Jim Mullen leaving Reach | Mirror editor defends page view targets
Plus crime reporters say greater police transparency could curb misinformation around events like Southport attacks and we have your news diary for the week ahead
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday, 31 March.
Reach CEO Jim Mullen has left the building clutching a £662,000 bonus which took his total pay last year to £1.25m.
He will continue to be paid his £530,00 salary until he starts his new gig as CEO of the Jockey Club on 1 June.
He earned all that cash by growing operating profit to £102.3m last year on declining revenue of £538.6m, which was no mean feat for Mullen's team given the macro-economic turbulence and tech platform fickleness we saw last year.
But has Mullen left the UK's largest commercial news publisher in a better place than he found it six years ago?
On the positive side of the ledger Reach is nearing the end of phone-hacking and historic pension fund liabilities which will be over in the next two years. So Reach can eye a future when staff aren't chiefly working for a pension fund and law firms/victims of tabloid intrusion. Historic newsroom wrongdoing cost the company £29m in the last two years and pension fund liabilities cost it £59m last year alone.
Pension payments are forecast to fall to £15m by 2029 and hacking is expected to cost £9.1m further over the next two years.
After doing the hard work of paying off both these historic liabilities, Reach should soon have more financial headroom.
But investors remain unconvinced that Reach is a company with a bright future. The current share price is roughly where it was when Mullen took over, giving it a market value just over twice annual operating profit.
Company revenue has declined from £723.9m to £538.6m during Mullen's time in charge.
Digital revenue has increased from £111.6m to £130m, but is still only 25% of the total.
And print decline at the flagship Daily Mirror has outpaced the market, dropping from 482,000 copies per day in August 2019 to 196,000 today. Its print cover price has more than doubled from 75p to £1.70 in that time, maintaining revenue while at the same time hastening decline.
Headcount at Reach has fallen from 4,772 in 2018 to 3,579 at the end of last year.
Reach operates in the toughest two media markets: tabloid and local news, which are both in overall decline.
The challenge for new CEO Piers North is to somehow get the company back into growth. After ten years at Trinity Mirror/Reach, he can hit the ground running without need for the steep learning curve an outsider would face.
As the UK's largest commercial news publisher (and the only UK company of any sort in the top ten list of biggest online properties) the opportunity to somehow capitalise on that is, as North says today, massive.
Today we also share reports on two fascinating panels from the recent Society of Editors Conference.
Mirror editor Caroline Waterston defended the focus on online page views which has caused so much angst for her staff.
And crime reporters revealed how UK police secrecy is continuing to fuel online misinformation which can have dangerous real-world consequences.
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On Press Gazette
Reach CEO Jim Mullen steps down with immediate effect
“Together we have put the business in a stronger position, resolving important historical issues and making real progress on our digital growth, while continuing to deliver impactful journalism.”
Mirror editor says newsroom ‘coming along on journey’ with page-view targets
“Page views are essentially people with eyes on your content and as long as you are looking at that with other metrics whether it be engagement, whether it be most talked about, most commented, it’s something that actually I would say the newsroom are really coming along on the journey with.”
Southport knife attack misinformation due to police PR secrecy say crime journalists
“Somebody in the police communications department simply saying ‘I’m not giving you a quote, but we think it’s X, we don’t think it’s Y’ – it’s incredibly helpful.”
News diary 31 March – 6 April: TikTok divestment deadline, NI changes take effect
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
LBC News presenters Lisa Aziz and Martin Stanford are stepping down from presenting on the 24-hour rolling news station. (Press Gazette)
National World has received a takeover approach from Eldridge Media Holdings as part of talks between David Montgomery and Chelsea FC owner Todd Boehly to buy The Telegraph - but no offer has yet formally been made. National World said it will consider any terms proposed that are of better value for shareholders than the current deal agreed with Media Concierge.
The US Agency for Global Media on Thursday withdrew an order to terminate the 2025 funding grant for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after a judge granted a temporary restraining order over the grant termination. (RFE/RL)
Meanwhile on Friday a judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the same agency from firing staff at Voice of America, as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia or Radio Free Afghanistan. (Associated Press)
Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence for Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson, who was found guilty last year of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. (Axios)
Bloomberg has corrected at least 36 of the AI-generated summaries at the top of its stories this year, according to The New York Times. Bloomberg said “currently 99 percent of AI summaries meet our editorial standards" and journalists have "full control" over whether they appear on a story. Bloomberg editor John Micklethwait spoke in defence of the summaries in December. (The New York Times)
The Guardian US expects to hit $44m in reader donations in the US and Canada this year, up 33% year-on-year, per New York Magazine. Editor Betsy Reed said: “The world is incredibly interested in the shitshow here. God, it’s like they’re rubbernecking at a car crash.” (New York)
The offices of Annapurna Media Network in Kathmandu, Nepal were attacked on Friday with pro-monarchy demonstrators throwing stones and trying to start a fire. The network said it was a blow to the free press. (The Daily Guardian)
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been arrested and detained in Turkey accused of "belonging to an armed terrorist organisation" and "insulting the president". It comes days after BBC journalist Mark Lowen was deported over covering protests. (Politico)
Gary O’Donoghue has been promoted from senior to chief North America correspondent at BBC News. (BBC)
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Immediate Media’s Good Food plans video expansion after record revenue 2024
2025 journalism job cuts tracked: Los Angeles Times cuts continue
Why Google’s impressive value-of-news study has serious shortcomings
King pays tribute to UK local media at lavish Buckingham Palace reception
Failure to tackle online abuse of journalists could prove fatal, editors warned
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