Monday 20th June: Mystery surrounds disappearance of Times exclusive

June 20, 2022

Good morning, Peter here! Hello to all our new subscribers. Did you know we also publish a weekly podcast featuring an industry guest and a somewhat irreverent news round-up? You'll find a link to the latest episode at the bottom of each issue, or you can search our archive. Welcome aboard!

The New European - and every other right thinking human being in the UK - is asking why this potential scoop of the year was turned down by one leading newspaper, then picked up by another before mysteriously disappearing online.

If true, the ethics of Boris Johnson trying to install his then-lover as his chief of staff on a salary of £100,000 a year is clearly beyond the pale. But more important for this newsletter - with trust in the media slipping again, seeking to bury a story that is clearly in the public interest will do nothing to help that deficit.

What makes this affair even stranger is that the Times actually ran the story in its print edition before deleting it it online. I have no idea whether there was pressure from the UK's so-called government to remove the piece, but if the public is ever to trust the media again they have to do a much better job of holding power to account.

I'm off to Cannes today and one of the hot topics this year among the ad-tech crowd is data clean rooms. This piece in DCN argues that anyone in digital advertising must understand this potential solution to how publishers can make their data available to advertisers for cookieless audience extension outside proprietary environments.

The Washington Post is looking to double down on its investment in its tech publishing arm, Arc XP, despite outside sales interest valuing the company in the low nine figures. The software arm isn't growing as fast as once predicted, but the company sees more long-term value in trying to grow the business than sell it now.

The City AM presses turned off in March 2020 for what they thought at the time would be three to four weeks – turning into an 18-month hiatus which included two cancelled plans to relaunch in autumn 2020 as commuter footfall remained low and, then, two more lockdowns followed. Although the print newspaper remains a key part of their DNA, the lockdowns forced a digital transformation which has made the publisher stronger.

This week's podcast

In this special episode of Media Voices, Chris, Peter and Esther comb through the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2022 to pick out the key findings for publishers. Listen now to explore why news avoidance is up and trust is down; the relief we felt that climate coverage is on top of everyone's agenda; how the news habits of younger generations are growing more distinct; and what the report's first ever chapter dedicated to email newsletters had to say.

Publishing is way behind other industries when it comes to technology consolidation. This episode, Affino CEO Markus Karlsson and TTG Media Product Manager Steve Hinds join us to talk about the benefits of systems consolidation, the challenges publishers face, and how they can get started.