Good morning from the Press Gazette team on Monday, March 23rd. This article is brought to you in partnership with Parse.ly.
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📈 Online news site The Daily Beast turned profitable last year for the first time in its 17-year history.
And according to Chief Operating Officer Keith Bonnici, AI played a direct role in this.
He recently spoke at the Media Strategy Network USA event in New York. Bonnici said a combination of efficiency savings and license fee payments have increased The Daily Beast’s profitability. He also explained in the title why AI will not replace the core work that journalists do.
😟 No mention of AI. Latest reductions in pink news.
But the question remains: how will it cover the day’s news without a team of four reporters, which is on the verge of layoffs?
Staffers said the brand was moving away from being a “reporter-driven newsroom.”
🤔 Can we eliminate bias from journalism?
The Center for Media Monitoring (CfMM) believes certain British news outlets are heavily biased against Muslims and Muslims in their reporting and wants the media regulator to intervene.
Personally, I do not believe that any press regulation in a democracy can outlaw bias, as publications are allowed to have their own views.
But journalists and publishers should take note when entire religious groups claim they are being unfairly portrayed.
Clickbait online headlines, especially when it comes to Islam, can incite public fear at the expense of honest reporting.
However, there are some concerns about this study.
1. Created by LLM (spot-checked by humans). When I asked CfMM to share a spreadsheet with links to the most problematic articles, I was alarmed by their inability to extract the articles from the AI black box.
2. News is inherently negative. I think reporting negative stories about Muslims straight could be considered biased in this study.
Spectator editor Michael Gove told the Press Gazette that the report was an attempt to “shut down open debate”. And GB News said the CfMM “relies on subjective interpretations of ‘bias’ to serve its own purposes”.
Most publishers know that their biggest traffic source isn’t actually theirs. The numbers will move as the algorithm updates.
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Encyclopedia Britannica and merriam webster is suing OpenAI, alleging that its product “free-rides on trusted, high-quality content through both training and RAG infringement,” and has already sued Perplexity. (press gazette)
this week’s Foresight News This diary chronicles a month of the Iran war and includes investigative interviews into the Nottingham attack from the families of the victims. Additionally, British Summer Time starts on Sunday. (press gazette)
CBS News is cutting about 66 people, or 6% of its staff, including the closure of CBS News Radio after nearly 100 years of operation. (press gazette)
ofcom Decided 10 out of 11 talk radio Although the Good Law Project claimed that the programs complained of were not legitimately fair and that three of the programs were also offensive, no issues were raised that warranted investigation. Ofcom has launched an investigation into a program. (ofcom)
Huw Edwards had a hit. channel 5 The drama about him said there was “no attempt” to confirm the truth with him, that he was contacted only after production, and that the documentary makers did not reveal whether those who made the accusations against him were paid. (GB News)
The outgoing Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police has admitted he made a “mistake” in complaining about the incident to media regulator IPSO. nottinghamshire liveReporting in the aftermath of a triple murder that occurred in the city in June 2023. (nottinghamshire live)
sky news Royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills has joined the Royal Press Office as media secretary to the King and Queen. (telegraph paper)
Original-media house ireland CEO Peter Vandermersch has been suspended from his role as the group’s Journalism and Society Fellow after admitting that a quote he used in an article he wrote was an AI “hallucination” attributed to Axel Springer CEO Matthias Döpfner and others. (irish independent)
observer reportedly began a voluntary redundancy round a year after transferring ownership to Tortoise. (media operator)
Steve Sweeney, British journalist Russia todayand his cameraman Ali Rida were injured in a missile explosion in Lebanon while reporting live while wearing press vests and were taken to hospital. (daily mail)
guardian is launching a new magazine, Guardian Food Quarterly. The magazine is available worldwide as a free supplement to the UK print edition or through the Guardian Edition app. (guardian)
The government is reportedly considering lowering the cap on processing costs. FOI requestThis means that if you exceed the limit, you will be further rejected. (financial times)
OpenAI plans to nearly double its headcount by the end of the year as it accelerates sales to companies and outsmarts rival Anthropic. (financial times)
of News/Media Alliance has a licensing agreement with startup Bria. This allows the company’s 2,200 publisher members to opt-in to monetizing demand from Brita’s enterprise clients, paying them based on how often their content is used. (DIGIDAY)
The move follows unanimous opposition to the plans by the UK news industry.
Mr Gallagher also criticized the government’s inaction on SLAPP and IPSO’s “overreach”.
The Minister of Culture has also criticized politicians who serve as broadcast hosts.
Since the launch of AI Overview, organic search traffic to 64 publishers has decreased by 42%.
New Police and Media Charter for England and Wales launched.
ADWEEK Chief Strategy Officer Mike Bayman talks to Press Gazette Editor-in-Chief Dominic Ponsford about AI, technology transformation and new forms of advertising for publishers. This episode was sponsored by WordPress VIP.
