Meta drops Facebook News and axes 100 community reporters
And two renowned gamekeepers have some advice for the poaching industry.
Good morning and welcome to your daily media news briefing on Wednesday, 6 September, 2023.
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Meta is pulling the plug on payments to publishers in the UK worth millions a year.
It is the latest stage in a long goodbye to the news industry from Facebook which has already seen referral traffic from the platform plunge.
The social media giant has now discontinued funding for around 100 community reporters based in under-served areas for news.
And it is going to wind down payments to publishers made for content to appear in the Facebook News tab. Launched in the UK in January 2021, Facebook News payments were worth up to £1m a year for some titles and hundreds of thousands for big regional press publishers.
It may only be matter of time before Meta is forced by legislators to renew its support for the news industry via the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill currently before parliament. In the meantime, the social media giant appears determined to put as much distance between itself and news publishers as possible.
Today we also have an interview with former Sun editor David Yelland and former communications chief to Queen Elizabeth II Simon Lewis about why journalists have all got the PR industry wrong. Yelland, who runs his own PR company, said it is almost unheard of for British companies to lie to journalists and explains why we are now in a “post-spin world”.
And if you don’t know your generative AI from your natural language processing, don’t worry - our commercial partners at Bridged Media have come up with an easy-to-follow playbook for publishers looking to harness the tech which powers ChatGPT.
New from Press Gazette:
Meta to wind down Facebook News tab and stop funding Community News Project
“If Meta truly believes, as they stated just 18 months ago, that ‘local newspapers are the lifeblood of communities’ then they should be acting to support – and not undermine – the sustainability of journalism in the UK.”
Ex-Sun editor David Yelland on PR: Lying is ‘far less common than you’d think’
“Even Alastair Campbell, he didn’t really spin. He just had a different version of the truth.”
Publisher playbook on how to kickstart your AI strategy (promoted)
“Before you are ready to research solutions, first understand what problem you want to solve. Look for a use case that addresses the bottleneck you want to resolve.”
Future of Media Explained podcast
Our podcast is on a summer break (returning soon!) - but you can catch up on everything from paywall strategies to AI in the newsroom here.
News in brief:
Check the Press Gazette website today and our Twitter feed for latest updates from the Future of Media Technology Conference in London featuring contributions from Reach, Future, The FT, News UK and many more publishers. We will be announcing the Future of Media Awards from around 7pm.Nieman Lab in the US is expanding its team writing about journalism from five to seven people, with the addition of reporters dedicated to local news and to the intersection between generative AI and journalism. (Nieman Lab)The Welsh Public Interest Journalism Accelerator Fund has chosen the ten publishers who will receive up to £9,400 each to support their coverage of councils and courts, to help them implement AI tools and to improve news access for isolated rural communities. (Twitter)Previously on Press Gazette:
If the big corporate publishers disappeared so would much local news investment
Journalist quits Meta job after Edinburgh-focused Substack takes off
Ranked: Most popular women’s and men’s lifestyle websites in UK in 2023
NationalWorld.com staff say morale at ‘rock bottom’ in letter to HR
Sophy Ridge and Trevor Phillips on Sky’s ‘big investment’ in politics
Regional ABCs: UK daily local newspaper circulation down 20% in first half of 2023