Publishers fear Google Sandbox coercion | Prince Harry versus Rupert Murdoch latest
And Newsteam finds there is profit in print (newspaper deliveries) and Impress takes action against Muslim publisher for promoting anti-Semitism and homophobia
Welcome to your daily newsletter from Press Gazette on Wednesday, 22 May.
On 11 June, Beeler.Tech will host Navigator London, a one-day event dedicated to elevating the voices of publisher revenue leaders. Request a pass to Navigator London to hear unique perspectives from industry experts and participate in roundtable discussions that will uncover action steps you can take to do your job more effectively.
Most news publishers are not having a great time on Google search right now, and that could be about to get worse.
Let’s park generative AI-enhanced search for a moment and focus on the other big change coming from Google (currently scheduled for the first half of 2025), the replacement of publisher cookies on Chrome with its own Sandbox advertising personalisation technology.
Many publishers fear Google will downgrade them in search if they do not adopt the Google-run Sandbox system when it comes to serving advertising on their sites to visitors using Google's Chrome browser. Jim Edwards has been investigating the story for us.
Meanwhile some good financial news from an unlikely source: the world of newspaper and magazine deliveries. I can recall being paid a couple of pounds to deliver Sunday newspapers in the late 1980s (when they were a lot heavier than they are today, I can tell you). The latest financial results from Newsteam reveal how it has turned print news delivery into a £59m business with growing profit and revenue. Perhaps I should have stuck at it.
We also have the latest developments from the High Court where Prince Harry is suing News UK over allegations of historic wrongdoing by The Sun and News of the World. He has failed in a bid to force 93-year-old News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch to be named as a target of his litigation, but he has broadened his claim to include allegations that landlines were tapped by journalists (something which has not, yet, been proven or admitted by any publisher).
And finally, press regulator Impress has bared its teeth and forced member publisher 5Pillars to either remove or edit a podcast interview with an extremist far-right politician which was found to promote hatred against Jews and LGBT people.
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New from Press Gazette
Fears Google could down-rank publishers who decline to use Privacy Sandbox
“It is important that the concerns are resolved, either through design changes, assurances from Google about action it will take or refrain from, or other evidence which resolves our concerns,” the CMA said.
Newspaper delivery group Newsteam finds growing profit in print
Company chairman Neil Jagger told Press Gazette in an email that the first three months of 2024 had shown “virtually the same pre-tax profit as for the whole of 2023”.
Harry barred from adding claims against Rupert Murdoch to unlawful reporting trial
Mr Justice Fancourt said: “I also consider that there is a desire on the part of those running the litigation on the claimants’ side to shoot at ‘trophy’ targets, whether those are political issues or high-profile individuals.”
5Pillars censured over podcast promoting ‘hatred and abuse’ of Jews and LGBT people
Impress said that the interview — in which the interviewee said “Jewish influence” was being “wielded in such a way that they have a negative impact on the white population”, and that gay and transgender people were “poison” and “degenerate” — breached its discrimination clause.
News in brief
The Reporters Without Borders website has been blocked in Russia since April, so it is now launching a Russian-language channel on Telegram as a "supplementary channel for promoting access to freely reported, reliable and independent information..." (RSF)
Ofcom monitored Bauer's Greatest Hits Radio in Salisbury after a complaint about a lack of local news as bulletins were shared between Wiltshire and Hampshire. Bauer has now brought back a specific weekday bulletin for Salisbury and county-wide on weekends. (Radio Today)
Yesterday the Associated Press said Israel had shut down its longstanding live feed into Gaza and seized its equipment, calling it "an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law". Israel has since returned AP's equipment and the live feed is back up, but AP says it remains "concerned about the Israeli government’s use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel". (AP)
The Athletic is expanding its tennis coverage, having seen a a 71% increase in views for content about the sport in 2024 to date versus 2023. (New York Times Company)
Google is warning that a new California news payments bill — which the tech giant characterises as a “link tax” — would jeopardise its future investments in the US news industry via the Google News Initiative, sources have told Axios.
Around 200 jobs are expected to go at ITV amid a restructure of its media and entertainment division. News and current affairs will not be affected and will sit within the content pillar - the three other pillars will be viewing, commercial and operations. (The Telegraph)
The Washington Post's director of newsletter strategy reportedly told staff yesterday: "Please do not put this [Washington Post] Prince Harry story in any of your newsletters." The Post’s story details allegations against CEO Will Lewis relating to the phone-hacking scandal. (Semafor)
Last week on Press Gazette
More than half world without freedom of expression as India falls into ‘crisis’, report
Ofcom weighs up sanction for GB News after ‘serious and repeated’ impartiality breaches
ITV Post Office drama led to ‘sea change’ in coverage of infected blood scandal
Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent accuses international journalists of not doing enough
Latest podcast
Podcast 71: Daily Mail CEO Rich Caccappolo on keeping journalism free
This episode includes excerpts from an interview between Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford and Rich Caccappolo, CEO of Daily Mail publisher DMG Media. It also features media consultant Matthew Scott Goldstein. They talk about how to save journalism (and democracy) on the open web by adapting to Google’s plan to switch off cookies on Chrome.
Caccappolo also provides an update on DMG Media’s legal action against Google and reveals how his company is growing overall revenue in a tough market.
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Entries are now OPEN for the Future of Media Awards 2024 (which celebrate the best journalism-based digital products). Check out the full list of categories here. Note: These awards are free to enter.