher AI deals) turn out to be wise business arrangements.
My AI noodling suggests ChatGPT's summaries are sufficiently comprehensive to ensure few readers will click through to publisher sources (which are not always even supplied).
The other concern is a reputational one, which appears to be embedded into all generative AI systems: they are more likely than not to get stuff wrong. BBC research earlier this month revealed that more than 60% of ChatGPT answers based on BBC content included inaccuracies.
Under the deal The Guardian also gets to use OpenAI's technology. Separately the title has joined litigation against a Canadian AI start-up which is accused of taking its content without permission.
Reach is in hot water with regulators again, this time after posting links to sponsored article on social media without flagging them as such. The Advertising Standards Authority investigation against Hull Live follows a negative IPSO ruling over two misleading clickbait headlines published by Birmingham Live.
London has a new daily newspaper following the launch of London Daily Digital at City Hall.
The title is publishing a daily flip-through digital newspaper and monthly print edition out of offices on Fleet Street.
I think the 18-strong team may be the first newsroom on Fleet Street since 2016, when Scottish title The Sunday Post moved its last two reporters out of UK journalism's spiritual home.
We have a report from the launch event and share London Daily Digital's first print front page.
Your news diary for the week ahead includes a series of economic updates which could tell us whether the UK is recovering or faltering: UK employment statistics are released tomorrow, inflation data is expected on Wednesday and on Friday there are updates on UK public sector finances and retail sales figures.
On Press Gazette
New London newspaper launches with promise to revitalise Fleet Street
Executive editor and managing director Azeez Anasudhin has worked on titles including Gulf Today and City Times, both based in Dubai, and owns Asian Lite, a UK-based digital newspaper and website which was launched in 2007.
Guardian signs licensing deal with ChatGPT owner OpenAI
Guardian chief financial and operating officer Keith Underwood said: “This new partnership with OpenAI reflects the intellectual property rights and value associated with our award-winning journalism, expanding our reach and impact to new audiences and innovative platform services.”
Reach told by ASA to stop posting ad features on social media without flagging
“While we have been willing to close this case without further action based on Reach’s assurance, I can assure you that we have made it very clear to them that they do need to address this situation once and for all.”
News diary 17 – 23 February: stayed Trump citizenship order due to come into effect, Luigi Mangione in court
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
The White House says it is limiting Associated Press access to the Oval Office and Air Force One "indefinitely" because of the agency's continued use of the name "Gulf of Mexico". (The Hill)
Money Saving Expert owner MONY Group has revealed record revenue of £439.2m, up 2% in 2024, driven mainly by its insurance division. The MSE app averaged 460,000 monthly active users, up 10% from 2023, and more than 9.3 million people now get the main weekly email newsletter. (MONY Group)
The New York Times has introduced an internal AI summarisation tool and approved the use of several AI programs for editorial and product staff — including OpenAI’s non-ChatGPT API through the NYT business account with approval from the legal department, despite its ongoing legal action. (Semafor)
UK-based lawyers representing Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai say since taking on his case they have been continuously targeted by the Chinese state with surveillance, digital impersonations and "hundreds" of bank account hacking attempts. (The Guardian)
'Giant' of sports journalism Patrick Barclay, who wrote for The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, The Times and the Standard, has died aged 77. (The Telegraph)
Former Guardian science editor, letters editor, arts editor and literary editor Tim Radford - who once wrote 25 '“commandments for journalists” - has died aged 84. The commandments are here and still relevant today. (The Guardian)
The best of Press Gazette this week:
Who’s suing AI and who’s signing: 14 publishers join lawsuit against start-up Cohere
National World shareholders approve acquisition by Media Concierge
Two Birmingham Live headlines ‘actively misleading’ says IPSO
Giving readers less can lead to more subscribers, new research
100k Club: 2025 ranking of world’s biggest news publishers by digital subscribers
Sun reporter visited parents of aid worker killed in Gaza before they knew of his death
A record 124 journalists were killed in 2024, mostly by Israeli military
Latest Press Gazette podcast
Podcast 82: Newsletter strategy for publishers: Masterclass with the FT's Sarah Ebner
Over four years at the Financial Times head of newsletters for the title Sarah Ebner has helped grow the title's number of email subscribers from 500,000 to 1.6 million. She told Press Gazette that email newsletters are now the biggest driver of reader engagement at the FT. They are also hugely important for subscriber loyalty and finding new paying readers as well as providing advertising and subscription revenue in their own right.
I hope you will consider joining our newsletter family. We have over 1175 subscribers and daily viewership of 2,876, an amazing 375 non fiction historical articles. EVERYTHING IS FREE. Great feedback from all. https://makinghistorycomealive.substack.com/