OpenAI hits back at NYT | Threads winning over more publishers than Bluesky
And the Daily Mail and GB News launch new shows
Good morning and welcome to your daily helping of news about the world of news from Press Gazette on Wednesday, 10 January - brought to you today in association with Bauer Academy. Delivered by Head of Journalism Andrew Greaves, Bauer Academy has launched a series of day courses aimed at those in the industry looking to upskill and take on new challenges in their role.
“Quality news publishing is already seriously threatened by traditional search and social media - AI-powered search could destroy it altogether.”
This was the stark warning made by DMG Media to the House of Lords Communications Select Committee.
Today we report on publishers stepping up the fight against OpenAI's flagrant theft of their copyright editorial material in order to train its large language model ChatGPT.
And we have OpenAI's response to the New York Times lawsuit which effectively seeks to shut down ChatGPT because it argues the training material was illegally acquired.
Publishers around the world have reported falling referral traffic from X. For most, but not Press Gazette, the platform formerly known as Twitter provides a tiny minority of overall clicks.
We report on how publishers are approaching two X rivals: Meta-owned Threads and invite-only Bluesky (which was launched in February by a group including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey).
And we report on the launch of two new double acts in the world of broadcast journalism. Andrew Pierce and Sarah Vine on the Daily Mail and Christopher Hope with Gloria De Piero on GB News.
The Daily Mail move is intriguing because the show is airing on Youtube, rather than the publisher's own Mail+ app (which was formerly the home for its video content). Youtube, for now, appears to offer a good route to monetisation of video output for many publishers because of the ad revenue it shares with creators.
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New from Press Gazette
OpenAI says ‘high-value partnership’ was on cards with New York Times before lawsuit
“We had explained to The New York Times that, like any single source, their content didn’t meaningfully contribute to the training of our existing models and also wouldn’t be sufficiently impactful for future training.”
Threads vs Bluesky: Meta’s Twitter rival appears to be winning with publishers
But while far more news outlets are using Threads than Bluesky, several publishers appear to have abandoned Meta's platform.
Daily Mail expands Youtube presence with Andrew Pierce and Sarah Vine show
Other shows on the Mail Youtube channel include Palace Confidential, which averages more than 400,000 views per week.
Christopher Hope and Gloria De Piero launch new weekly PMQs show on GB News
The opinion-led channel says it wants to be "Britain's election channel" for 2024.
Podcast 62: How publishers can sell online advertising in an awful market
The Guardian‘s senior vice president of advertising for North America, Luis Romero, spoke to Press Gazette about what he says is the toughest advertising market for news publishers since 2008.
Asked how the newspaper’s US operation going about surviving the downturn, Romero said conversations with advertisers are key – but explained times may well stay difficult for a while longer.
News in brief
Israel's Supreme Court has rejected a petition by the Foreign Press Association asking for foreign journalists to be allowed into Gaza. They were told journalists can continue to enter only when accompanied by the IDF. (Times of Israel)
Rozina Breen, chief executive of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, has been blocked by the Government from joining the Channel 4 board despite being recommended by Ofcom. Breen told Deadline the decision "feels opaque and also problematic".
Fox Corp has created a blockchain platform to track how media companies' content is being used online and help put together licensing deals - for example with AI companies. (Axios)
Substack has said it will remove some publications that express support for Nazis after criticism of its content moderation approach. It is now "working on more reporting tools that can be used to flag content that potentially violates our guidelines". (Platformer)
The BBC has apologised for a Christmas Eve radio bulletin which reported a Hamas claim that Israel had committed summary executions in Gaza. The BBC said it "had not made sufficient effort to seek corroborating evidence" to justify reporting the claim. (Deadline)
Kevin Merida, the executive editor of The Los Angeles Times, abruptly announced his resignation yesterday. Merida said he was leaving "after considerable soul-searching about my career". (The New York Times)
Former Guardian Jerusalem correspondent Chris McGreal has suggested there would be more outrage at journalist deaths in Gaza "if American or European reporters were the ones dying". At least 79 journalists have so far been reported killed in the conflict. (The Guardian)
Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI believes it will control The Telegraph's destiny in any forced future auction process even if its deal is blocked by regulators, Sky News reports. (Sky News)
Previously on Press Gazette
News media trends for 2024: AI, Whatsapp, newsletters and video among focus areas
Attention to Post Office Horizon IT scandal follows 14 years of dogged journalism
UK press stepped up editorials opposing climate action in 2023
Israel-Hamas journalist deaths rise to 79 as journalists working for Al Jazeera and AFP killed
Newsflation: UK national newspaper cover prices up 13% in past year
Online news paywall inflation running at 20% in UK
