How Business Insider is deploying AI | Publishers slip down UK websites ranking
And Big Issue editor Paul McNamee explains how the title is expanding its remit from homelessness to poverty and finding new sources of revenue away from the streets
Good morning and welcome to your Press Gazette Future of Media newsletter on Thursday, 12 December, brought to you this week with Avid Collective’s end-to-end suite of publisher tools ‘Avid PubSuite’ - unlocking the true potential of branded content.
It makes me chuckle when I hear the likes of Alastair Campbell still rail against the billionaires who he says control UK media.
He needs to read Press Gazette to see where the real power in Britain lies.
Our latest ranking of online publishers (looking at the whole internet not just news) shows that commercial news publishers like News Corp and the Daily Mail group don't even figure in the top ten companies when it comes to where people spend time online.
Google owner Alphabet is number one reaching 99% of the UK internet population each month across its platforms with a stupendous monthly total of 26 billion page views.
Meta, Bytedance, Microsoft and Amazon make up the rest of the top five with UK-based commercial publishers not making an appearance until number 12 in the ranking for online engagement based on Ipsos iris data.
It's an article which underlines the urgent need for regulation of big tech under powers set out in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act to ensure these companies are not unfairly exploiting their dominant positions on advertising and access to information.
We already know from US cases that Google unfairly shores up its number one position with huge payments securing its prominence on a range of devices.
I'd hate to see Google go away, it is the best free marketing tool in the history of news. But it would be great to see a few guardrails in place to ensure the UK media is a place where creators (and not just curators) are rewarded.
Today we also have an inteview with the chief technology officer of Business Insider in which he explains how AI deployed in the newsroom is enabling the title to punch above its weight, as he puts it. He also talks about why Business Insider has shifted from targeting a mass audience to focusing on a more narrow niche.
And as street newspaper The Big Issue gears up for Christmas (when its vendors can expect a large bump in sales), editor Paul McNamee told us how the title is diversifying revenue away from the single copy sales upon which the business is based.
Press Gazette will be reporting today on the industrial dispute at The Guardian over the sale of The Observer as journalists start a second two-day strike. Read all our coverage of this still-developing story here.
And check out the Press Gazette website and our X/Bluesky accounts later tonight when we will be reporting live from the British Journalism Awards in London.
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On Press Gazette
Business Insider tech chief: AI lets us ‘punch above our weight class’
“The approach that we’re taking is really going back to figuring out, okay, who is our core audience and making sure we are building out a product that supports journalism.”
The Big Issue’s shift from street paper to campaigning digital title
Editor Paul McNamee says the title has broadened its focus from homelessness to poverty.
UK’s biggest online publishers: Reddit growing fast, Mail sees sharp traffic drop
This week on Press Gazette
26 leading former Guardian/Observer writers express ‘horror’ at actions of Scott Trust
GB News dismisses report accusing it of ‘almost obsessive’ coverage of Muslims
50 biggest UK news websites in October: Sun falls out of top five
Spectator rebuked for calling Juno Dawson ‘a man who claims to be a woman’
Rupert Murdoch loses attempt to give Lachlan control in family trust overhaul
Journalist-friendly CMS Labrador is packed with time-saving AI tools (promoted)
RELX-owned B2B title Estates Gazette to close after 166 years
Wired UK to go quarterly and merge teams with global editions
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.