Mail Online subs plan confirmed | Athletic joins Apple News
And Guido Fawkes editor Paul Staines dropped as an Amnesty judge
Good morning and welcome to your daily media news briefing on Wednesday, 20 December.
It’s now been confirmed: Mail Online WILL publish 10 to 15 paywalled stories a day from the end of January.
Particularly interesting is the summary of what types of stories will receive the premium treatment – including investigations, royal and showbiz exclusives and columnists. The stuff that the Mail believes it does better than anyone else.
In print, the Mail titles continue to sit at the top of our print circulation table (which does not include its biggest rivals at The Sun anymore as their data went private) with decline among the smallest of the newspapers listed. See our full ABC update for November here.
Meanwhile The Athletic has joined Apple News+ three years after its now-parent company left Apple News altogether. We heard from Apple’s senior vice president of services Eddy Cue about the value exchange between readers, Apple and news publishers.
And finally, some old-fashioned Twitter criticism has ended up with Amnesty International removing Guido Fawkes editor Paul Staines as a judge for its next awards.
New from Press Gazette
Mail Online confirms plan for subscription service with 10-15 paid stories per day
Mail Online publishes around 1,500 stories every day and under the new product around ten to 15 daily will be subscription-only, as indicated by a small Mail+ logo.
Apple News exec on importance of publisher partnerships as The Athletic joins paid-for product
"We think it’s incredibly important for society to have successful news entities out there, and so one of our main objectives in this when we got started was to get people to pay and to be able to share a lot of that revenue with the news providers.”
Guido Fawkes editor Paul Staines dropped as Amnesty award judge
Staines himself had not been told he’d been dropped, telling Press Gazette that our request for comment was the “first I have heard about it”.
National press ABCs: The i and FT report steadiest circulations in November
The i saw the second-smallest year-on-year drop of 7.4%, behind only the Financial Times which fell 0.3% to 110,220.
Comment: Why getting AI balance right could be ‘saviour’ of news industry
Reuters have been using some form of AI for a number of years, mainly to provide services for financial clients, using machine learning to pull data from reports etc.
Podcast 62: How publishers can sell online advertising in an awful market
The Guardian‘s senior vice president of advertising for North America, Luis Romero, spoke to Press Gazette about what he says is the toughest advertising market for news publishers since 2008.
Asked how the newspaper’s US operation going about surviving the downturn, Romero said conversations with advertisers are key – but explained times may well stay difficult for a while longer.
News in brief
Some 65% of UK adults say they access local news and current affairs, from an average of 1.83 providers, per new Ofcom data. Local groups on social media are the most popular (38%), followed by BBC regional television news bulletins (35%) and the BBC site or app (35%). The regulator has also published the terms of reference for its review into the provision, role and value of local media in the UK and said it will carry out more research in the spring. (Ofcom)
The New York Times games department now has around 100 staffers, the same headcount as the business desk. On one mid-October day the average daily active users in its Games app was 2,615,333, compared to 886,000 a year earlier. (Vanity Fair)
Tech media company Trusted Reviews Ltd has rebranded as Candr Media Group after buying Wareable Media Group. It said Candr "embodies the qualities of being candid, open and honest, qualities that are integral" to all its brands. (Candr)
Julian Assange's potentially final appeal against his extradition from the UK to the US will be heard in London's High Court on 20-21 February. Judges will review an earlier ruling that refused him permission to appeal. (Reuters)
The Economist president and ex-Atlantic president Bob Cohn will join 18-month-old nonprofit The Baltimore Banner as chief executive. Cohn said the Banner is responding to the crisis in local journalism "with compelling journalism that really fills a critical and urgent need". (The Baltimore Banner)
The team behind The Hull Story, a news website that launched in July 2020, have published the first print edition of a new monthly newspaper with a run of 10,000 free copies. Its co-editors said print "still has a vital role to play in local news".
Lawyer Jonathan Coad has apologised for "unintentionally" misleading The Guardian about Michelle Mone's PPE firm links. Coad said: "I neither knew nor had any reason to believe that my client was not telling me the truth and wrote to your title in good faith." (The Guardian)
The Washington Post has met its target of 240 voluntary staff buyouts. (Axios)
Previously on Press Gazette
Investigative reporting is a ‘masochistic business’ says journalist of the year Gabriel Pogrund
Guardian to build on ‘direct link’ between supporters and journalism with global growth
GB News ‘disappointed’ by Ofcom impartiality ruling against ‘Don’t Kill Cash’ campaign
Israel-Hamas journalist deaths rise to 64 as veteran Al Jazeera cameraman killed
Interviewer of the year Tom Bradby: Harry ‘never asked me what questions I was going to ask’
This is Money founding team member Richard Browning dies aged 57