Youtube prominence and ‘stable’ funding needed for PSBs | Google taps Atlantic and Economist for AI tool
And Wales newsletter author Will Hayward has launched a fund to support new investigative journalists
Welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 22 July.
The gears of media regulation are slow to change but Ofcom was forthright yesterday on what it thinks needs to be done to protect public service broadcasters, including and especially news.
The Media Act has legislated for prominence for PSB news on smart TVs, but Youtube feels like the real vanguard - so why stop there?
We spoke to Ofcom’s Cristina Nicolotti Squires about the fundamental platform changes that are going on and why the regulator would be “a good candidate” for tax breaks to those producing news.
Today we also find out more about Google’s AI tool NotebookLM which has The Atlantic and The Economist among just a few initial partners - meaning they have shared rights for their How to Build A Life columns and The World Ahead respectively with the tech platform. Both also have further collections planned.
Despite a plethora of concerns from the news industry about Google and its use of our content for AI outputs, this does appear to be different as publishers directly curate and contribute their own content collections. Though any terms of the partnership are unknown.
And finally Will Hayward, who left Reach last year to go solo on Substack with his newsletter about Welsh affairs and politics, is putting his money where his mouth is and has secured £10,000 from his business and a grant to support new investigative journalists in Wales.
On Press Gazette
Public service broadcasters need ‘stable’ funding for news and prominence on Youtube, Ofcom finds
'Next logical step' after Media Act gave prominence to public service broadcasters on smart TVs.
The Atlantic and The Economist among initial partners for Google ‘featured notebooks’
NotebookLM is Google's AI-powered documents research and note-taking tool.
Wales newsletter author Will Hayward launches fund to support new investigative journalists
Hayward has £10,000 to spend on pitches from young journalists.
News in brief
Fortune is cutting 10% of its global workforce, which reportedly stands at about 360 full-time staffers meaning almost 40 people could be affected. (Press Gazette)
A Wall Street Journal reporter has been removed from the press pool for Donald Trump's upcoming trip to Scotland after he sued the newspaper and owner Rupert Murdoch over a story linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. (The Guardian)
US newsletter publisher 6AM City has bought AI newsletter start-up Good Daily, taking its subscribers from around 1.4m to almost 2m and from 30 markets to 400 cities. It is removing crime and politics from Good Daily as 6AM City focuses on lifestyle/events. (Adweek)
The Observer has said it is "genuinely sorry for causing offence" with a cartoon that featured MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn. Sultana said of the cartoon: "Brownfacing a box of raisins and mocking my surname". (The National)
Also on Press Gazette
PR agency sells AI tool which sends out automated expert comment to journalists
Clickbait has become ‘self-perpetuating cycle’ drowning out genuine news
Adblockers stop publishers serving ads to (or even seeing) 1bn web users
Afghan data breach super injunction ‘deeply disturbing’ for press freedom, says Lewis Goodall
The Times: From loss-making broadsheet to profit on a tiny screen
Reach in the US: 70-strong team is turning a profit with more growth planned
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