Starmer: AI companies should pay publishers | GMG staff back strike

Plus editors and reporters warn on the Government's new presumption of anonymity proposals and we have your news diary for the week ahead

Oct 28, 2024

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Welcome news for publishers this morning as Prime Minister Keir Starmer accepted the principle that we should be paid for content used by AI platforms.

Starmer made his statement in a letter written to support the News Media Association's Journalism Matters week.

Starmer sees AI as crucial to delivering on his Government's promise to boost economic growth.

So it was good to hear him say: "We recognise the basic principle that publishers should have control over and seek payment for their work, including when thinking about the role of AI."

But fine words, as they say, butter no parsnips. And on the ground, publishers are being bombarded with AI scrapers harvesting our sites for content every day.

The government's proposal is currently to allow this by default unless publishers opt out. The problem is hundreds of companies are doing it and constantly playing whack-a-mole to stop them is a drain on resources even for larger publishers.

Journalists at the Guardian and Observer have voted overwhelmingly in favour of possible strike action in protest at the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media. Guardian management, meanwhile, says negotiations are ongoing and maintains that the deal promises to be "an investment in the future" of the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

Tortoise founder James Harding now faces a race to get the deal done. Strike action seems a less likely option after the contract of sale has been signed.

Both the Crime Reporters Association and the Society of Editors have voiced concern over a proposal to keep the identity of police firearms officers charged with crimes secret until they are convicted.

Such a move would be a significant departure from the principle of open justice and the idea that the police are subject to the same rules as the rest of us.

We also have your news diary for the week ahead, which is dominated by the UK Budget on Wednesday.

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Keir Starmer is pictured outside the BBC's New Broadcasting House, illustrating a story about a letter he has written to the News Media Association in which he says the Labour government recognises the basic principle that news publishers should seek compensation from artificial intelligence companies that use their content.

Keir Starmer: AI companies should pay publishers for content

Starmer’s comments come the day after reports that publishers have voiced worry over a Labour plan to allow AI companies to scrape pages on the internet for content by default, which would mean websites have to actively opt out to prevent their property being digested into AI large language models.

Read more

Guardian Media Group journalists back strike in indicative vote on Tortoise Observer bid

A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “We were transparent about the offer so we could openly engage with Observer staff and we will continue to do so.”

Read more

Secrecy around UK gun police threatens open justice say editors and reporters

The anonymity proposals — introduced last week after the police officer who shot Chris Kaba dead in 2022 was found not guilty of his murder — would keep the identity of accused firearms officers secret until they are convicted.

Read more

News diary 28 October – 3 November: New Tory leader, Labour unveils budget

A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.

Read more

News in brief

The BBC has updated its style guide to instruct its journalists to refer to Elon Musk’s social media platform simply as X, whereas previously the advice was to use a construction such as "X, formerly known as Twitter". (BBC)

Three journalists with Hezbollah-affiliated TV stations have reportedly been killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon that hit a group of chalets also housing Al Jazeera, Sky News Arabia and TRT journalists. (The Guardian)

Washington Post publisher Sir Will Lewis reportedly overruled the title's opinion editor to stop the title endorsing Kamala Harris for president. The decision reportedly came down from owner Jeff Bezos. Lewis said it marked a return to the title’s old policy of not making endorsements, although it has done so at every election since 1988. (Columbia Journalism Review)

Semafor reports the non-endorsement has precipitated a wave of cancellations and resignations at the Post — and The New York Times, which despite having endorsed Harris “has been experiencing a small but noticeable wave of cancellations since [Friday], as well as emails to the effect of ‘fuck Bezos’”. (Semafor)

Following the Post's non-endorsement, Guardian US editor Betsy Reed emailed readers on Friday reminding them of the publication's Harris endorsement - and received $1.1m of donations the subsequent 24 hours, its biggest ever day in the US for fundraising. (Semafor)

A new unscripted interview podcast is being launched called Virtually Parkinson which will be hosted by an AI-voiced version of Sir Michael Parkinson, who died last year aged 88. Deep Fusion Films is behind the podcast, reports The Observer.

Content recommendation ads platform Taboola reports that nearly 5,500 articles have been written by UK news publishers about the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing since mid-September, generating 42 million article views — or 10% of all news website traffic.