Telegraph duped by source in sob story about banker hit by school fees hike
Techcrunch is latest title to make deep cuts with around ten staff sacked from Europe team. Axel Springer CEO says remote working "became just an alibi to not work at all"
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday, 9 June, brought to you in association with Admiral - the Visitor Relationship Company.
Find out here how CBS Sports worked with Admiral to use real-time journey shaping to engage over 18 million visitors for major live events like the Super Bowl and March Madness.
A sob story about a wealthy banker who had to cut back on foreign holidays because of the cost of school fees has landed the Telegraph in hot water.
The report about the challenges faced by the £345k-per-year earning “Moy” family was taken down by the Telegraph after social media users spotted that pictures of the Moys were in fact old stock images posed by models. Further concern was prompted by the fact that none of the people in the story appear to exist.
The story was picked up by Goalhanger podcast The Rest Is Entertainment whose co-host, Richard Osman, said last week the article in question was "clearly written by AI".
Osman normally would get a free pass from me as a fellow native of Haywards Heath and alumnus of Warden Park Comprehensive, but he really should have done some homework before traducing the work of the Telegraph and the journalist involved in the article quite so robustly.
Press Gazette's own investigation into the article has revealed that it appears to have been written by a journalist based on a real interview with a case study which set up by a PR. The case study themself appears to have deceived the journalist.
This doesn't let the Telegraph off the hook, given the obvious red flags and inconsistencies in the piece and the strange use of an old stock image to illustrate it.
Today we also dig deeper into the news last week that Techcrunch has sacked its Europe-based reporting team with the loss of around ten jobs. Tech journalism as a whole appears to be hitting something of a crunch point, with Business Insider also making deep cuts to its technology reporting team.
***The Press Gazette Future of Media Awards are now open for entries***
This event celebrates the websites, apps, podcasts, newsletters and commercial strategies which are lighting the way to a profitable future for journalism in the digital age. Find out more here and remember to finalise your entry by 19 June for the chance to shower in glory at the awards dinner in September.
From our sponsor
How CBS Sports used Admiral’s real-time journey shaping to boost ad revenue
Admiral, the Visitor Relationship Management (VRM) company, empowers leading publishers to guide audiences toward deeper engagement and higher revenue outcomes—with no dev lift required.
Case Study: CBS Sports
For high-stakes events like the NFL Playoffs and March Madness, CBS Sports used Admiral Convert to deploy over ten hyper-targeted campaigns, engaging 18.5 million-plus visitors in real-time.
Highlights:
20 million-plus impressions during live events
CTRs up to 33.33%
eCPM exceeding $100
With countdown timers, DMA-targeted messaging, and real-time optimisation, CBS Sports turned live events into high-converting engagement moments.
On Press Gazette
Telegraph withdraws banker school fees story after being deceived by source
“We take the quality and integrity of our journalism very seriously but it is clear that our internal processes were not strong enough on this story and we are taking steps to ensure this does not happen again.”
Around ten staff axed in Techcrunch move to scrap Europe coverage
“How Europe shapes its own tech future is becoming increasingly relevant, especially geopolitically. But those stories cannot only be told by ‘influencers’ or VCs with podcasts, no matter how polished they are.”
Axel Springer to mandate four days per week in the office
“During Covid, that got out of control because it became just an alibi to not work at all or isolate yourself at home and get paranoid.”
News diary 9-15 June: New US travel ban, Trooping the Colour, G7 Summit in Canada
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
US correspondent for Australia’s Channel 9 Lauren Tomasi was shot by LA police with a rubber bullet whilst reporting a piece to camera about protests in the US city. (Mail Online)
British photographer Nick Stern has undergone surgery on his left leg after also being shot with a plastic bullet whilst photographing protests in Los Angeles. Stern had press ID and a large camera plus video camera on display. (The Times)
The USA has lost around a third of its local newspapers since 2005 creating huge "news deserts". New research has found that "wealthy white suburbs keep their watchdogs, while low-income and diverse communities lose theirs". (Nieman Lab)
New research published by Apple testing current LLM and LRM AI models has raised "crucial questions" about their true reasoning capabilities. Accuracy "collapses" when AI models are asked to complete complex tasks, Apple has found. (Apple)
Also on Press Gazette
Press Gazette tops ranking of websites covering media industry news
Investment in SEO pays off as Capital Business Media doubles revenue
From Discord to Puma Kings: How football brand Mundial is connecting with readers
Staying true to ‘core cause’ has helped Stylist survive bonfire of the free mags
Google ‘handling stolen goods’ with Youtube theft of paywalled news articles
Why Business Insider is axing 100-plus staff and who is leaving
Latest podcast: Death of the website, the never-ending pivot to video and why Dom loves Substack
'The death of the website' was the name of one panel session at a recent publishing industry conference. Press Gazette editor in chief Dominic Ponsford and UK editor Charlotte Tobitt discuss why this statement is nonsense, but also the tech and behaviour changes which are prompting people to say it.
They also analyse the latest publisher pivot to video (more a never-ending pirouette) and Dominic explains why he has become an unpaid brand ambassador for Substack.