Post Office scandal blows up after 14 years of reporting | Reuters Institute news leader survey
And analysis finds UK press stepped up opposition to climate action in 2023
Good morning and welcome to your daily media news briefing on 9 January 2024.
“Why haven't we heard more about this Post Office scandal before?”, asks my mum after watching the excellent ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
“Well mother, where do you want me to start?”, I say - thinking back over the extensive focus newspapers and broadcasters have given to this story for ten years or more.
Charlotte Tobitt has spoken to some of the journalists who have brought this story to light, with B2B title Computer Weekly leading the way producing some 350 stories about the scandal since 2009. The Times has published even more articles (383) with the Daily Mail not far behind on 343. The Telegraph, Sunday Times, Daily Express and Sun have all also published hundreds more.
So it is a bit rich for politicians to only seriously consider taking action now, when the scandal has long been there for all to see.
The journalists involved could see what an incredible injustice this was from the start and have been frustrated that the story has been such a "slow burn" until now.
Hats off to production company Little Gem, who more usually produce documentaries, for coming up with a format which has done the story justice and finally generated some political urgency around securing resolution for the victims.
Today we also report on the Reuters Institute Journalism, Media and Technology Trends Predictions report for 2024, based on responses from 314 news industry leaders around the world.
The headlines include widespread concern about plunging referral traffic from social media platforms and growing news fatigue from readers. Publishers are shifting output towards video, newsletters and podcasts as potential areas of audience and advertising growth.
AI remains high on the agenda with 56% of respondents looking at increased automation of back-end tasks this year.
And finally, an analysis of newspaper editorials in 2023 from the website Carbon Brief suggests editorial consensus around the need for action to mitigate man-made global warming has waned among right-leaning titles.
New from Press Gazette
Attention to Post Office Horizon IT scandal follows 14 years of dogged journalism
Computer Weekly has published about 350 stories since 2009 about Horizon, mostly by Karl Flinders. “Nothing has compared to this dramatisation on ITV and documentary,” Flinders told Press Gazette on Monday.
News media trends for 2024: AI, Whatsapp, newsletters and video among focus areas
The majority of senior editorial, commercial and product staff questioned said their company will be putting more effort into Whatsapp and Tiktok in 2024 in a bid to tackle the traffic tail-off.
UK press stepped up editorials opposing climate action in 2023
Despite the increase, there were still more than twice as many editorials that supported taking greater action on climate change than those arguing for less.
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-Hamas journalist deaths have risen to 79 after Palestinian journalists working for Al Jazeera and AFP were killed on Sunday. Al Jazeera said it "condemns, in the strongest terms, the ongoing crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against journalists and media professionals in Gaza". (Press Gazette)
The Sun's first relaunched Bizarre showbiz column under new editor Ellie Henman came out yesterday. Henman follows in the footsteps of the likes of Piers Morgan, Andy Coulson and Sun editor Victoria Newton.
A judge has thrown out what he described as a "scandalous, frivolous and vexatious" libel case brought by Sinn Fein politician Gerry Kelly against journalist Malachi O’Doherty, who had said on the radio that Kelly shot a prison warder in the head. (Belfast Telegraph)