Jay Rayner vs PR spam | Hyperlocal hit with bill for Savills' copyright blunder
Plus the top 50 news sites in the US and the world and Mail on Sunday public interest defence thrown out in "statin deniers" libel case
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Wednesday 26 June, 2024.
Observer food critic Jay Rayner was so annoyed with PR platform Synapse sending him press releases that he wrote them a blistering letter urging them to stop driving him nuts.
Hats off to Synapse for ingenuity, as they've now turned his complaint into another press release. Rayner touches on a long-standing gripe from journalists since the advent of email databases has led many PR companies to carpet bomb them with irrelevant announcements.
It's the media equivalent of those phishing emails from a 'Nigerian prince'. We have the whole story here.
Meanwhile in Wiltshire, a local not-for-profit news website is pitted against property giant Savills in a battle over a £460 bill for copyright breach. The estate agency firm, which made more than £2bn in revenue last year, sent out an image which it did not have the rights to about a pub it was trying to sell.
Marlborough News editor Neil Goodwin normally donates his profits to his local community. But instead he is facing the prospect of subsidising the shareholders and directors of Savills who have refused to pick up the bill for their mistake.
If, like me, you think this is an affront to justice, decency and good old-fashioned British fair play you can share your views with @savills on X or write to CEO Mark Ridley (paid £2m last year) using the contact form on their website here.
Today we also have the latest top 50 news website rankings in the US and world.
And we have a report from the High Court where the Mail on Sunday is accused of distorting a statement from former health secretary Matt Hancock which had the effect of branding two individuals as "statin deniers".
New from Press Gazette
‘So many damn follow-up emails’: Jay Rayner tells PRs to stop ‘driving me nuts’
Rayner was prompted to make his call after receiving emails from PR pitching platform Synapse inviting him to attend a webinar called “Is rejection killing the PR industry?”
Public interest defence not allowed for Mail on Sunday ‘statin deniers’ articles
Dr Malcolm Kendrick and Zoe Harcombe are suing The Mail on Sunday’s publisher – Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) – and its health editor Barney Calman, for libel, over articles in 2019 which they claim described them as “statin deniers” who had caused “grave harm”.
Top 50 news websites in the world: BBC fastest-growing among ten biggest brands in May
None of the top ten sites saw smaller audiences in May compared to April, although the audiences to the Daily Mail and India Times were largely unchanged from last month.
Top 50 news websites in the US: People and News Corp titles see strong May growth as places shift at the top of the ranking
While The New York Times remained the biggest newsbrand in the US by number of visits, followed by CNN, a strong monthly performance from Fox News led it to overtake MSN in third place, pushing MSN into fourth.
Non-profit local website gets £460 bill for PR image provided by £1.6bn property firm
Co-founder Neil Goodwin told Press Gazette that Savills, which has a market capitalisation of £1.6bn, does not accept responsibility for the copyright violation and will not pay the £460 sum. Whereas Goodwin works on a largely voluntary basis, Savills CEO Mark Ridley was paid nearly £2m in 2023.
News in brief
GB News election night plans: Camilla Tominey and Stephen Dixon will anchor overnight but no sign of Boris Johnson, despite the announcement in October that he would be a presenter on the channel with a "key role" in election coverage. (Press Gazette)
The chief executives of Reach, Tindle and Newsquest, which between them publish more than 30 titles in Wales, have called on the Welsh government to drop plans to remove council tax notices from local papers warning of a "democratic deficit" and potential significant hit to revenue. (News Media Association)
The Telegraph has raised its weekday cover price from £3 to £3.50 with the Saturday edition to rise from £4 to £4.50 and Sunday’s also from £3 to £3.50. But The Federation of Independent Retailers says shops will receive a cut to the % margin they receive. (The Fed)
Google has chosen a new group called the Canadian Journalism Collective to distribute $100m of funding paid in order to avoid coming under the Online News Act. Move is snub for the larger Online News Media Collective. (National Post)
AP has launched its new independent sister organisation The AP Fund for Journalism which aims to raise $100m for US local journalism. Its chief revenue officer said last month this will enable AP to “fundraise at much larger levels”. (Axios)
Uri Berliner, the journalist who was suspended then resigned from NPR after 25 years following his public criticism of its recent coverage in a piece for Bari Weiss' The Free Press, has joined The Free Press as a senior editor. (The Free Press)
Former RTE Northern Ireland editor Tommie Gorman, who spent 40 years with the broadcaster, has died at 68. He was "respected by all sides of the political spectrum and was a trusted source of information... during challenging years", Irish President Michael D Higgins said. (RTE)
Previously on Press Gazette
Campaigners claim victory as Julian Assange freed after five years in Belmarsh
Tristan Kirk’s fight for open justice: ‘I was only reporter covering these cases’
Nigel Farage goes to war with Mail titles over coverage of Ukraine comments
Mind the London news gap: The boroughs which have little coverage of council activities
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