News Corp adds AI summaries to Factiva | Daily Mail wins European Court appeal
And Google pushes on its plan to introduce Sandbox technology on Chrome - despite concerns it will rig the system in its own favour
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Today we report on a rare case of a publisher rolling out in-house AI technology which could be genuinely game-changing for its product.
Factiva archives millions of news articles from around the world, so AI could really help its users sift through a mass of information to find what they are looking for.
Encouragingly, Factiva has gained permission from all the publishers whose work will appear in its AI-written summaries and it will pay them royalties.
This contrasts with the approach taken by Google for its own AI summaries service, which has been to steal everyone's content and effectively break their legs if they complain.
It is possible to block your content from appearing in Google AI Overviews, but only by removing your site from Google search, ie. by making it invisible to 90% of internet users.
We also have an update on Google's Privacy Sandbox, which has not gone away but is still mired in regulatory questions.
Google has said it will not ban publisher cookies on Chrome, which means Sandbox will only ever be an option for publishers. But the tech giant has form when it comes to rigging the market in its favour - either by inflating its take of online ad revenue or by paying off hardware manufacturers to ensure Google is the default search engine.
The Movement for an Open Web warns that current safeguards offered by Google over Sandbox amount to it marking its own homework and are not sufficient to prevent future shenanigans.
European Human Rights legislation is generally seen by Daily Mail leader writers as a bad thing, allowing grasping lawyers to ride roughshod over British sovereignty.
The Daily Mail found itself with a legal bill of £822,000 which dwarfed the £83,000 privacy payout to a man it identified as a police terrorism suspect (but who was never charged).
Now those legal fees look set to be reduced. It's a case which once again highlights the huge price paid by news creators if they get things wrong.
News platforms like Google, Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are meanwhile free to publish what they wish and count their billions in profits whilst enjoying immunity from prosecution over privacy, libel and contempt of court.
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On Press Gazette
News Corp adds Google-powered AI summaries to Factiva search results
Factiva general manager Traci Mabrey says only consenting publishers will appear in AI results.
Daily Mail wins European Court appeal over £822k costs payout to terror suspect
Associated Newspapers took the UK Government to the Strasbourg court over conditional fee arrangements and After the Event insurance premiums in relation to two recent cases for which it had to pay the extra costs.
Open web group says Google Sandbox ‘governance framework’ lets it ‘mark its own homework’
In a report published this week, the CMA indicated that the framework “could resolve a range of outstanding issues” around competition and privacy in Google’s Privacy Sandbox, a suite of technologies designed to place advertisements online without the need for third-party cookies.
News in brief
Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson has revealed police are investigating her over a year-old message on X, described as being allegedly “likely or intended to cause racial hatred”. Pearson said she was visited by officers from Essex Police on Remembrance Sunday, but she said she has not been told what the message said. (The Telegraph)
Former Business Insider global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson is launching a video-focused business journalism start-up named Dynamo. The outlet has raised $3.4m from investors including Jessica Lessin, Jon Steinberg, Alyson Shontell and Henry Blodget. (The New York Times)
The NCTJ has opened applications for six new community reporter roles with two-year contracts as the Community Reporting Fund kicks off. The project is being revived after Facebook ended its funding and is being funded by the NCTJ itself. (NCTJ)
Substack has raised around $10m from investors including Omeed Mali (who also invested in Tucker Carlson's venture), FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, Rocket Money chief executive Haroon Mokhtarzada, Zynga chief executive Mark Pincus and Angel List co-founder Naval Ravikant. (Axios)
Several French news publishers including Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisian are suing X, formerly Twitter, accusing it of using their content without payment in violation of a "neighbouring rights" law. (Le Monde)
Adweek estimates that a drop in search visibility to affiliate marketing content at Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Fortune and Time due to Google changes has cost them at least $7.5m. (Adweek)
The Daily Beast has made its first quarterly profit after implementing cutbacks under new leadership. Revenue in Q3 was up 81% year-on-year. (Variety)
Shailesh Prakash, Google's chief technology and product officers, who had key role working with news publishers, has resigned after two years. (The Wall Street Journal)
This week on Press Gazette:
News Provider of the Year 2024: Six publishers make the shortlist
Two news outlets lose copyright claim against OpenAI over scraping of content
Facebook still powering commercial success for local news brand The BV magazine
Sponsored: SWNS at 50 — ‘Culture of excellence’ behind success of biggest independent UK news agency
Former royal editor: Sun newsroom was ‘toxic’ but Harry legal claim is ‘deluded’
Guido Fawkes appeals for donations to fund Dale Vince libel fight
Podcast 77: Election endorsements, revolting Guardian journalists and regulating AI
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford and reporter Bron Maher provide an insider take on three of the hottest issues in news media: how did the Washington Post handle its election endorsement so badly? Why are Guardian and Observer journalists set to go on strike? And what can publishers do about the onslaught of generative AI bots harvesting their content without permission?