Mill Media expands into London | Sudan conflict overlooked by media
And a journalist who has also trained as a psychotherapist shares his tips on how to look after your mental health in the newsroom
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Confession: I've always been a bit sceptical about paid-for newsletters as the future of local news.
Up until now they have seemed to provide an OK income for small teams serving a tiny proportion of the population in bigger UK cities.
But could Mill Media be on the verge of shifting from niche community publisher to serious player?
The newsletter start-up has revealed it is expanding from 11 to 22 staff and is adding Glasgow and London to its network of Substack-based publications.
London is not yet a news desert. Reach's MyLondon has doznes of journalists covering the capital and the weekly print/online Evening Standard will (hopefully) retain a sizeable newsroom.
The local news challenge for me remains finding a model that works in the many parts of the country which have no professional journalists holding those in power to account. Such areas were once served by paid-for weeklies, or editions of regional dailies, and residents in these place must now instead rely on Facebook gossip for local information.
He warns: "If you’re dysregulated, you’re going to do a shit interview because your prefrontal cortex is offline." Note: this also holds true for discussions with teenage children.
And Channel 4 News international editor Lindsay Hilsum has spoken out about the overlooked conflict in Sudan. According to the UN 18 million people in the country are facing severe hunger yet conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have pushed this civil war off the news agenda.
Scroll on for our list of must-reads from Press Gazette earlier this week and a comprehensive round-up of media news from around the web.
Jobs of the Week
North News and Pictures Ltd. is recruiting a photographer based in Newcastle
The BBC is looking for a radio presenter producer in Nottingham
News UK is recruiting a development producer based in London
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New from Press Gazette
Mill Media set to double staff total to 22 as it reveals London expansion
The Substack-based outlet is tapping into £350,000 of investments it received last year.
Sky News journalist and psychotherapist shares mental health tips
James Scurry spoke about why he was encouraged to take himself off covering the murder of baby Jacob Crouch.
Lindsey Hilsum: Sudan civil war overlooked because of Ukraine and Gaza
The Channel 4 News international editor said her coverage could help future criminal prosecutions.
News in brief
NPR correspondent David Folkenflik says he was promised an interview with Washington Post CEO Will Lewis if he dropped a story looking into the former News Corp exec's role dealing with the fallout of the hacking scandal (he didn’t drop it, and didn’t get the interview). (NPR)
Netflix is facing a US defamation and privacy action for $170m over its "true story" drama series Baby Reindeer from Fiona Harvey who says the lead character is based on her. (BBC)
ITV said Tuesday night's election leader debate drew a peak of 5.5 million viewers with an average of five million - "the biggest Current Affairs audience on any channel since last year’s King’s Coronation, and the biggest on ITV since Oprah’s interview with Meghan and Harry in 2021". (ITV)
News Corp has urged the Australian government to designate Meta under the Media Bargaining Code, with an exec saying: "We had a deal - and they walked away... We can't let ourselves be bullied." Meta has said it will stop paying Australian publishers for news. (Reuters)
Google has reportedly reduced the number of search queries generating an AI response (in the US where it's available) from 84% earlier this year to less than 15% as it refines the experience. (Search Engine Roundtable)
The BBC has spent more than £3m investigating allegations against former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood, a BBC News Freedom of Information request has revealed. (BBC)
IPSO has appointed former Times and Sunday Times editor and current Times Media chair John Witherow to its board, starting in June. Witherow said IPSO's "regulatory approach has strengthened freedom of expression and raised standards to the benefit of the public".
The Independent has opened applications for the annual Rupert Cornwell Award, a £5,000 bursary to fund a foreign writing assignment. Applicants should be under 30. (The Independent)
The PSNI made more than 800 applications for communications data of journalists and lawyers over a 13-year period, the NI Policing Board has been told. (Irish News)
Newsbreak, a major free news app in the US, has published inaccurate local news stories using AI on "at least 40 instances since 2021", according to Reuters. Newsbreak has now added a disclaimer that its content "may not always be error-free". (Reuters)
Putin has said "such issues" as the imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich "should be resolved only on the basis of reciprocity" and through "quiet, calm, professional approach and dialogue between intelligence agencies" not "through the media". (WSJ)
Reporters Without Borders has called on Brazilian authorities to "finally render justice" two years after the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips. "Brazil cannot allow the Amazon to become a lawless region where journalists must risk their lives to cover environmental issues." (RSF)
The local news industry's Public Notice Portal for hosting council notices online hit one million users on 31 May. News Media Association CEO Owen Meredith said this is "further strengthening the industry’s offering and public engagement". Usage is highest among 25-34s (16% use it) and 18-24s (10%) versus 7% among the UK population on average.
Almost four in ten journalists covering the climate crisis and environment have been threatened because of their work, with 11% subjected to physical violence, according to a survey of 740 reporters/editors in 102 countries. (The Guardian)
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Latest podcast
Podcast 72: Camilla Tominey and Kamal Ahmed on cracking a busy news podcast market
The Telegraph’s new daily news podcast, The Daily T, is the latest entrant to an increasingly crowded audio market.
But days after the show bagged the first election trail interview with Rishi Sunak, Press Gazette spoke with Daily T hosts Camilla Tominey and Kamal Ahmed about how they’re hoping to stand out from the competition with a right-of-centre viewpoint they feel is missing and by leaning heavily on the Telegraph newsroom.
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