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Tuesday 25th April: New European bucks print publishing trend
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Esther and I are at the PPA Festival today, and Chris will be hosting Google's Local News Summit. If you see us, say hello!
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The conventional wisdom around these parts is that the future is increasingly digital and social and, for the most part, the 'print decline' narrative is right. That doesn't mean, however, that the resistance isn't real... The New European is putting up a hell of a fight.
Speaking at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia (I want to go), EIC Matt Kelly told the story of the seven-year old news title launched amidst the wreckage of the UK's EU Referendum in 2016. Then, Kelly saw a market of 16 million furious Remain voters and launched the title, partisan, but factual at its core. Now, The New European is valued at £6 million, with its weekly edition selling 20,000 copies at £3.95.
It is ad-free meaning it has no clients or advertisers to appease, or readers to plunder data from. The paywalled website gets half a million unique visitors a month, but print is the priority. Kelly said: "I felt very strongly that starting a new website in 2016 - Who cares? they're ten a penny... Launching a new newspaper, people prick up their ears. Who are these idiots and what is it all about?"
INMA has released a report that What's New In Publishing has called 'one of the most exhaustive investigations ever into Generative AI'. The 91-page report provides an upbeat assessment of AI's uses in publishing, suggesting that the opportunities outweigh the threats. I'd agree, with the caveat that publishers should be using the technology to complement human resources, not replace them.
Oh dear! An outage across Meta's ad management platform led to overspending on campaigns on Sunday. The Drum is reporting that an algorithm glitch meant advertisers burned through budgets at record speed. In the hours before Meta fixed the issue, some ad buyers saw CPMs rise as much as 500% compared to the prior 24 hours.
Maybe there is a God! After that slightly disappointing $787 billion settlement, outrage engineer Carlson Tucker is leaving Fox News. Tucker has sought out controversy throughout his time at Fox News, but it looks like a recent lawsuit has brought his days at the network to an end. His staff is accused of making anti-Semitic jokes, casual misogyny and liberal use of the 'C' word in the office. No doubt he'll pop up somewhere even worse than Fox, but for now, See You Next Tuesday, Tucker 👋
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