News circles were abuzz last week with more data on the extent of the collapse of referrals to their sites from social media. As Axios points out, this is a trend that has been playing out over the last few years, which only leaves publishers with a question of what to do next.

I can attest that there has been tension in audience development. Some social media advocates have continued to push for more off-platform activity as a goal unto itself. While others (including me with some important caveats) have said that off-platform needs to be put in the context of overall editorial and business goals. The most important thing with respect to social media is that it needs to be in the service of broader goals for a publisher such as converting unknown users to know. To achieve that, you can use off-platform audience development to build awareness organically and then use paid campaigns to build subscribers to your newsletters or podcasts.

Building direct relationships with audiences is a strategy that is working. We have multiple examples of how precarious renting audiences on social media has been from the social-media-driven publishers such as BuzzFeed or Mic or large traditional publishers such as Reach in the UK. The FT, the New York Times and the Independent in the UK have all been successful in building direct relationships with audiences, and the Indy isn’t achieving success through a focus on paying subscribers. These strategies of converting unknown users to known and building up subscription businesses have built more resilient businesses. I agree with Axios when they write: “The over-reliance on social media traffic kept news publishers from focusing on building stronger consumer products of their own.”

Publishers reckon with declining Facebook referral traffic as the platform pulls away from news

Publishers are still feeling the effects of a change Facebook made in May that caused a steep decline in referral traffic. Nearly four months later, publishers aren’t sure when — or if — that traffic will come back.

digiday.com/media/publishers-reckon-with-declining-facebook-referral-traffic-as-the-platform-pulls-away-from-news

Social media traffic to top news sites craters

Why it matters: Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken.

www.axios.com/2023/10/03/social-media-traffic-news-sites-decrease

And for many publishers, a focus on consumer social media networks have caused them to overlook networks like LinkedIn for certain kinds of content. My overall view is that the volume that networks like Facebook used to drive to publishers left them to pursue relatively simplistic social media strategies

Why is 20-year-old Linkedin now 'cool? We've not changed, says editor-in-chief

Linkedin’s editor-in-chief, Daniel Roth, on how the platform is prioritising and promoting news in its 20th year.

pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/linkedins-newsroom

Can local podcasts be successful?

I have shared a number of posts over the past year that call into question the podcast strategies for a range of companies including audio streaming giant Spotify. I’m going to highlight this first story which covers a meeting at New York Public Radio, which recently cut two podcasts. This is the reality:



Having moved on from US regional public media in April 2022, I must admit that the coverage of this meeting sounded very familiar.

That is the overall issue, but candid comments from New York Public Radio CEO LaFontaine Oliver also speak to a culture in US public media that might not be as audience or product-focused as necessary. “Oliver also bemoaned the fact that he felt that the podcast division was far too invested in creating podcasts the newsroom wanted to hear, and not what New Yorkers wanted to hear,” Rivlin-Nadler wrote. Ouch.

New York Public Radio Fires 20 Staff as High-Paid Executives Refuse to Cut Their Six-Figure Salaries - Hell Gate

"It is not a good use of any of our time, looking in the rearview mirror and trying to figure out where we should place blame," New York Public Radio's CEO told staff on Friday.

hellgatenyc.com/nypr-layoffs

But US public media aren’t the only local podcasts that are struggling to gain reaction. Media analyst Simon Owen highlights how The Athletic has shuttered most of its local podcasts. As someone who is producing a lot of this research for our customers at Pugpig, I wonder what audience - both size and characteristics - are required for a successful podcast. I don’t have the answer right now, but I know that in the work that I’m doing right now knowing which question to ask is the most important first step.

Can local podcasts become profitable?

PLUS: How Michael Lewis became a nonfiction juggernaut

open.substack.com/pub/simonowens/p/can-local-podcasts-become-profitable?r=1u7ee&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

My day job is focused on mobile in a way that it hasn’t been through most of my career, but I have always tended to think of mobile in a very expensive way. And texting - good ‘ole SMS - is a powerful tool because of its low cost and ubiquity. This piece from the Reynolds Journalism Institute has a step-by-step process on how to use AirTable, Twillio and the Forminator WordPress plugin to allow community sports supporters to submit game results. They have developed the process with low or no-cost tools so that local news outlets can replicate it. So much of my career has been about coming up with systems like this so, of course, I love it!

How to use our texting system to bring in content from your community – RJI

Learn how the newsroom, community and technology comes together

rjionline.org/news/how-to-use-our-texting-system-to-bring-in-content-from-your-community

Continuing the theme of local, mobile community journalism, Better News has a case study with the Charlotte Observer on how their mobile newsroom has worked to engage “historically underrepresented communities”. Of the takeaways, a few stand out for me. As a former library board member, I see that they have partnered with local libraries, which I think can be an excellent way to connect with the community. Partners are so important as both entry points into communities and also as ways to amplify your coverage. One partnership that I started but wasn’t able to carry on as much as I wanted was with our local schools. Young journalists had lost their printed student newspapers so having an opportunity to highlight them in the newspaper was a way for them to get the experience and exposure that they wanted. I think local networks are critical to renewing local communities that have suffered from underinvestment and disruption. I saw the power of engagement events when I was a local news editor. It helps build relationships, and one the favourite parts of my job was being out in the community. And my own example shows why it’s important to retain these connections that you build. You can quickly lose credibility with the community if you drop in and then leave without a trace.

6 takeaways from The Charlotte Observer’s mobile newsrooms - Better News

A mobile newsroom offers authentic and organic opportunities to connect with historically underrepresented communities and report on them.

betternews.org/6-takeaways-from-the-charlotte-observers-mobile-newsrooms

An interesting overview that could be said of any technology adoption process. It requires leaders who are able to cross boundaries in your organisation and understand the needs of both internal stakeholders as well as your audiences. Working as a digitally-oriented journalist, I often said that I used cutting-edge tools but remained rooted in traditional journalism values, and this piece explains how your business strategy and editorial values shouldn’t change. You need to remain committed to your North Star goals. AI will affect how you achieve those goals not the goals themselves. And one last thing, data was important and will only become even more so in the age of AI.

Who is your company’s Head of AI Transformation?

As part of Mx3’s Collectif, in which we feature the work of our partners (see more here), Matt D'Cruz of Martin Tripp Associates outlines

mediamakersmeet.com/who-is-your-companys-head-of-ai-transformation

On our old Macs, my wife Suw said that she knew when she had landed on a news website because the fans would spin up due to the heaviness of the sites. They were overloaded with trackers and ad tech, and this review by the Press Gazette adds some data to what we experienced.

(Note, using Ghostery during some training I was doing several years ago, I once showed an Indian ad ops person how I could track each of 111 trackers that they had on their site. His jaw dropped.)

New analysis suggests ads are hitting site performance on leading UK news sites

Site performance check: New ranking of UK's most popular news websites according to site speed analysis by Baytree.

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/how-ads-are-hitting-site-performance-on-leading-uk-news-sites

I recently was having a discussion on the News Product Alliance Slack with a person who was gathering data and anecdotes about what it required to launch a successful podcast. The editorial employee was adamant that a quality podcast would cut through and become successful with no marketing or audience development strategy. Almost everyone who weighed in had data and examples of why this wasn’t true.

Competition for attention and money in the podcast industry is only increasing, and here is another data point as Malcom Gladwell’s podcast company lays off half of its staff and replaces Gladwell as president.

Pushkin Industries lays off one-third of employees

Founder Malcolm Gladwell to be replaced as company president by Gretta Cohn

www.podpod.com/article/1839276/pushkin-industries-lays-off-one-third-employees

DAUs and new users are down at Threads, and Meta is seeking new ways to re-engage people after a promising start. (I’ve started rotating days to use the new social media platforms. It’s Wednesday today, which is BlueSky day!)

Meta’s Reportedly Exploring New Options to Reignite Interest in Threads

Can Threads capitalize on the opportunity sparked by Musk's reformation of Twitter?

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/metas-reportedly-exploring-new-options-to-reignite-interest-in-threads/695551

How much will individual contributors make for allowing their content to be used to train AIs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How much can artists make from generative AI? Vendors won't say | TechCrunch

Companies commercializing generative AI are being cagey about how much, exactly, they're paying contributors to their models' training datasets.

techcrunch.com/2023/09/30/how-much-can-artists-make-from-generative-ai-vendors-wont-say

This is interesting. The Telegraph is up for sale, and Germany’s Axel Springer is interested in buying it.

Bild publisher Axel Springer eyes Telegraph auction

German company registers interest with Goldman Sachs ahead of Telegraph Media Group auction

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/01/bild-publisher-axel-springer-eyes-telegraph-auction

One of my favourite media management quotes is from Jim Brady who said that when it comes to building a sustainable business, there are no silver bullets only shrapnel. The first two items in the newsletter today reinforce that both from a strategic view and also from a practical view at the Financial Times. Anita Zielana outlines a great process with three short case studies from independent media from around the world for diversiying revenue streams. One case study that leaped out at me was URL Media, which is a network of BIPOC (US acronym for Black, Indigenous, and people of color) media outlets. They provide support services to this network including audience development, recruiting and philanthropic funding development. All of the examples speak to the creativity that is needed to make a modern media business thrive.

I also like the onion principle of revenue diversification, which recommends that publishers focus on core existing revenue streams and build out from there. This helps a publisher leverage existing capabilities to grow from a solid base.

Why a diversified revenue portfolio is the best sustainability insurance for media organizations – RJI

rjionline.org/news/why-a-diversified-revenue-portfolio-is-the-best-sustainability-insurance-for-media-organizations

The FT is a good example of so many solid management techniques - from their North Star framework to their embrace of data. And this has meant a diversified set of revenue streams that mean solid results.

Online subs, events and advertising fuel FT revenue boost for 2022 to £458m

Globally the FT Group grew revenues by 5% in 2022 according to unaudited accounts.

pressgazette.co.uk/media_business/financial-times-revenue-profit-2022

In this week’s Pugpig Media Bulletin, we covered a new report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism that added some qualitative data to their quantitative data on subsciption trends. While the cost of living crisis (inflation) was the top reason that people cancelled their subscriptions (especially in the UK), the second biggest reason is that people didn’t perceive value from the subscriptions. They simply didn’t develop a habit of using it. The importance of good subscriber onboarding and building habits with new subscribers immediately is a theme that we touch on often at Pugpig Consulting.

Reuters Institute: Cost, failure to develop habit driving subs to cancel - Pugpig

We review the range of ways that apps can contribute to higher average revenue per user including acquiring new paying users.

www.pugpig.com/2023/09/29/reuters-institute-finds-price-and-failure-to-find-value-driving-subscription-cancellations

This week in Google: Shifts in podcast distribution and giving publishers a choice on LLM training

Podcasting is in transition right now, with podcast publishers and distributors making changes. Google has announced that it will retire its podcast app next year and point users to YouTube Music. Users have long been using YouTube to listen to or even watch podcasts so this leans into audience behaviour.

Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music | TechCrunch

Google announced this morning it will be shutting down its Google Podcasts app later in 2024 as part of its broader transition to move its streaming

techcrunch.com/2023/09/26/google-podcasts-to-shut-down-in-2024-with-listeners-migrated-to-youtube-music

Digital publishing professionals in my social media feeds were noting that Google had released a tool that allows them to block their sites from being scraped from generative AI.

Google Will Enable Web Admins To Block Systems from Scraping Sites for AI Training

This will likely become a requirement for all generative AI projects.

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/google-block-systems-from-scraping-sites-for-AI/695123

I am highlighting this expansion of a local news provider in the US because it provides a great playbook of community-centered engagement and design. They have held house parties and other community meetings that not only gives people a voice in their future direction but also builds relationships between the publisher and community.

From the CEO: San José Spotlight is expanding its reach - San José Spotlight

Nearly a year ago we started exploring what an expansion of San José Spotlight could look like—five years after launching the publication that’s become a national leader among nonprofit newsrooms. We hear almost daily from readers who hope our impactful journalism can serve other South Bay cities. While our commitment to our hometown of San...

sanjosespotlight.com/from-the-ceo-san-jose-spotlight-is-expanding-its-reach

In one of the first battles in the rising AI economy, Hollywood writers have largely achieved their aims. It sets a good standard on how workers can respond to AI, but it is a question whether other workers that will be affected by AI such as marketers and journalists will have the same bargaining power.

The writers strike is over; here's how AI negotiations shook out | TechCrunch

After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached an agreement with Hollywood studios to end the writers strike. Starting

techcrunch.com/2023/09/26/writers-strike-over-ai

Social Media: Canadian journalism students and nonprofit outets suffer in battle with platforms

Canada passed a bill earlier this year that required digital platforms like Google and Meta to negotiate with news publishers on payments for their content. Meta decided to block all Canadian news content rather than comply with the leigislation. Critics of the legislation said that any benefit from it would flow to major publishers but leave small publishers out. And now small publishers such as student and nonprofit community outlets are cataloguing the impact of the legislation on their efforts to reach audiences. “It’s having an outsized effect on small publishers. Gizmodo spoke to half a dozen student journalists and station managers who say the ban on news links, intended to hurt big-name publishers, has instead hamstrung their vital ability to fundraise, recruit volunteers, or engage in community outreach.”

Meta's Canadian News Blackout Is Crushing Student Journalists

Student publications and nonprofit community outlets are caught up in a drawn-out battle between the Canadian government, big-name publishers, and Meta.

gizmodo.com/facebook-instagram-canada-news-student-journalist-meta-1850835646

One of the dangers of AI was that it could be used to quickly and cheaply generate disinformation and scams. Social platforms are rushing to develop new rules to manage this tsunami of dangerous content. It’s going to battle of attrition between the platforms, the propagandists and the grifters.

As More AI Bots Infiltrate Social Platforms, Each Is Developing New Rules To Keep Up

AI bots are becoming more prominent, peddling scams and spam on social networks.

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/more-ai-bots-infiltrate-social-platforms-each-developing-new-rules/694686

Friday and Saturday, I got to catch up with two friends in the industry, Greg Piechota of INMA and Damon Kiesow, the Knight Chair in Journalism Innovation at the University of Missouri. Greg and I talked about a lot of things including the cost of developing an app for a news organisation and where apps sit in the conversion funnel for publishers. I came away thinking that the presumption of app development being pricey might be due to the high cost of in-house development. And I would have said that before I joined Pugpig because I’ve always been more on the buy side of the buy versus build discussion. We also talked about the business models that support local journalism. I’m more sceptical of advertising-supporting models than Greg is. I’m definitely a reader revenue convert. I say convert because I thought that digital advertising would provide more revenue than it has. And it still can, but the real revenue is in direct sales and not programmatic or network ad sales. However, the real issue might not be down to advertising-supported models versus reader-revenue supported models but rather those newspaper groups that are solely focused on local and those like Gannett and Reach that try to balance the demands of local and national publishing.

Damon and I talked about a lot of things including what Press Forward means for US local news, but one of the topics that really interested me was a research idea that he had. When thinking about the future of local journalism, there is a question about what services can be shared and what services are best locally controlled and executed. Large newspaper groups like Gannett (Gatehouse before it) and Reach have centralised a lot of services to try to reduce costs in the face of declining revenues. It’s a very typical business strategy, but if it was the answer, both groups would be performing better than they are. Although Damon appreciates that it runs counter to conventional wisdom, it is worth thinking about what services make economic and operational sense to centralise. Centralised and regionalised reporting has been a mixed bag to be sure, but I also would argue that centralised direct sales has failed to deliver. The local relationships that both reporters and ad sales staff have are core to the business. Back-end services can definitely be centralised, although when I was at Gannett in 2014-2015 the HR function was so centralised that HR partners had to cover multiple states. It really is a good question, and we both thought that the first step was convincing people that it was a reasonable question to ask. To be honest, it is the kind of industry research that needs to happen, and I wouldn’t mind doing it (if I wasn’t already busy with my day job).

Speaking of Reach, as someone who consulted with Reach on Engagement for a couple of years (2016-early 2018), I still have a soft spot for them because their teams were so dedicated and innovative. They have needed a strategic pivot because their current strategy simply isn’t working, and I welcome the fact that they are trying to diversify their revenue from advertising and platform-driven volume. Here is a bit of straight talk that I hope my friends don’t mind. The first challenge with these paid-for products will be to convince customers that they are worth paying for. Some of their brands have lost a lot of equity in their communities.

Reach reader revenue trials: Premium apps, paid-for newsletters and ad-free Express

Reader revenue: Reach is trying out an ad-free offering on the Express, metered apps on the MEN and Liverpool Echo, and paid-for newsletters.

pressgazette.co.uk/paywalls/reach-reader-revenue-experiments-premium-apps-newsletters-ad-free-express

Very apropos of the discussion about internal services, the New York Times has an interesting piece from a member of their print hub team. The Print Hub at the New York Times takes copy that was written for digital platforms and edits it for print. It shows how digital-first these processes have become, and it also pulls back the curtain to let readers understand how the sausage is made.

Lessons Learned From the Print Hub

After a few months writing (and rewriting) headlines for the front page of The New York Times, one journalist has some takeaways.

www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/insider/lessons-learned-from-the-print-hub.html

This story shows that the local journalism crisis is a North American story, not just a US story, and in many ways, the headlines out of Canada about job cuts and the wholesale shuttering of titles has been starker than in the US over the last year. This headline was incredibly shocking, and it’s unclear what happens next.

Toronto Star owner cutting 600 jobs at regional papers, seeking bankruptcy protection for unit | CBC News

Nordstar, the company that owns the Toronto Star and other newspapers, announced Friday that it is seeking bankruptcy protection for the unit that owns more than 70 local newspapers and axing more than 600 jobs in the process.

www.cbc.ca/news/business/torstar-metroland-nordstar-1.6968044

As someone who has worked in local print, TV and radio media in the US, I find this fascinating. The crisis in local media in North America is undeniable. Press Forward is just one effort to respond to this crisis. Another comes out of US public radio. Public radio provides invaluable services to local communities across the US. My first full-time journalism job was in western Kansas, and I used to listen to High Plains Public Radio reading service for the blind. It was a service intended for the blind or visually impaired, but for me, it was a great way for a poor journalist to listen to what was, in effect, an audiobook service. But the news service was spread out over thousands of square miles, and they often relied on local newspapers for material. It will take creativity and a lot of different experiments to address the crisis. I think small digital outlets will be the foundation, but I also see public radio playing a role as well.

'Public Media and the Future of Local Journalism' position paper released - Editor and Publisher

A coalition of public media organizations has published "Public Media and the Future of Local Journalism." The paper, endorsed by more than 120 leaders across public media, presents a shared vision for the role public media can play in the future of local news and provides specific action items to face the growing information crisis.

www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/public-media-and-the-future-of-local-journalism-position-paper-released,245730

Revenue pressures are not just on local journalism groups but also on digital creators such as the writers on Substack. Like bigger outlets looking to increase ARPU through bundling, Substack creators are looking to diversify their revenue by adding podcasts.

Substack writers are launching podcasts on the platform to ease reliance on ad revenue

Hoping for more subscription revenue – and to lessen their reliance on ad revenue – Substack writers are bringing their podcasts to the platform.

digiday.com/media/substack-writers-are-launching-podcasts-on-the-platform-to-ease-reliance-on-ad-revenue

And in today’s review of AI headlines, we have news out of the UK of AI 'editorial ‘co-pilots’’ but also a bit of news about efforts to monetise archives. Again, this is about creating resilience at publishers by leveraging technology not just to squeeze costs from the business but also to add revenue. This is promising.

Editorial 'co-pilots' and monetising archives: What likes of ITN, Future, Bauer and AP are doing with generative AI

We round up the best things publishers told Press Gazette's Future of Media Technology Conference 2023 about what they're doing with AI.

pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/ai-news-publishers-future

And my friends over The Mix look at the challenges that generative AI pose to publishers. This article looks at the challenge that AI chatbots could pose. As we often say at Pugpig, now is the time to lean into creating direct relationships with audiences. Instead of worrying about what Google, Microsoft and others do, this is the time to act.

Generative AI threatens to undermine news media business models. How are news publishers reacting and adapting? - The Fix

As generative AI gains prominence, news publishers are grappling with concerns about its potential impact on their business models. Can they devise a winning strategy to stay afloat?

thefix.media/2023/9/8/generative-ai-threatens-to-undermine-news-media-business-models-how-are-news-publishers-reacting-and-adapting

The Texas Tribune not only helped inspire a wave of non-profit newsrooms in the US but also sold its experience in the space as a way of earning revenue. So when it recently announced its first ever layoffs, questions were asked. Andrew Ramsammy has a reminder for anyone who suffered from romantic thinking about the non-profit model. “"Non-profit media isn't a business model, it's a tax status." Andrew offers some very useful advice for people looking to launch a non-profit. First off, it’s important to acknowledge that non-profits suffer from the same business challenges that for-profit companies do. He also points out that a large donation might lead an organisation to expand beyond its long-term revenue streams. Yup, and also philanthropy often comes with reporting requirements and many times a requirement to cover specific issues or areas. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

For my money, I would explore B-corp status. It has its own requirements, but I think that it helps align the missional aspects of journalism with the business. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to make money, but it does mean that your missional goals are baked into the enterprise.

The Myth of Non-Profit Media Immunity: A Deep Dive into Sustainability

In the fast-paced, constantly changing media landscape, a declaration has reverberated: "Non-profit media isn't a business model, it's a tax status." It's a statement I've made multiple times in public forums, and to this day, it stands as a stark reminder that, in the world of journalism and media,

www.linkedin.com/pulse/myth-non-profit-media-immunity-deep-dive-andrew-ramsammy/

While much of the attention in English-language media is about the travails of local media in the US and UK, The Fix rounds up efforts to support local media across Europe. This really describes a common issue: “Local media often prioritise community service over economic viability. This leads to precarious financial standing for the outlet in the medium and long term. Lack of funding also puts more pressure on the journalists and reporters as they would then need to do their work on a voluntary basis.”

Overcoming the financial problem – strategies used by local media in Europe - The Fix

As European local publishers are struggling to secure funds, they are looking for novel ways to fund their projects.

thefix.media/2023/8/18/overcoming-the-financial-problem-strategies-used-by-local-media-in-europe

This is a great piece about the hit model of media. “In an apparent contradiction, the internet both fragments and concentrates attention.” Yes, and with every new format - like podcasts - there is a period of massive expansion when new players can rapidly stake a claim to attention before major players get involved. It’s an exciting time, but eventually, consolidation takes place. A thoughtful piece maybe to read over the weekend.

Power Laws Have More Power Than You Think

Why hits will persist in a world of infinite content

every.to/p/power-laws-have-more-power-than-you-think

One of the things that my master’s degree gave me was a deep appreciation of the power of qualitative research. I’m a data geek at heart, but I learned how critical adding qualitative data is in terms of product development and research. Here is a case study from Oz about how Nine uses a community platform to conduct qualitative research to canvas its audience in a much more informal and consistent way.

Nine uses its Conversations platform to learn more about its audience communities

The Conversations platform is an online solution that gives audiences a chance to provide feedback, offering valuable qualitative insight.

www.inma.org/blogs/value-content/post.cfm/nine-uses-its-conversations-platform-to-learn-more-about-its-audience-communities

I had heard about this through the former Guardian employees’ network. I was at the Guardian when we launched the local project, and while I had my doubts about the positioning of the project, I was saddened to see that it only had a year-long runway to test the idea. The journalists were doing exactly the right things. It’s good to see one of the team take what they learned and apply it to the modern local model. It’s another data point in how newsletters are now the MVP - minimum viable product - of local journalism.

Journalist quits Meta job after Edinburgh-focused Substack takes off

A journalist who worked on The Guardian's local news pilot in 2010/11 wanted to revive the spirit behind it with a Substack for Edinburgh.

pressgazette.co.uk/newsletters/edinburgh-guardian-substack-newsletter

Media companies might not be presenting a united front on the IP issues related to AI, but The Guardian has joined a growing group of major news groups that are blocking OpenAI’s GPTBot crawler.

The Guardian joins other publishers, including Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, and CNN, in blocking OpenAI's GPTBot web crawler

By Dan Milmo / The Guardian. View the full context on Mediagazer.

mediagazer.com/230901/p8

We are now onto our second and third round of stories about Mark Thompson taking the helm at CNN. Personally, I think that 24-hour cable news channels are an anachronism. They are powerful when a major news event demands live coverage, but most news doesn’t require the wall-to-wall coverage that can be done on a 24-hour channel. However, the ability to go live when you need to and have the capacity to be on demand at other times, I think there is something compelling there.

Can Mark Thompson revive CNN’s struggling fortunes?

The former BBC and New York Times chief has been tasked with revitalizing a news network that seems to have lost its way

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/03/mark-thompson-cnn-chief-executive-new-york-times

Poynter highlights a story that was making the rounds in journalism Twitter last week about a family in Pennsylvania that was fighting each other over the sale of four titles it owns to vulture fund Alden Global Capital. And Poynter calls for new policy to prevent more consolidation in local media in the US.

Action needed to avoid local news setbacks like Pennsylvania sale - Poynter

Alden Global Capital's purchase of four local papers highlights the need for new policies and more options.

www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/opinion-action-needed-to-avoid-local-news-setbacks-like-pennsylvania-sale

Social media and creator economy roundup

I have to say that there was a time when I thought that Substack was pivoting its way to oblivion, but it finally seems to have put the product features together that have created a compelling network media play with newsletters, podcasts and a social network coming together to support the creators.

Substack introduces new AI-powered audio transcription tools | TechCrunch

Substack is introducing new AI-powered tools that are designed to make it podcasting on the platform easier.

techcrunch.com/2023/08/30/substack-introduces-new-ai-powered-audio-transcription-tools

And we have more news about Meta stepping back from news as it faces more regulation globally. Canada is trying to make its case for a new law that requires Facebook to pay news outlets. Meta isn’t biting and will continue to block news in the country. And in Europe, Meta is closing its new tab. Also in Europe, it is considering a subscription offering that would eliminate ads.

Canada tries to address news law concerns, Facebook not convinced

Canada unveiled draft rules on Friday for a law to compel internet giants to pay news outlets, saying it was addressing the tech companies' concerns, but Facebook said it would stick to plans to block news in the country.

www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-says-addressing-google-facebook-concerns-over-online-news-law-2023-09-01

Meta plans to eliminate the Facebook News tab in the UK, France, and Germany in early December 2023 and won't sign new deals for news content in those countries

From Meta. View the full context on Mediagazer.

mediagazer.com/230905/p6

Meta’s Considering a New Subscription Offering Which Would Enable EU Users to Eliminate In-Stream Ads

How much would you pay for an ad-free Facebook?

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/metas-considering-a-new-subscription-offering-which-would-enable-eu-users/692645

When the industry publication like the Press Gazette in the UK prints this, it feels like a wake up call about the state of regional journalism in the country:

Gilson’s point is that efforts to save local journalism in the UK - here call regional journalism - shouldn’t be focused on propping up the large newspaper groups such as Reach and National World, which he called “a handful of husk-like companies led by overpaid chief execs employing ever-decreasing numbers of low-paid but blameless reporters”. Ouch again.

In short, he wants to allow these large companies to continue to decline while there is support in the way of grants, charitable endowments and also some state funding to support start-ups that are exploring new models.

From the experience in the US, this will happen regardless of what the government does or does not do. The big giants in the US and the UK are becoming less and less rooted in communities and much more regionalised, spreading thin staffs over wider areas and providing less community news. This is allowing scrappy small players to develop and grow on their own. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Former editor argues support for local news should be directed outside major publishers

Michael Gilson, ex-editor of the Belfast Telegraph and The Scotsman, shares his outlook on the future of the UK local journalism industry.

pressgazette.co.uk/comment-analysis/future-local-journalism-comment-michael-gilson

And Gilson refers to a report from well-respected media watchers Enders Analysis that says that mass print has only a few years left, about three to five. From what I’m hearing in my work, the costs of print are simply becoming prohibitive. Publishers really need to game out what would happen in a digital-only or at least digital-dominant local journalism world. In Reach’s latest quarterly results, digital revenue was down 16% to £60m while print revenue still dwarfed that figure at £217m. Even if you take the costs of print out of the equation, those businesses simply couldn’t operate at that scale if they lost the bulk of their revenue. Enders says that publishers will have to transform themselves into sustainable digital businesses. While the UK has some unique challenges, this is possible.

Next five years critical for survival of UK local media as mass print enters 'final phase'

A new report from Enders Analysis urges advertisers and the government to support local media.

pressgazette.co.uk/comment-analysis/next-five-years-critical-for-survival-of-uk-local-media-as-mass-print-enters-final-phase

And almost on cue, one model is attracting not only audiences but also investment. Newsletter-first publisher, The Mill has seen investment from the former NYTimes CEO and recently named CNN CEO Mark Thompson and Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnson. It’s a smart move by Johnson who is building out his own local newsletter network in the states under the Axios brand. For established players, newsletters have become a critical audience development tool, and for start-ups, they have become the MVP - the minimum viable product - that allows them to enter new markets.

Leading media figures invest £350,000 in local news start-up The Mill

The Mill investment: Backing from Mark Thompson and Axios Publisher Nicholas Johnston gives The Mill £1.75m valuation

pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/regional-newspapers/the-mill-invesment

I mentioned that lay-offs the Texas Tribune earlier this week, and Nieman Lab called on the organisation to be more transparent about what happened so that other non-profits can learn from it. One thing that seems to have happened is that the Texas Tribune received some of its funding from educational advertising, which seems to have been curtailed under new rules by the state of Texas.

The Texas Tribune’s first-ever layoffs worry the news industry

Frustration over a lack of transparency has been amplified by the newsroom's status as "the gold standard of nonprofit journalism" and a role model other outlets have been encouraged to follow.

www.niemanlab.org/2023/08/the-texas-tribunes-first-ever-layoffs-worry-the-news-industry

A look at the positive reception that Mark Thompson is receiving as he takes over the helm of CNN. I think that his ability to navigate the ‘institutional politics’ of an organisation like CNN will be his most valuable trait. Seeing as his predecessor came in and shuttered a new digital-only offering, it will be interesting to see what Thompson brings in terms of digital strategy to CNN.

The coronation of Sir Mark Thompson

Imagine how Chris Licht must have felt reading the coverage of Mark Thompson’s arrival as the new head of CNN. When Licht stepped into the network’s top job last year, he was met with deep media skepticism. (Coverage often dismissed him as a “late-night producer.”) That sense of doubt was ultimately vindicated by a series […]

With much of this newsletter focused on local news, here is a good thing to digest over the weekend: an overview of the relationship of the decline in local journalism and increased partisanship in the US. I do remember when I was a local editor that some local folks who had an axe to grind about Big Media didn’t distinguish the coastal media elites that they loved to rail against and our tiny local newsroom.

The connections between decline of local news and growing political division

Judy Woodruff recently examined how the loss of thousands of local newspapers across the country is depriving communities of some of the glue that holds them together and fueling division. She now looks at how some news outlets are managing to hang on and whether what they’re doing is sustainable. It’s part of her series, America at a Crossroads.

www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-connections-between-decline-of-local-news-and-growing-political-division

Today in AI: Gannett pulls back from an experiment after glaring issues and authors sue OpenAI

Gannett was in the news and definitely not the kind of headlines it would want. The US newspaper giant was using AI to write some of its local sports reports, and sadly, it seems that they didn’t think to have a copy editor take a look over them. Sigh.

Gannett to pause AI experiment after botched high school sports articles | CNN Business

Newspaper chain Gannett has paused the use of an artificial intelligence tool to write high school sports dispatches after the technology made several major flubs in articles in at least one of its papers.

www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/tech/gannett-ai-experiment-paused

This case will have a profound impact on the interpretation of copyright in the age of large-language models. If a piece of content is used to train an LLM, does that mean that every work is derivative of the original scraped works? And if so, how will compensation be determined?

OpenAI disputes authors’ claims that every ChatGPT response is a derivative work

Authors claim generative AI is just a "grift" that repackages original works.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/openai-disputes-authors-claims-that-every-chatgpt-response-is-a-derivative-work

Ben Smith of Semafor posted this in the wake of the announcement that the Washington Post would be laying off staff from its Arc XP CMS platform. I think the issue is that while Vox and the Post built tools that worked for them and then tried to seek a new revenue stream by selling on that technology. The issue is that is split the focus of product development for the businesses and created tensions between the internal product roadmap and the roadmap for their external customers. The Post tried to strike a balance and still seems to be trying to succeed in that balancing act. But whether the layoffs at the Washington Post are indicative of larger problems for the parent company or another data point in why publishers shouldn’t become tech companies has yet to be seen.

The Post and Vox both took serious runs at building internal tech companies, and made very cool stuff, but in the end the business didn't work

— Ben Smith (@semaforben)
Aug 29, 2023

And one last social media note for the week. Meta’s Threads is trying to iterate quickly to regain lost momentum. Meta is good at that, but the social space is particularly cluttered right now. There will have to be a shake-out of all of these platforms that have sprung up in the wake of Twitter’s drama-filled decline since Musk bought it as his personal plaything.

Threads Continues to Add More Elements as it Seeks to Capitalize on Early Interest

Has the opportunity for Threads already passed?

www.socialmediatoday.com/news/threads-continues-to-add-more-elements-as-it-seeks-to-capitalize-on-early-i/692408

By now, publishers have acknowledged the importance of first-party data as platforms like Google and Apple offer privacy as a feature to users. It might seem self-serving for those companies, but there is customer demand for it. Now, Dorrine Mendoza with the Local Media Association in the US introduces the idea of zero-party data, where users willingly offer you data when they offer you information about themselves with registrations, newsletters or contest offerings. It’s quite an old idea - users trade their data for access or some other tangible benefit, but with the changes in the industry it is gaining new currency. I think the new realisation is that while data is critical so are the relationships that you have with your audiences. It is the basis for sustainable reader revenue business.

Putting the power of your community to work for you

Dorrine Mendoza, project lead for LMA’s Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab, shares her takeaways from LMA’s annual conference, which included a discussion about the challenges and opportunities around collecting customer data.

localmedia.org/2023/08/gimme-your-email-the-power-of-first-party-data-in-todays-digital-age

Publishers are working hard to adjust to the new world of AI, and in doing so, they want to own their destiny. One area that seems to be a focus of experimentation and product development is the development of AI chatbots using their own material, and the tech publisher behind Macworld and PCWorld are trying their hand at building their own AI chatbots.

Can news outlets build a “trustworthy” AI chatbot?

Tech sites including Macworld and PCWorld are using a new AI tool.

www.theverge.com/2023/8/25/23844868/ai-chatbot-macworld-pcworld-journalism-smart-answers

Another area of experimentation with AI is using the tools to make simple editorial tasks easier such as transcription or summarisation. Paul Cheung at the Reynolds Journalism Institute in the US reviews a couple.

Two friendly AI sidekicks for web reading – RJI

These plugins help summarize, synthesize and analyze

rjionline.org/news/two-friendly-ai-sidekicks-for-web-reading

Industry News - Layoffs at the Washington Post and the Texas Tribune

Layoffs (or redundancies for my UK readers) are sadly not an uncommon thing in media, but these two rounds highlight some shifts in the industry that bear mentioning. The Washington Post has announced layoffs at its CMS division - Arc XP. This comes after it passed on an opportunity to sell the business and it announced long-term plans for it.

The Washington Post lays off staff from tech arm | Semafor

The move displeased staff, who have been furious with recurring layoffs at the paper over the past year.

www.semafor.com/article/08/29/2023/washington-post-lays-off-staff-from-arc-xp?utm_source=pushly

And the Texas Tribune also announced a round of layoffs, its first ever. The non-profit news organisation has been held up as a model for others to follow, and it was an early mover in what is now a movement in the US towards the non-profit model. However, the same issues plaguing for-profit news operations - a shift in the platform eco-system and soft ad sales - are affecting the non-profit standard bearer as well.

The Texas Tribune’s first-ever layoffs worry the news industry

Frustration over a lack of transparency has been amplified by the newsroom's status as "the gold standard of nonprofit journalism" and a role model other outlets have been encouraged to follow.

www.niemanlab.org/2023/08/the-texas-tribunes-first-ever-layoffs-worry-the-news-industry

While local news has been seen as one of the most challenging areas of the journalism and media business in the last decade in the US and UK, there are positive developments. And in the US, a local publisher in the South - New Orleans and other communities in southern Louisiana - has been doing quite well. The secret is revenue diversification, and that is one of the major themes on the commercial side of publishing. The more sources of revenue a publisher has, the more resilient the business is.

Local newsroom expansion? How NOLA did it

Newsrooms looking to not just survive but thrive can take inspiration from how NOLA.com/The Advocate recently expanded its coverage to Shreveport and added ten new reporting positions through a combination of both traditional revenue, community and philanthropic support.

localmedia.org/2023/08/nolas-newsroom-expansion-to-shreveport-is-a-new-model-for-sustainability

This development caught my eye mainly because it is pinned to a new phase of international expansion for the Independent. Their registration-driven, data-led strategy is definitely paying dividends.

Christian Broughton promoted to CEO as Independent announces more US expansion

Christian Broughton, The Independent's managing director and former editor, has been appointed the next CEO at the digital-only newspaper.

pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/media-jobs-uk-news/the-independent-ceo-christian-broughton

And there were two major misinformation stories over my long weekend - one to do with Russia and another to do with the Chinese. As both countries face challenges, they will increasingly turn to information operations in an attempt to manage the information space both domestically and internationally.

Russians impersonate Washington Post and Fox News with anti-Ukraine stories

Fake articles masquerading as legitimate stories from The Washington Post and Fox News were spread online by a Russian disinformation campaign attempting to undermine Western support for Ukraine, according to Meta’s latest threat report.

therecord.media/russians-fake-news-anti-ukraine

Meta closes nearly 9,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ foreign influence campaign

Company says users targeted in Australia, UK, US and elsewhere by political spam network across more than 50 platforms

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/30/meta-facebook-instagram-shuts-down-spamouflage-network-china-foreign-influence

As someone who embraced blogging back in the early 2000s and can honestly say that blogs helped transform my career, it is sad to see a blogging platform in France pass into archives. But it’s an interesting look at the transformation and transition in technologies and social technologies.

An influential early blogging platform logs off

Last week, a piece of internet history died. If you live outside of the French-speaking world, you likely won’t have noticed. You may not have noticed even if you live in the French-speaking world, but, if you’re between the ages of thirty and forty, the news may well have hit with a prickle of nostalgia. […]

At Pugpig, we have a mutual admiration society with Madeleine White and The Audiencers, the content side of the consulting wing of subscription service provider Poool. The Audiencers consistently has top-notch coverage of how publishers are experimenting with reader registration and revenue strategies, much of driven by Poool’s quite interesting technology. In this podcast interview with Journalism.co.uk, Madeleine discusses a range of successful strategies that publishers are using. The one highlighted front and centre is how Journal du dimanche in France integrated a payment solution directly into their paywall and managed to increase conversation by 40%. It goes to show that by reducing friction, publishers can increase their conversion rates.

"Integrating payment directly into the paywall uplifted conversions by 40%": Podcast of the Week

The Audiencers is a B2B publication by Poool (a membership and subscription tech platform). Armed with a rich data set of statistics from its

mediamakersmeet.com/integrating-payment-directly-into-the-paywall-uplifted-conversions-by-40-podcast-of-the-week

In a great interview with Chris Stone of the New Statesman, journalism.co.uk talks about the commercial strategy underpinning their podcasts. The progressive political magazine has a very solid audio offering, and Chris has talked about how they have unified their podcast feeds. But in this interview, he discusses their commercial strategy, which is leaning into branded content, which makes a lot of sense considering their audience of professionals and policymakers.

Inside the New Statesman’s award-winning podcast commercial strategy

70 per cent of podcasting revenue is coming from bespoke deals with clients. Branded content is emerging as the space to watch

www.journalism.co.uk/news/inside-the-new-statesman-s-award-winning-podcast-commercial-strategy/s2/a1064070

A good rundown of the most popular apps in the UK. What is amazing is how the BBC stands so far ahead of other news outlets in the UK.

Most popular news apps in the UK: Paywalled Times and Telegraph report highest time spent per user

Press Gazette's quarterly ranking of the most popular news apps in the UK, using data from Ipsos iris. Apple News and BBC News are top.

pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/media_metrics/most-popular-news-apps-in-the-uk-paywalled-times-and-telegraph-report-highest-time-spent-per-user

This is a good reminder that when product managers are developing services for internal use - whether they include AI or not - they need to bring their customers - their colleagues - with them. It is a hard lesson that I have had to learn over the years.

Product teams must keep newsrooms in mind with AI product development

Product teams develop new things, these days often with AI in mind. And the success of those new products depend on newsroom adoption of a growing to-do list. Here are a few thoughts on the best workflow considerations for success.

www.inma.org/blogs/product-initiative/post.cfm/product-teams-must-keep-newsrooms-in-mind-with-ai-product-development

I am not sure that this headline is accurate in that monetisation via social media was always a challenge. Publishers who were more aware that social media was a brand-building tool rather than seeing it as a direct monetisation tool have have been more successful. However, seeing how publishers who did rely more on social media make the shift to new strategies is instructive. It provides a template for other publishers looking for new audience and commercial strategies.

Pink News makes 'significant shift' towards direct partnerships as social media monetisation falls

Pink News has carried out a "significant" transformation to its business in the past year with growth in direct sales partnerships.

pressgazette.co.uk/media_business/pink-news-business-partnerships-social-media-benjamin-cohen

As publishers have shifted to subscriptions, it is important to consider the broader subscription landscape. What other services are you competing against? Streaming is definitely one of the biggest challengers for consumers disposable income. And now, we have data on how price pressures and competition are affecting the fortunes of streamers. In the US, churn is up to 47%. Cord cutters are now cutting back on the number of subscriptions that they have. What does this mean for publishers? As Reuters Institute said in their annual digital news report, we are now in a winner takes most world. What will it take for your subscription to be one of the fewer that people keep.

Research: Consumers cutting streaming services to save money

Parks Associates, the technology research firm, has released the consumer study Video Services: Shifting Demand, presenting a focused analysis of the video serv

advanced-television.com/2023/08/24/research-consumers-cutting-streaming-services-to-save-money

And this news shows how economic pressures are affecting publishing models of all stripes. The Texas Tribune has been one of the standard bearers when it comes to non-profit news models, and it is having to turn to layoffs (redundancies) for the first time in its 14-year history. The unsteady economy and advertising volatility seem to have taken a toll, but it also appears that the outlet is feeling pressure “to explore new platforms”. Again, platform pressure is one of the major themes of the year.

Texas Tribune holds first layoffs in 14-year history - Poynter

CEO Sonal Shah told staff that 2023 has been uniquely challenging for the outlet, which many have come to see as a model for nonprofit journalism

www.poynter.org/business-work/2023/texas-tribune-layoffs-first-ever

The week in platforms

This should come as news to no one, but Facebook groups have exposed readers to hoaxes. Research by the charity Full Fact identified 1,200 posts on a range of topics that were “designed to terrify local communities”. If you wonder why people are dealing with increasing levels of anxiety, I direct you to Exhibit A.

Facebook groups exposed to hundreds of hoax posts, study shows

Charity Full Fact finds more than 1,200 false posts on topics from deadly snakes to serial killers at large

www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/24/local-facebook-groups-hoax-posts

And if that wasn’t bad enough, we now have AI feeding content to pink slime, fake local news sites, and with wildfires in Canada, this kind of information not only terrifies local communities but it might be deadly. And in Canada where Google and Meta have stopped linking to real news sites due to legislation in the country, it is a perfect fire storm of false information.

Hundreds of AI ‘news’ sites busily spew misinformation. Google and Meta’s Canadian news ban may make it worse

As it becomes increasingly difficult to trust what we read online, experts say it’s critical to learn how to tell real media from fake — here’s how.

www.thestar.com/business/technology/hundreds-of-ai-news-sites-busily-spew-misinformation-google-and-meta-s-canadian-news-ban/article_734f1666-94ba-5f3f-ad5a-5fde47043393.html

And Mr. Musk continues to conduct what I referred to as “product vandalism” by removing headlines from lines on the social network formerly known as Twitter. Sigh.

Elon Musk to strip headlines off news links on Twitter in latest overhaul

Move by the billionaire owner of the social media site may be an attempt to drive up subscription of the app’s premium service

www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/22/elon-musk-x-twitter-changes-news-links

With stories about the rapid rise and fall of Meta’s Twitter-competitor Threads, they just rolled out a web interface for it in the hopes of renewing engagement.

Meta launches web version of flagging Threads app

‘Twitter killer’ social media platform experienced initial boom in sign-ups when it launched in July

www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/22/meta-launches-web-version-of-flagging-threads-app

A good piece from The Verge on how Google’s YouTube is trying to negotiate with the music majors so that they can use their content to train their AI engines while telling “the rest of the web” that they have the right to scrape their material without compensation. That might be a slight exaggeration, but Google is pushing hard in the AI wars because it is behind companies like OpenAI.

Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright

When AI Taylor Swift sings “My Way,” who gets paid?

www.theverge.com/2023/8/22/23841822/google-youtube-ai-copyright-umg-scraping-universal