3:55 pm - April 23, 2025
Traditional divides between editorial and commercial teams undermine revenue growth. Here’s how to close them. For years publishers have run two trains on parallel and rarely converging tracks: editorial teams pursuing journalistic ambition on one and commercial teams chasing revenue targets on the other. This traditional church‑and‑state divide was…...
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New research by SEO platform Ahrefs reveals that Google’s AI-generated summaries cut the click-through rates for top-ranking search results by 34.5%. Analysis of 300,000 keywords suggests Google’s AI Overviews are cutting click-through rates by more than a third Google’s AI-generated summaries are significantly reducing the number of users clicking…
The Washington Post has teamed up with OpenAI to integrate its reporting into ChatGPT. The Washington Post has signed a new partnership with OpenAI that will bring its reporting directly into ChatGPT, giving users access to summaries, quotes and links back to full articles. The deal will see the Post’s…
A recent FIPP webinar sparked a vital conversation about the impact of AI on journalism and publishing. What role should AI play in publishing? A recent webinar hosted by FIPP – the global media network – offered a thoughtful and timely space to explore this often fraught question. Under…...
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Zuora report shows strong growth for subscriber businesses – but rising costs risk driving users away. Businesses built on subscription models are continuing to outgrow the wider market, according to the latest Subscription Economy Index from Zuora. The report found that subscription-based companies achieved an 11% revenue growth advantage over…
Former MSNBC host builds fast-growing independent outlet with big-name contributors and ambitions beyond Substack. Mehdi Hasan’s independent media platform Zeteo has generated more than $3.5 million in revenue in its first year, making it one of the fastest-growing ventures on Substack. The former MSNBC host launched the newsletter on April…...
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Tech titans spark backlash with anti-copyright stance amid AI copyright battles. Jack Dorsey has called for the complete eradication of intellectual property law – and Elon Musk agrees. The former Twitter and Square CEO made the blunt demand in a post on X, prompting an immediate “yes” from Musk in…
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Newsrooms recognised for innovation in storytelling, subscriptions and tech-driven journalism. WAN-IFRA has announced continental winners of its 2025 Digital Media Awards, highlighting innovative journalism and technology-led projects across both Europe and South Asia. From AI-powered tools to gamified engagement strategies, the awards celebrate how newsrooms are evolving to attract audiences, drive subscriptions and uphold editorial excellence. In Europe, Reuters took top national honours for Best Data Visualisation with its investigative project “Buildings wrapped in solid gasoline,” which exposed the dangers of flammable cladding and linked the Grenfell fire in London to wider regulatory failures. Regional recognition in the same category…
Tools support summaries, data analysis and reader comments – with human oversight built in. The Financial Times is using artificial intelligence to generate article summaries and support its journalists, as part of a broader effort to boost reader engagement and experiment with new ways of presenting information. Speaking at WAN-IFRA’s Frankfurt AI Forum, Liz Lohn, the FT’s director of product, AI and editorial tech, said AI-generated summaries are helping readers get to key facts faster – but also encouraging them to stay and read more. “Good summaries can actually help draw readers into the article,” she said. Rather than placing…
Jonathan Roberts says storytelling still matters – but the rules of distribution are changing fast. Artificial intelligence is reshaping digital publishing and Dotdash Meredith is among the companies moving quickly to adapt. In a recent interview with The Media Copilot, the company’s Chief Innovation Officer, Dr Jonathan Roberts, outlined how the publisher is balancing AI adoption with editorial integrity, and why human storytelling still matters in an increasingly automated environment. Home to titles including People, InStyle and Investopedia, Dotdash Meredith has built a reputation for data-driven strategy. It has developed its own ad tech platform, D/Cipher, aimed at the post-cookie…
New feature aims to help users manage screen time without blocking access. YouTube is developing a new feature that will allow users to set daily time limits for watching Shorts, its short-form video offering. The feature, discovered in the latest beta version of the YouTube app, is designed to help users regulate their screen time amid growing concerns over the addictive nature of endless scrolling. According to Android Authority, users will be able to specify how many minutes or hours they want to spend on Shorts each day. Once the limit is reached, the app will pause the continuous scroll…
Preferences vary widely across age, income and political lines, with many seeking content that reflects their own views. A new study published in the International Journal of Communication has found that while many people say they want impartial news, large sections of the public actually prefer journalism that reflects their own beliefs. The findings suggest that assumptions about audience preferences – long held by newsrooms and media academics – may not reflect the full picture. The research, led by Camila Mont’Alverne of the University of Strathclyde and Richard Fletcher of Oxford University, analysed data from 80,000 participants across 40 countries,…
News outlets call for regulation to stop tech firms using journalism without permission. A coalition of major US news organisations has launched a campaign demanding tighter regulation of how artificial intelligence companies use journalistic content. The campaign, called Support Responsible AI, is coordinated by the News/Media Alliance and backed by…...
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Charles Darwin University research shows AI-written news is more uniform, less creative New research from Charles Darwin University has found clear stylistic differences between journalism written by humans and by artificial intelligence, suggesting that while AI-generated news is readable, it lacks the creative variation that characterises human reporting. The study,…
Media companies and authors challenge AI training practices in landmark legal clash. Twelve copyright lawsuits filed against OpenAI and Microsoft have been consolidated into a single case in the Southern District of New York, in what is set to become a defining legal battle over intellectual property rights and the…
Move adds to growing portfolio as company bets on innovation and direct audience engagement. Redbrick has acquired digital outlets Quartz and The Inventory from G/O Media, marking its fifth major media investment as it expands its presence in the digital publishing space. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.…
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Complaint to competition regulator argues aggregators are diluting visibility and value of news brands. The BBC has lodged a formal complaint with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), accusing news aggregators such as Apple News and Google News of undermining the visibility and value of its journalism. In its submission, the broadcaster said audiences often consume BBC content through these platforms without attributing it to the BBC itself. That, it argued, weakens the public perception of its work and threatens the funding model built around the licence fee. “If audiences value our journalism but don’t associate it with the…
Bulletin, which uses Google’s Gemini to summarise its journalism, hits one million views in a day The Independent’s new AI-driven news service, Bulletin, is outperforming traditional articles in reader engagement and has already surpassed one million views in a single day, according to UK editor Chloe Hubbard. Speaking at Advertising Week in London, Hubbard said the service – designed to produce five to ten bullet summaries of existing articles – had “washed its face” commercially. The tool uses Google’s Gemini AI technology and is currently hosted in the top navigation of The Independent’s website, with plans for a standalone site,…
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Pew study shows public attention to press conflicts has halved since 2017, even as engagement with political news grows Public awareness of Donald Trump’s clashes with the media has dropped sharply since his first term, according to new research from the Pew Research Center, despite a rise in political news engagement overall. Only 36% of Americans say they’ve heard “a lot” about the Trump administration’s interactions with the press, down from 72% in March 2017. The data comes from a survey of 5,123 adults conducted from 24 February to 2 March. The fall in awareness comes even as high-profile stories…
End of manual controls raises concerns over visibility and representation. Google has completed its shift to automatically generated publisher pages in Google News, ending a system that allowed news organisations to manually manage their presence on the platform. The change, finalised late last month, removes tools that let publishers customise how their content appeared, including the ability to create landing pages, set logos, adjust publication titles and control geographic distribution. Google first signalled the change in April 2024 and confirmed it in a February update: “All publication pages in Google News will be generated automatically. Google News will no longer…
New assistant aims to boost value of Pro subscription with tailored, report-driven insights. Politico has launched an AI-powered tool for its Pro subscribers, offering on-demand policy reports based entirely on the publication’s own journalism. The Policy Intelligence Assistant is designed for the service’s high-profile users, including lobbyists, corporate executives and industry leaders, who pay upwards of $10,000 a year to subscribe. The move reflects a growing trend among publishers to deploy AI not for general chatbot-style responses, but to mine their archives for bespoke, high-quality content. Politico says the tool will create a huge volume of content, using only its…
OpenAi’s new image generator may not just democratise design, but upend creative hierarchies and entire industries. This week I’ve been playing with something that feels like a moment – one of those quiet milestones you look back on and realise everything changed. OpenAI’s new image generator, now built into ChatGPT, is extraordinary. You give it...
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The podcasting firm’s inaugural CMO Summit discussed the vast opportunities in podcasting for brands. Podcasting has become a mass-market medium, but UK brands are still lagging in their response, according to the founders of production company Goalhanger, which is behind many of Britain’s leading podcasts. Speaking at the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer Summit, co-founder Tony Pastor said advertisers had been slow to grasp the scale and intimacy of podcast audiences. “I’ve been saying for some time now that podcasting has broken out as a mass-market medium but the brands and agencies have still not caught up with that fact…
Ruling keeps key copyright claims alive in case over AI training data. A federal judge has denied OpenAI’s attempt to dismiss key parts of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by The New York Times, allowing the case to proceed and intensifying scrutiny of how AI companies acquire and use copyrighted content. The ruling, by Judge Sidney H Stein in the Southern District of New York, keeps alive several claims central to the case. These include direct and contributory copyright infringement and trademark dilution, some of which relate to conduct more than three years before the complaint was filed. “The Court…
As Yahoo celebrates its 30th anniversary. the CEO outlines his vision for the future. In September 2021, Jim Lanzone assumed the role of CEO at Yahoo, marking a significant transition for a brand long associated with the early internet era but which had struggled under various ownership structures, ultimately sold by Verizon to Apollo Global Management for about $5 billion. Speaking to Wired, Lanzone expressed his enthusiasm for turnaround challenges, highlighting Yahoo’s potential as an underappreciated asset despite its troubled past. With an established track record in digital transformation, particularly during his tenure at CBS Interactive and his earlier success…
The WSJ video chief will join the news channel to shape its digital strategy. CNN has appointed Amanda Wills as its new chief content officer as part of a strategic initiative to adapt to the evolving media landscape beyond traditional television. Wills will start on April 14. Wills returns to CNN after a stint at The Wall Street Journal, where she held the position of chief content officer of video. In her new role, Wills will collaborate with the product team to develop and implement content strategies across the network’s television, digital and streaming platforms. She will report to Virginia…
The WSJ publisher has launched a customised news feed for users of the London Stock Exchange Group’s Workspace platform. Dow Jones has introduced a tailored news feed specifically for users of the London Stock Exchange Group’s Workspace financial data platform. The customised dashboard will feature news and data from prominent Dow Jones publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Market Watch and Investor’s Business Daily. The content displayed will be curated by a team of Dow Jones journalists who will select the top stories of the day to ensure relevance and timeliness for users. This launch marks Dow Jones’s first…
The iconic fashion publication is set to relaunch in the UK, embracing nostalgia and Gen Z consumer desires. i-D magazine is set to relaunch on UK newsstands after a hiatus following its parent company Vice’s bankruptcy in 2023. The fashinon magazine has been acquired by model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss under her Bedford Media conglomerate. At the launch event, Kloss described i-D as “an extraordinary piece of fashion history,” emphasising her determination to preserve its legacy. The revival of i-D comes amid a broader trend where fashion magazines are experiencing a resurgence, predominantly fuelled by nostalgia among Gen Z readers.…
