Tuesday 23rd January: The local news revival gathers pace

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On Wednesday we’ll be releasing the first of our four-part special podcast series looking at futureproofing local news, supported by the Google News Initiative. Search and follow ‘Media Voices’ wherever you listen to podcasts to get the alert, or of course we’ll link to it from here when it’s live.

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The local news revival gathers pace, but there are bumps along the road for even the brightest sparks

In a growing number of spots, local news isn’t just surviving: it’s thriving. But the picture isn’t so pretty for legacy publishers. Esther Kezia Thorpe rounds up the last 12 months in local news as part of our Media Moments 2023 report.

voices.media/the-local-news-revival-gathers-pace-but-there-are-bumps-along-the-road-for-even-the-brightest-sparks

Our very own Esther has taken a look at the past 12 months in local news, and has pulled out a few reasons to be optimistic. Mostly that comes from the efforts of one or two determined individuals — but what’s notable is how they got buy-in from their communities:

What is notable from the many success stories of 2023 is that there is a wide diversity of models which are working in different areas. “The global decline of local news is one of journalism’s greatest challenges,” Axios’ Nicholas Johnston said. “It’s not going to be solved by a single idea, but by many entrepreneurial visions.

Johnston was talking about his investment in local journalism newsletter network The Mill, which is beginning its expansion across the UK after being valued at £1.75 million. Founder Joshi Herrmann started the Manchester Mill as a Substack publication in 2020, before launching editions in Liverpool and Sheffield. The three titles have attracted more than 5,500 paid subscribers between them, and now have at least two reporters each on staff.

Nightshade, the free tool that ‘poisons’ AI models, is now available for artists to use

The tool's creators are seeking to make it so that AI model developers must pay artists to train on data from them that is uncorrupted.

venturebeat.com/ai/nightshade-the-free-tool-that-poisons-ai-models-is-now-available-for-artists-to-use

I’m fascinated by this story — not just because the tech and idea of Nightshade is phenomenal, but because of what it might mean for publishers. Effectively, the tool “applies a tag that subtly alters the image at the pixel level”, so that when an AI model is trained on the image it ‘sees’ something different than a human observer, learns the wrong thing, and so incorrectly responds to prompts in the future. It’s not something that would work for text, but there must be some clever bods working on similar tech for publishers.

The glory of Sports Illustrated

At the moment, there’s confusion. Heartbreak and confusion. Sports Illustrated may live on. It may not. It may morph into something else. One hundred people are laid off. More than 100 people are laid off. Everybody is laid off. The union is fighting. The union is helpless. The headlines are so confusing.

joeblogs.joeposnanski.com/p/the-glory-of-sports-illustrated

In the wake of mass layoffs at Sports Illustrated, this is a wonderful celebration of the power of a sports magazine to add value to its readers. This passage particularly stood out to me: “The Super Bowl wasn’t over until SI wrote the story. The Masters didn’t end until Dan Jenkins said it ended. Muhammad Ali’s fight wasn’t complete until you saw the cover in your mailbox.”

Downing Street denies having anti-BBC agenda after bias accusations

PM says impartiality is important tenet of media industry after culture secretary accused BBC of bias and said it needed to adapt

www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/22/downing-street-denies-having-anti-bbc-agenda-after-bias-accusations

I’m old enough to remember when the Conservative government was chomping at the bit to accuse Channel 4 of being biased. That’s not a big claim, though, because it was only five years ago. Worryingly, though, in the aftermath of the Boris Johnson ice sculpture debacle, the Tories went on a revenge campaign that threatened Channel 4’s ability to provide public interest news — and I don’t doubt the same will happen with the BBC this time, too.

More from Media Voices

Slower growth means reducing churn is the focus for publishers in 2024

Acquisition and retention challenges grow in a maturing subscriptions market, says Peter Houston, rounding up the past 12 months.

voices.media/as-the-paid-reader-base-grows-more-slowly-reducing-churn-is-the-focus-for-publishers-going-into-2024

Big Noises: Ricky Sutton on publisher valuations, AI, and bears

Ricky Sutton talks about the frenemy relationship of publishers and platforms, the role of AI, and how to talk your way into covering a war.

voices.media/big-noises-ricky-sutton-on-publisher-valuations-ai-and-bears

Newsletter portfolios shrinking as publishers consolidate engagement

The social media traffic collapse has made newsletters more important than ever, but less is looking like more in the fight for engagement.

voices.media/newsletter-portfolios-shrinking-as-publishers-look-to-consolidate-reader-engagement