Sun and Times accounts | Vox sees influx of subscribers | Paul Staines pays Dale Vince £75,000
Plus the BBC to 'open up conversation' with AI companies and do more on Tiktok and former Express editor Gary Jones joins Dale Vince's Ecotricity
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 1 April.
The latest individual company accounts from News UK show that Times Media continues to subsidise News Group Newspapers (The Sun) in a reversal of the previous order of things.
The growth in digital subscriber income for The Times and Sunday Times has kept revenue for the titles flat at £383.4m despite ongoing print decline. Profit before tax was similarly flat year on year for the titles but not too shabby at £61m.
The Sun, meanwhile, continued to shed money in the year to the end of June 2024 with losses of £18m, down from £66m in 2023.
With phone-hacking and privacy litigation finally winding down following the £15m settlement with Prince Harry and Tom Watson in January, The Sun can at least look forward to a future without massive legal costs to contend with.
News UK is hoping that the current focus on video content for The Sun will help turn around falling online advertising revenue.
The accounts for News UK Broadcasting bring the total cost of the failed TalkTV experiment to £138.4m.
Today we also carry an interview with editor of Vox Media Swati Sharma. The title has seen a surge in readers willing to pay to support its brand of explainer journalism since President Trump's inauguration.
She also reveals how the brand, which was valued at $1bn in 2015, has had to evolve its offering now many other publishers (including the BBC) are in the explainer journalism game.
The BBC has revealed plans to up its investment in short-form video on platforms like Tiktok and to open up negotiations with the generative AI companies which are currently making a mess of summarising its journalism.
We have the latest on the costly feud between Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines and green industrialist Dale Vince. Their legal dispute has ended with a statement in open court and a £75,000 initial payment towards costs from Staines. But the war of words continues.
And Vince has just announced the recruitment of former Daily Express editor Gary Jones to join his company Ecotricity as head of public affairs.
Promoted survey
Pixelvibe Collective, Nexovate, FusionX Technologies or AstralSage Digital?*
Choosing which tech vendor to go with for your CMS, paywall or video strategy is bewilderingly hard.
Please take a few minutes to fill out Press Gazette’s media technology survey to let us know what you think of the companies you work with.
We will use this to create the first recommended list of newsroom technology providers created by publishers themselves.
Let’s give the media’s technology heroes a pat on the back.
*Not real companies.
On Press Gazette
Losses shrink at The Sun as Times reports £60m profit
News UK Broadcasting, which aired TalkTV until its spring 2024 closure, made a loss of £50.4m, a slight improvement from £53.9m in 2023.
Vox sees boom in paying readers for explainer journalism under Trump 2
According to Vox the rate of increase for new paying members grew 450% in the two months following Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in January.
BBC to ‘open up conversation’ with AI providers and invest further in Tiktok
“The BBC will open up a new conversation with the leading AI technology providers and other news brands so we can work together in partnership to find solutions.”
Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines pays £75,000 libel case costs to Dale Vince
It follows news last month that Staines had agreed to pay the Ecotricity founder £9,950 in damages and settle the case to avoid “ruinous” future costs.
Former Express editor Gary Jones joins Dale Vince’s Ecotricity
“In the past I too was sceptical about the dream of a truly renewable way of living, but Dale’s vision I am convinced is the road to making it a reality.”
News in brief
Trump-friendly US TV news outlet Newsmax went public yesterday and shares soared more than 700% on the first day of trading. At the end of the day it had a market valuation of more than $7bn even though it is not profitable. (Deadline)
GB News has opened the Alastair Stewart OBE Studio at its Westminster base. Stewart was a GB News presenter from its 2021 launch until he became ill with dementia. Stewart said: "It was such a kind gesture, because I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with GB News."
Substack is adding a Tiktok-style scrollable video feed in its app. The platform said 82% of its top-earning writers are now publishing in multimedia, up from just over 50% last April. (TechCrunch)
Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson believes YouTube is due to overtake Disney as the largest revenue media company in 2025 (excluding Disney's theme park and product revenue). (Variety)
Bauer Media announced today it has completed its acquisition of American outdoor advertiser Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings.
World History Encyclopedia, the second-largest history site in the world after the US national archives according to Similarweb, says it saw traffic drop 25% after Google’s AI Overviews rolled out. The site had previously drawn 80% of its traffic from Google. (Big Technology)
A former UnHerd deputy editor has launched a new online magazine, Dispatch, which says it will focus on American-style longform journalism. Founder Jacob Furedi told Press Gazette the magazine, which has set up on Ghost rather than competitor platform Substack, will initially be free before adding a paywall selling subscriptions at £7.50 a month. (Dispatch)
Also on Press Gazette:
Mirror editor says newsroom ‘coming along on journey’ with page-view targets
Southport knife attack misinformation due to police PR secrecy say crime journalists
Showbiz editors say newsroom culture will change post Millie Bobby Brown ‘bullying’ video
NewsGuard wins free speech ruling in battle with Roger Waters-backed publisher
Immediate Media’s Good Food plans video expansion after record revenue 2024
Latest Press Gazette podcast
Latest podcast: Generative AI could spell doomsday or a be a big pay day for publishers
Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford caught up with New York-based publishing consultant Matthew Scott Goldstein (MSG) to talk about the future of news in the era of AI.
How concerned should publishers be about the threat posed to their business models by generative AI? It’s a 9.9 out of ten said MSG.
He explained why generative AI could spell the end of the road for publisher websites, but why it could also lead to a huge payday for the creators of quality content.