Missing links in online news harm everyone | Editors join Observer revolt
And why Reach has responded to falling online page views by asking its journalists to write more stories
Good morning and welcome to your Press Gazette Future of Media newsletter on Thursday 10 October, brought to you this week in association with Q5 - experts in organisational health.
UK news publishers are removing key incentives for producing original journalism by lifting content from rivals without providing a link.
There was a time when linking out to sources, especially when they provided substantial additional value for the reader, was seen as good SEO practice and professional courtesy. But it appears to have gone by the by.
I've noticed recently that on a couple of occasions, large national news titles have written stories entirely based on one source, Press Gazette, but not linked to us. It turns out that this sort of thing has become commonplace across not just the national press but the BBC, which really ought to do better.
It is hard to argue the case against ChatGPT and others stealing our stuff and rewriting it without links back to the source when we are doing the exact same thing to each other. Today we look at the biggest national news titles to see who is linking and who isn't.
We also have another spicy update on the proposed sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media. Three former Observer editors have written a letter to The Scott Trust accusing it of betraying former promises by looking to sell the title to James Harding's slow news outfit.
Meanwhile, Guardian and Observer journalists are pressing on with a ballot which would enable them to take strike action in protest at the Observer sale. So Tortoise founder and main shareholder Harding has a race on to persuade staff that his plan for a standalone Observer newspaper with its own paywalled website is a goer.
And finally, we take a deeper look at yesterday's big talking point: news that Reach is tackling the problem of falling page views by asking journalists to write more stories.
It brings to mind one of those swords and sandals films where the huge bald guy banging a drum in the Roman galley raises the tempo of oar strokes to "ramming speed".
But streamlined modern production technology should make it easier for journalists to do more with less. And the higher story targets only apply when journalists are not out and about on jobs.
We have more on the Reach rationale for the move as well as summarising some of the reaction it has prompted.
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On Press Gazette
Missing links: Upmarket UK newsbrands deny click-throughs to story sources
In the snapshot survey we found that the Mirror and The Sun were the most likely to link to other publishers, doing so in eight out of ten stories assessed at each site.
Former Observer editors voice ‘profound concern’ over proposed sale of title
“It has survived for close to 250 years: there is a heavy responsibility on those involved in current discussions to ensure that any decision best protects The Observer, and not just for the next five years.”
Why Reach journalists are being asked to write up to eight articles per day
“Page views are our currency and there was a time we were getting 50% of our traffic from Facebook – now it is more like 5%. We get a fraction of the PVs we used to from, say, a local murder and this is the most plausible way I can see to address that.”
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The Independent set to double profit and revenue over last five years
Handelsblatt’s key strategy for unifying print and digital operations (promoted)
The "it doesn't apply when journalists are on the job" line on story counts is a red herring. Journalists will be discouraged from going out on jobs, due to story count targets.
And there will still be pressure to do, say, five stories once back from the job (as opposed to a lower previous threshold). It massively ups the workload for everyone.
Not to mention that story targets tend to apply for whole outlets/newsdesks. In other words, if several colleagues "only" get five done a day, others will be pushed to do ten...