Why Monty is heading for exit at National World | Reach staff warned over third-party linking
Plus the founding editor of The London Economic departs and we have your news diary for the week ahead
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Monday 10 February.
National World promised to "jettison legacy systems and industrial practices" in the regional press.
But four years after it bought JPI Media to become the third biggest UK regional media group its financial performance is lagging behind the two big legacy players: Reach and Newsquest.
Today veteran media analyst Jim Chisholm looks at the battle for control of National World and explains why chief executive David Montgomery appears to be heading for the exit.
Over at Reach an email from management caused some consternation amongst Mirror staff who are already feeling spooked by the imposition of individual page-view targets.
Version one of the email appeared to suggest staff could be sacked for linking to third-party websites without permission. A clarification later explained that management were specifically clamping down on links to commercial companies requested by SEO marketers.
Reach is actually one of the better publishers when it comes to linking back to editorial sources. This is in contrast to the Times and Telegraph which appear to ban journalists from linking to source articles, even when large chunks of quotes and other information have been lifted. This latter behaviour is going to make it harder for publishers to defend their copyright work against generative AI companies when they do the same thing.
The editor of a left-wing political site which came to prominence during the Jeremy Corbyn Labour Party years has stepped down citing "punishing algorithms" as a factor.
Co-founder of The London Economic Jack Peat said that X in particular had become an unfriendly place for his website's coverage.
He said: "Reckless surrender of information has left the press, the airwaves and now the social media channels in the hands of a small cabal of powerful men."
X, he said, "is a textbook example of how information in the hands of bad actors can have horrible consequences".
While ownership of the UK press is fairly concentrated, it is also pretty tightly regulated and subject to the laws of privacy, defamation and contempt of court. The owners of Google, Facebook and X continue to have immunity from prosecution over content shared on their sites.
And your news diary for the week ahead includes Katie Price in court for a bankruptcy hearing and the one year anniversary of the death in custody of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
On Press Gazette
Left: David Montgomery, director of National World (picture: Reuters). Right: Malcolm Denmark, the founder and majority owner of advertising and publishing business Media Concierge (picture: Media Concierge)
Why David Montgomery is heading for exit at National World
There was only going to be one winner in the dispute between National World chairman David Montgomery and its major shareholder, Media Concierge owner Malcolm Denmark.
Reach reporters warned over unauthorised linking to commercial sites
“Placing links in articles to third parties which is done without pre-approval is a disciplinary matter which can lead to dismissal.”
London Economic editor steps down citing ‘punishing algorithms and scarce resources’
The London Economic is part of Joe Media, which was bought out of administration last year by Irish entrepreneur Michael O’Rourke.
News diary 10 – 16 February: Chinese counter tariffs come into effect, BAFTA
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief
Conservative “never Trump” news outlet The Bulwark had its first profitable year in 2024, it has told New York Magazine, with 76,000 paid Substack subscribers and monthly Youtube revenue of between $150,000 and $300,000. The company claimed it is now adding thousands of paid subcriptions each week. (New York Magazine)
Cabinet minister Chris Bryant has predicted that "in two or three years’ time, every single person will have an AI assistant of some kind on their laptop or on their phone" and said it's Government's job to find a "possibility for a win-win" on copyright. (DCMS)
65% of Canadians want their government to commit some of its ad budget to the country's news media. Publishers want 25% of the budget to go on trusted news sources - last year it was 2% to all print titles. The government has ended its ban on advertising with Meta. (News Media Canada)
A casino and hotel heir charged with complicity to kill Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been released on €50m bail. The businessman, Yorgen Fenech, was charged five years ago but has not yet been put on trial. (The Guardian)
Some newspapers owned by US local publisher Lee Enterprises have been unable to print, and others have had issues with their websites, since a company-wide cyberattack last week. (The New York Times)
The Washington Post has told staff the week of 27 January saw its highest traffic since the election, bringing 15 million unique on-platform visitors and 76.9 million off-platform (mostly via Apple News). A story about Trump freezing all federal grants received the most traffic of any Post story since 2022. (Semafor)
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RAJARs Q4 2024: Times Radio grows amid declines at Talk and GB News
FT head of newsletters on how title quadrupled email subscribers in four years
Le Monde CEO: Digital subscriber revenue will pay for entire newsroom within two years
FT policy chief warns MPs watered-down copyright regime for AI is ‘huge mistake’
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