Press Gazette launches registration wall | Bloomberg editor-in-chief on paywalls and AI
Plus Pink News hits out at BBC, police broke law with journalist surveillance and a lawyer faces disciplinary tribunal over attempt to warn Dan Neidle off publishing a legal letter
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing for Wednesday 18 December, 2024.
If you visit the Press Gazette website today you will notice something a little different.
We won't let you read more than one article without first sharing your email address and job title.
The launch of a gated paywall will help us to build our community of known readers and should open more sponsorship opportunities. It also paves the way toward some modest charging for content next year.
It all helps us keep the lights on and hopefully invest further in our journalism and our vital mission: fighting for quality content in the digital age.
Paywalls are the best way to guarantee journalism jobs, according to Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. He spoke about future funding sources of news and how Bloomberg deploys AI in the newsroom when he delivered the annual James Cameron lecture.
Today we also have a punchy response from the Pink News leadership team of Benjamin Cohen and Anthony James after a BBC investigation a week ago which reported serious allegations against them. The pair have accused the BBC of reporting malicious and untrue allegations which have caused them serious harm, which sounds like a prelude to legal action if ever there was one.
The national press print ABCs show the FT and The i Paper leading the pack with month-on-month growth and modest year-on-year decline, no mean feat in the current market.
We have welcome news from the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which has ruled that the Police Service of Northern Ireland broke the law by using surveillance powers to search for the source of a leaked document that revealed police collusion in protecting paramilitary killers.
It is not the first time that a police force has sought to cover up rather than address its own failings and will probably not be the last.
And we report on an intriguing case at the solicitors’ disciplinary tribunal which could put paid to bullying legal letters sent to journalists.
Former British Journalism Award-winning investigator Dan Neidle has testified against a solicitor who wrote to him following his revelations about former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs. Neidle took exception to being warned by solicitor Ashley Hurst that it would be a "serious matter" to tell anyone he had received the legal letter.
Neidle told the tribunal: "There was nothing in this letter that was confidential. The idea that it was improper to refer to it seemed indefensible."
On Press Gazette
Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait gives the annual James Cameron lecture at City University, London. Picture: Eve Lacroix for City University
‘Paywalls safest way to guarantee journalistic jobs’ says Bloomberg editor in chief
Micklethwait also used the talk to criticise the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bloomberg vs ZXC ruling that prevents newsrooms from identifying arrested persons before they are charged, saying it will stop “the sort of reporting that brought down Robert Maxwell”.
Press Gazette launches website registration wall
Press Gazette is now asking readers to share their email address, company and job title.
Pink News bosses say ‘false’ BBC allegations caused them ‘serious harm’
It is the first statement issued by Pink News founder Benjamin Cohen and chief operating officer Anthony James since a BBC documentary was aired on 10 December making serious allegations about their behaviour.
Newspaper ABCs: FT and i avoid month-on-month decline in November
Also in November the Sunday Express overtook the Daily Star. Both titles are owned by Reach but the daily has traditionally been the bigger title aside from the occasional month – the Sunday Express was last bigger in May 2023.
Police surveillance operation to unmask journalistic source ruled unlawful
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal had been examining allegations that the award-winning journalists were subject to unlawful covert surveillance by UK authorities.
Lawyer denies improperly restricting tax expert Dan Neidle revealing Nadhim Zahawi legal letter
Ashley Hurst, of law firm Osborne Clarke, faces a solicitors disciplinary tribunal over allegations that he sent an email and letter to Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates, in which he “improperly attempted to restrict Mr Neidle’s right to publish that correspondence and/or discuss its contents”.
News in brief
New Statesman executive editor Tom Gatti has been appointed acting editor of the title after Jason Cowley announced that he was standing down after 16 years as editor. (Press Gazette)
Refinery29 is reportedly making about 10% of staff redundant (around ten people) with its chief executive also exiting. (Press Gazette)
BBC News global director Jonathan Munro has said the World Service is "grappling" with potentially using AI to produce content in new languages, adding "we want to tread relatively carefully because the reputation of the BBC is sacrosanct". (Broadcast)
Kay Burley has denied a Deadline report she is planning to leave Sky News Breakfast, telling Mail Online: "Not that I'm aware of, unless you are telling me something new" and that she will return after Christmas on 16 January. (Mail Online)
Mark Zuckerberg has said Threads has more than 100 million daily active users and 300 million monthly active users. (The Verge)
The Washington Post has rolled out new AI-integrated comment section features for subscribers, including comment prompts and summaries of the conversations under an article. (The Washington Post)
Also on Press Gazette:
Laura Kuenssberg on Boris Johnson slip-up: ‘I screwed up, there we go, next story’
Marie Colvin Award winner: Journalists in Gaza need and deserve a break
Funding push for first UK national journalists’ memorial launched
Sun editor Victoria Newton: ‘We are the number one scoop machine on Fleet Street’
Observer sale: New email reveals Guardian refusal to talk to potential bidder
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