New editors at Daily Star and Jewish Chronicle | BBC World Service to cut 130 roles
Plus regulator says law firm was okay to help a Russian warlord sue the founder of Bellingcat and police slammed over "risible" decision to bar former journalist from a job
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Wednesday 29 January.
Daily Star editor Jon Clark lasted rather longer than a lettuce (nearly seven years in fact).
But Reach announced yesterday he is stepping down with a new digital editor in the driving seat at the title and his number two running the print edition.
Clark is to be congratulated for bringing some much-needed joy to tabloid front pages and generally adding to the gaiety of the nation (which surely should be in the job description of any editor).
During his time in charge the price of the Daily Star has nearly quadrupled from 30p to £1.10 and circulation has fallen from 395,362 to 114,261.
Amazingly this means cover price revenue has actually grown during his time in charge (though not in real terms of course).
Question: how many UK police officers were convicted of corruption and fraud offences last year? Answer: a lot.
How many journalists? Zero.
If there is one thing journalists can do it is keep a secret. Even during Operation Elveden, which saw dozens of journalists and sources arrested over payments for stories, no journalists were convicted because juries decided they were simply doing their jobs as required by their employer.
So news that a photographer has been refused a police job because his closeness to newsrooms supposedly makes him inherently corrupt is bizarre (a point well made here by former Telegraph foreign desk manager Paul Hill who went to work in a civilian job with the police).
We also report on an equally obtuse ruling from the Solicitors Regulation Authority which has said it was fine for (now deceased) Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin to bring a spurious High Court libel claim against Bellingcat editor Eliot Higgins. It is a case which appears to be the very definition of a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation).
The Jewish Chronicle has a new look, ditching its "JC" logo for a more traditional-looking "The Jewish Chronicle" masthead. It also has a new editor, new website and other changes which include a new managing editor for standards.
There was a time when news designers were obsessed with changing mastheads to initials (for journalists of a certain age Press Gazette will always be UKPG, in reference to our 1990s magazine design).
And more cuts have been announced at the BBC, which has announced a net reduction of 130 roles at the World Service. Cuts are needed because of global inflation and digital/technology costs, the corporation says.
On Press Gazette
Daily Star front page on 28 January 2025
Daily Star editor Jon Clark to leave amid new digital-first strategy
Reach said on Tuesday that Clark will step down in the coming weeks. He said of the job: “It’s been fun.”
Law firm OK to represent Russian warlord against UK editor, legal watchdog rules
“The red flags were there, and how the [Solicitors Regulatory Authority] can conclude that the law firm satisfied itself of the merits of their client’s case, when the truth was in fact the opposite, is baffling.”
BBC World Service to cut 130 roles to save £6m in the next year
The BBC said these will include closing posts across the BBC World Service in the UK and internationally and in BBC Monitoring, which reports and analyses news from around the world and will also see a reinvestment “in strategically important skills”.
Jewish Chronicle announces new editor, new look and revamped membership
New editor Daniel Schwammenthal is a former EU correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires and was an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal from 2004 to 2011.
Police force slammed over ‘risible’ decision to bar former journalist from job
Former Leicester Mercury photographer Christopher DeBretton-Gordon told the BBC last week that he had been set to take up a job as a call handler for Leicestershire Police until the force belatedly told him his employment carried too great a risk of “information leakage”.
News in brief
BBC News digital director Naja Nielsen is leaving the corporation after almost six years to join Swedish public broadcaster SVT as media director. (Press Gazette)
The Wall Street Journal has told staff there will be a "reduction in the number of bureau chiefs who were part of the Life and Work coverage area" as it folds that department into Business, Finance and Economics. (Press Gazette)
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism‘s 2024 analysis of climate change and news audiences finds the news media "continues to be the primary way people access climate change information", but only half of survey respondents said they trust the media on climate change. (Reuters Institute)
A new Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 200 journalists in the Global South who had previously taken the foundation's training courses found that 81% are using artificial intelligence in their journalism, with half that group using it for editing, translation or research and 31% using it for wholesale text creation. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Wall Street Journal analysis has found audiences paid more attention to its advertising inventory around the US election. (Adweek)
Talksport is launching as a 24/7 FAST (free, ad-supported streaming TV) channel as it expands onto smart TV, with new apps on Fire TV, Apple TV and Google TV and a raft of partnerships. New programming will include club-specific shows and a weekly women's football show.
Jim Acosta announced he is launching a show on Substack just hours after leaving CNN. "I'm going independent - at least for now," he said, adding: "To President Trump and his allies, you may think you have silenced me. But guess again." (The Jim Acosta Show)
Reach chief digital publisher David Higgerson, Newsquest editorial development director Toby Granville and ITV News deputy political editor Anushka Asthana have joined the board of the Society of Editors. (Society of Editors)
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Middlesbrough’s last freelance court reporter retires after 69 years in journalism
Fire the boss and fight for your rights: How publishers can succeed in 2025
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