Why NYT wants to shut down ChatGPT | Media honours list round-up
And goodbye John Pilger, a campaigning investigative journalist with forthright views
Good afternoon and welcome to your first Press Gazette daily newsletter of 2024 (a bit later than usual as we catch up after a week off with brains still slightly addled by excessive mince pie intake).
Should publishers work with the generative AI companies this year or against them?
In the former camp is Business Insider publisher Axel Springer, which before Christmas signed a deal to work with ChatGPT in exchange for improved discoverability and links on the platform.
Leading the charge against the generative AI companies is the New York Times which doesn’t just want a cheque from OpenAI, it wants ChatGPT switched off completely. We’ve taken a closer look at the complaint filed by the NYT to find why executives take the threat posed to journalism by large language models so seriously.
The problem is that ChatGPT is based on stolen content and flagrant abuse of copyright.
And the fear is that working with tech platforms and taking short-term money (as publishers previously did with Facebook) is not always the best long-term strategy.
Generative AI is one of four big disruptive technology themes which media leaders need to tackle this year, according to a star panel of executives assembled by Press Gazette.
Some 18 senior news industry leaders in the US and UK have shared their insights into how publishers should respond to the four existential challenges we all face which also include: plunging search and social referrals, the death of cookies and end of ad-supported journalism on the open web, and misinformation in a major election year.
We also say goodbye to John Pilger - a hero to many, but also a villain to those who felt he sought out facts to suit his preferred narratives.
And we round up some deserving honours recipients from the world of UK news media including: former Sky News head John Ryley, FT columnist Gillian Tett and Daily Mail journalist of 57 years Jeff Powell.
Check out our news diary for the year ahead for some key upcoming events, culminating in a November US presidential election tat looks likely to be a re-run of Trump versus Biden.
New from Press Gazette
Why New York Times lawsuit seeks destruction of OpenAI and Microsoft LLMs
“At the same time as Defendants’ models are copying, reproducing, and paraphrasing Times content without consent or compensation, they are also causing The Times commercial and competitive injury by misattributing content to The Times that it did not, in fact, publish.”
John Pilger praised and pilloried following death aged 84
“If you suggest to some journalists that they can’t be neutral they will look puzzled and say: ‘But I’m not biased.’ But you say to them: ‘Well excuse me but you have had the kind of equivalent of a lobotomy since you first went to school.”
John Ryley, Gillian Tett and Jeff Powell among media figures in King’s New Year Honours
Full round-up of media figures in the New Year honours list.
How can news media bounce back in 2024? 18 leaders share their insights
Five chief executives, four editorial leaders, four digital bosses and three revenue leaders were among those to answer Press Gazette’s call for predictions for the coming year.
Foresight news diary: The dates to know for 2024
2024 is not just an election year – it’s the election year. On top of the UK polls that could see Labour return to power after 14 years and the potential Joe Biden–Donald Trump rematch in the US, there are elections in at least 60 countries next year, including the likes of India, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, Taiwan, and potentially Japan.
Podcast 62: How publishers can sell online advertising in an awful market
The Guardian‘s senior vice president of advertising for North America, Luis Romero, spoke to Press Gazette about what he says is the toughest advertising market for news publishers since 2008.
Asked how the newspaper’s US operation going about surviving the downturn, Romero said conversations with advertisers are key – but explained times may well stay difficult for a while longer.
News in brief
Design Week is ceasing publication after 38 years as owner Centaur shifts its strategy towards its "core audience of marketers, and focuses on training, information, and intelligence". (Design Week)
A British journalist was reportedly wounded in a Russian missile strike on a hotel in Kharkiv, Ukraine frequently used by foreign journalists on Saturday. (The Sun)
An information rights tribunal heard on Friday that the BBC plans to redact some of the almost 3,000 emails it must release about its handling of the Martin Bashir scandal. The emails in question mostly contain "third-party personal data". (The Guardian)
Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, has today pleaded not guilty to all the national security charges against him. He has been in jail for three years and faces life imprisonment if found guilty. (BBC)
Cheddar, the financial news brand started in 2016 by now-Future CEO Jon Steinberg, has been sold in an "earn out" deal by Altice USA to private equity-owned media company Archetype. (CNBC)
Ex-No 10 spinner Alastair Campbell proposed threatening the BBC with lawyers over its Iraq war coverage according to newly released files. He told Blair they could step up rhetoric "up to and including the threat of putting the issue in the hands of lawyers". (The Guardian)
In case you missed it:
Seven charts which explain the news industry in 2023 from declining ad spend to the growth of AI
How can news media bounce back in 2024? 18 industry leaders share their insights
100k Club: Exclusive ranking of world’s top paywalled news publishers
Investigative reporting is a ‘masochistic business’ says journalist of the year Gabriel Pogrund
Interviewer of the year Tom Bradby: Harry ‘never asked me what questions I was going to ask’