The news industry has undervalued product development and must elevate its product teams – urgently. Here’s a challenge for you: name one truly great digital news product. Not a news brand. Not a piece of journalism. A product – a digital experience that stands alongside the best that the world’s tech or consumer apps have to offer. It’s tricky, isn’t it? (And no, you can’t count TikTok.) The New York Times’s latest app design, where you can swipe left and right for content, is often cited as a benchmark. It’s intuitive and useful. But is that the summit of…

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 intended to protect editorial integrity. But it is fast becoming a luxury few publishers can afford. Search referrals are dwindling (a resulting 10% decline in news traffic is a conservative estimate); social platforms have cooled on news; and ad‑blocking is siphoning revenues, with $54 billion lost last year – about…

Italian newspaper plans regular AI supplements but stresses technology must complement, not replace, journalists. The results are in. Italian daily Il Foglio has reported a sales boost and positive reader engagement after a month-long experiment publishing AI-generated content alongside its traditional journalism. Following the success of the trial, the newspaper plans to introduce a regular weekly AI supplement and use the technology selectively in areas outside its core expertise, such as astronomy. Editor Claudio Cerasa described the project as a world first: a four-page print insert written entirely by artificial intelligence, distributed daily with the main newspaper throughout the trial.…

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 the guidance of Alastair Lewis, FIPP continues to demonstrate leadership in convening open, forward-looking industry discussions on how technology is reshaping the media landscape. This session, like many it has run, encouraged a range of perspectives and highlighted just how important it is that publishers are equipped to understand and…

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 15, 2024, and now claims a following of around 400,000 subscribers, including over 40,000 paid members. Hasan told the Los Angeles Times that within four months of launch, Zeteo had already signed up 31,000 paying subscribers. Many now pay $500 annually, putting projected revenue between $3.3 million and $3.9 million.…

Dotdash Meredith invests in mobile product aimed at younger, visually-driven audiences. People Magazine has launched its first standalone app, marking a significant new direction for Dotdash Meredith since acquiring the brand in 2021. The app, released on Thursday, features a TikTok-style interface and offers original, swipeable content designed to appeal to younger users. Unlike previous mobile efforts, which were linked to a now-cancelled TV show, the new app delivers a distinct editorial experience. It includes multimedia storytelling exclusive to the platform, not available on the website or in print. “It’s not just a new platform – it’s a new product,”…

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 publishers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vox Media, the Atlantic, Politico, Wired and the Seattle Times. It aims to stop what the group describes as the unauthorised and uncompensated use of copyrighted material to train AI systems. The campaign includes a series of stark print and digital…

Courts are setting new boundaries for AI copyright, while creators unite against unauthorised use of their works, signalling a shift towards greater protection and accountability in AI development. What happenend? Courts are establishing boundaries for AI copyright: Multiple federal court rulings have allowed copyright lawsuits against AI companies to proceed, including The New York Times’s case against OpenAI and Microsoft. At the same time, courts have ruled that AI-generated content without meaningful human input cannot be copyrighted, preserving public domain status for purely AI-created works. Creative industries are mobilising against unauthorised AI training: Global creators – from authors to musicians to…

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 a prompt and within seconds, it produces not just an image, but a beautifully composed piece of design – layout, fonts, colours, even the copy. No templates, no training, no fiddly software. Just elegant output from a single sentence. What makes it different from…

The London tabloid celebrates a significant milestone in its digital evolution as it appoints a global women’s editor. The Daily Mail has crossed the milestone of a quarter of a million subscribers within 15 months of the launch of its new digital service, Mail+. As of now, the Daily Mail boasts over 163,000 subscribers to its Mail+ service, which offers access to exclusive articles on its online platform, MailOnline. Additionally, more than 92,000 readers enjoy the Mail+ Editions, a digital replica of the print newspaper designed for mobile devices. These figures indicate that the Daily Mail has rapidly established itself…