Observer sold to Tortoise Media | National World board endorses new take-over bid
Plus BBC cuts back on financial coverage and Future CEO says affiliate revenues are unaffected by Google changes
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Friday 6 December 2024, brought to you today in association with The Content Exchange.
The UK looks set to have a major new online news brand.
The Scott Trust last night approved the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media.
James Harding's podcast-focused startup will now become the custodian of a 233-year-old Sunday newspaper with weekly sales of around 100,000 (subject to the deal being signed in the coming days).
He says he has £25m of investment to spend on the title and its future depends on finding enough paying online subscribers to not just cancel out print decline but cover the cost of new investment.
We have the full story here. Some Observer insiders are pretty shocked by the decision, which was made whilst they were on strike.
Guardian and Observer journalists will meet later today to decide whether or not to press ahead with two more days of industrial action planned for next week.
And we also have an interview with the CEO of magazine giant Future Jon Steinberg, who says the group has turned a corner with results which see it returning to growth.
And cutbacks continue at the BBC which is saving money by reducing its coverage of… money.
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On Press Gazette
Scott Trust approves sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media
The decision was made at a meeting of the 12-person Scott Trust board at 9pm last night, as around 500 Guardian and Observer journalists neared the end of their two-day strike in protest at the move.
National World board ‘minded to’ accept takeover bid
The two companies have now agreed a “temporary halt in legal proceedings” relating to alleged historical invoicing irregularities while discussions are ongoing over the takeover bid.
Future CEO says Google update has not harmed affiliate revenues
CEO Jon Steinberg told Press Gazette he believes the business has reached an inflection point and was also confident recent Google changes will not harm Future’s affiliate marketing business in the same way it has some other publishers.
BBC cuts back on financial data to save money
“This change forms part of a wider effort to streamline our operations and prioritise improvements in other critical areas of the BBC Online experience, ensuring we deliver the best possible value to our audiences.”
Comment: Online ecosystem is squeezing small publishers out of business
“You’ve followed Google’s advice and guidance (the bits you found online), created what you believe is good-quality content, and made significant improvements to your website’s look and feel. Yet your traffic crashes with every core update. Then AI comes along and swallows up even more of your traffic.”
News in brief
More than a dozen publishers in the UK, US, Spain, Japan and Latin America have signed up to Perplexity’s AI revenue-sharing programme, including The Independent, Los Angeles Times, Adweek and Lee Enterprises. (Press Gazette)
A "consortium of investors and others with extensive media and editorial experience" reportedly put forward a bid for The Observer earlier this week, doubling Tortoise's proposed investment in the Sunday title to £50m. (The Telegraph)
The London Standard is on sale in certain newsagents outside of Central London for £2 as part of a six-week trial. The paper, which has been free since 2009, continues to be distributed without charge in the centre of the city. (Better Retailing)
Amazon is reportedly looking for news publisher partners from whom it can license content to power the next-generation of its Alexa voice assistant. (Axios)
Jeff Bezos has told a summit that "I am very proud of the decision" to stop The Washington Post from making presidential endorsements. The change, which reportedly lost the Post 250,000 subscribers, likely cost the loss-making paper millions in revenue. (Deadline)
LA Times proprietor Patrick Soon-Shiong has reportedly implemented a new rule mandating that headlines on opinion articles need his personal approval and is also considering implementing an AI-powered "bias meter" on stories. (Status)
The i has changed its online masthead and branding to The i Paper because, editor Oliver Duff says, that's what "people normally call us... Being consistent will help word-of-mouth as well as online searches." (The i Paper)
Bloomberg has launched a subscription for its technology-focused newsletters Tech Daily, Power On, Game On, Q&AI and Soundbite. Access to the newsletters, and all Bloomberg articles linked to from them, is priced at £8.99 a month. (Bloomberg)
$124m of debt owed by Buzzfeed over its acquisition of Complex has come due but the company does not appear to currently have the cash available to pay. (Adweek)
BBC News presenter Clive Myrie has apologised for "administrative issues" that meant he "didn’t fill out the correct paperwork for some of my external public events". He said he won't take part in any paid external events beyond those already in the diary in the near future. (BBC News)
Sky News director of newsgathering and operations Sarah Whitehead has been elected the next president of the Society of Editors, with Newsquest Cumbria regional editor Joy Yates as vice-president.
The UK local news media sector's public notice portal has received new six-figure funding from the Google News Initiative for development including a searchable archive (currently only live notices can be viewed). (News Media Association)
Also on Press Gazette:
On the picket line at Guardian: ‘Observer, Observer, James Harding don’t deserve her!’
Most popular news apps in the UK: BBC News now bigger than Apple News
Time CEO Jessica Sibley says B2B shift is working for 101-year-old brand
News media job cuts 2024 tracked: Hearst Magazines and Now This latest hit
Top 50 news websites in the world: Traffic bounces back from September lull
Top 50 news websites in the US: Most newsbrands returned to growth in October ahead of election
Latest podcast
Podcast 79: How Bluesky became News-sky, Google Discover, US election lessons
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford talks about the benefits of Bluesky for publishers with the zeal of a new convert, reporter Bron Maher explains how publishers are getting new traffic from Google via Discover and Charlotte Tobitt reveals the biggest lessons for the news industry from the US presidential election.