Los Angeles Times reveals $50m loss as it seeks $500m investment
And monthly analysis of newspaper ABCs reveals Express weekday circulation has dropped below 100,000
Welcome to this week’s Press Gazette Future of Media newsletter on Thursday, 16 October, sponsored by FT Strategies - consulting from the Financial Times.
FT Strategies provides Print Optimisation services designed to help publishers streamline print operations, reduce costs and build a more sustainable business.
🤖 How are publishers using AI in content production?
Press Gazette wants to find out and we are specifically keen to discover what is going on at the coalface.
I know The Telegraph and The Times ban journalists from using AI to draft articles. At the likes of Reach and Newsquest, in-house bots are used to write articles in certain circumstances which are then edited by journalists.
At least one major publisher I know of refers internally to the AI sandwich – whereby journalists ask AI a question then edit and publish the answer (which sounds pretty worrying to me).
And even publishers with strict guardrails around the use of AI have been duped into publishing AI-written quotes and case studies provided by dubious PR outfits.
If you are involved in content production in any way at a publisher (from reporters to editors) please fill out our quick anonymous survey. It will take five minutes to complete and will form the basis of a Press Gazette investigation into AI in the newsroom. Thank you!
The Daily Mail for instance still sells over one million copies on a Saturday, but half that figure on weekdays.
At the FT the Saturday edition is more than double that of Monday to Friday with 83,000 sales versus 40,000 sales.
The Mail titles are leading the pack - not just in terms of overall sales but also rate of decline - with both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday falling by around 7% a year. The Daily and Sunday Express are among the biggest fallers, down 18% and 21% respectively year on year.
The Daily Express now sells less than 100,000 copies per day during the week.
Meanwhile, my estimate is that The Guardian (which no longer publishes its ABC figures) is now well below 50,000 copies per day during the week.
🗞️The LA Times has opened its books as it seeks investment of $500m.
The figures make fairly grim reading with losses of $50m last year. But the promise of a 7% annual return and the backing of billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong will provide investors with some reassurance about what looks like an otherwise risky bet.
Scores are believed to have handed in their badges in a near total show of solidarity.
Among the restrictions proposed were a ban on unsolicited requests for information (i.e. journalism).
Publishers ranging from Fox News to The New York Times have agreed that their job is to be more than stenographers for official announcements.
💻There is no Press Gazette daily newsletter tomorrow but we will be sending our weekly Future of Media USA update. You can sign up for that here.
From our sponsor
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At FT Strategies, we help media organisations transform their print operations into lean, profitable and sustainable businesses. Drawing on more than a decade of experience optimising the Financial Times’ own print model, we bring deep expertise, data-driven methods and a proven track record across global markets.
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🗞️News In Brief
New articles primarily generated by AI briefly outnumbered those written by humans online in November last year but they are now roughly equal, according to a new study. (Axios)Some 150 jobs were cut at NBC News on Wednesday (about 2% of the workforce) as the network’s news division faces cuts ahead of Comcast’s planned spinoff of most cable networks into a new company, Versant. (The Hollywood Reporter)The New York Sun, which relaunched under its new owner and publisher Dovid Efune in 2022, is reviving the paper’s print edition for the first time since 2008. (Axios)📈Top five on Press Gazette this week:
1) Mail invests heavily in creating content for Tiktok and Instagram
‘You are not selling around the content, you’re selling the content.’
2) Techcrunch founding editor at large Mike Butcher launches new title
Like Techcrunch, Pathfounders will cover the start-up scene.
3) How Far Out grew from student blog to 30 full-time staff
Founder of culture title said it averages 20 million page views per month.
4) Slow digital growth sees Reach revenue fall in third quarter
Page views to Reach newsbrands down 1% in year so far.
5) Culture brand Broadsheet marks London launch with first print edition
Broadsheet London is online and distributing a free quarterly print magazine.
📻Latest podcast
The race to video with Goalhanger’s Jack Davenport
Whatever medium publishers started out on, many are now racing towards Youtube and other online video platforms as the fastest growing source of both audience and revenue.
Goalhanger co-founder Jack Davenport joined Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford to discuss this phenomenon alongside consultant Connie Krarup of Q5 Partners.
He revealed how the producer of hit shows such as The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Politics now sees itself as a video production company more than an audio producer.
Davenport also spoke about Goalhanger’s commercial model, which includes strong incentives for hosts, and shared his tips for other publishers who want to succeed in an increasingly video-dominated media age.
This edition was sponsored by Q5 Partners.