Gannet takes up the legal cudgels against Google, AI licensing deals imminent for publishers, and Facebook's pivot against news. All in June 22nd Content Aware media news highlights.
Gannet takes a well-timed swing at Google's all-enveloping advertising grip
Gannet claim “Google has carried out a sophisticated, anti-competitive, and deceptive scheme for well over a decade” in a Federal lawsuit filed in New York. Editor and Publisher in the US have an interesting interview with Gannet Chairman and CEO Mike Reed.
https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/eps-exclusive-interview-with-gannett-ceo-mike-reed-on-todays-google-antitrust-lawsuit,244338
Meeting of minds?
Some larger publishers are meeting with tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft in order to discuss issues around copyright in AI usage. The deals "could involve media organisations being paid a subscription-style fee for their content in order to develop the technology underpinning chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard".
https://www.ft.com/content/79eb89ce-cea2-4f27-9d87-e8e312c8601d
Corbidge comments on... reasons to be positive on the horizon
Publishing now seems to be suiting up for battles before the war is already lost - which makes a nice change compared to how we all got blindsided by search and ad tech giants previously.
https://www.gpp.io/comment/our-longer-range-prospects-are-looking-up-aA21U0r9nJCq
The usual WordPress worry
No shock, but lots of horror: media WP sites are still lagging behind the recommended security statuses. Is your site being hijacked just seen as the price of 'free'? (Free assuming your sites build and look after themselves of course.)
https://www.gpp.io/news/wordpress-and-the-willingness-of-risk-as3UK4S5nNVQ
The lure of scale for publishers
Latest in the Media Voices Big Noises series is Jacob Donnelly, founder of A Media Operator and publisher at Morning Brew, who comments on the lure of scale for publishers, the role of VCs, and challenging bad media models in the podcast with Peter Houston.
https://voices.media/big-noises-jacob-donnelly-on-why-publishers-cant-resist-the-pursuit-of-scale/
AI-dvertising imminent
INMA's Marc Challinor with some sensible suggestions over the use of AI in advertising and how it can provide competitive advantage.
https://www.inma.org/blogs/advertising-initiative/post.cfm/could-ai-be-the-birth-of-an-ad-revolution
Which gossipy newsletter just keeps on going strong?
Keeping your in-the-know tone and side-of-the-mouth style when you land in several hundred thousand email inboxes every week isn't easy. Popbitch has been doing it for years, even as the edgy gossip landscape it walks has changed and legal challenges menace. Maestro Camilla Wright explains how.
https://pressgazette.co.uk/news-leaders/popbitch-interview/
Swiss get some pure Apple legal juice
Protection of your brand is one thing, picking a fight with the Fruit Union Suisse over apples is quite another. Has Tim Cook never heard of William Tell?
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/apple-trademark-switzerland-logo-fruit-b2360733.html
All that's FIPP to print
AI was debated at understandable length at the FIPP World Media Congress, so here's a run through of what was dominating discussion.
https://www.fipp.com/news/ai-talking-points-at-the-fipp-world-media-congress/
Unreliable partner, part 317
Many sites are reporting traffic from Facebook is down, as the attempt to pivot the platform away from news continues. Notable among those saying so is Nicholas Carlson, Editor in Chief of Insider.
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-traffic-down-algorithm-change-1850549012
Full steam ahead for Reddit
Steam is still the premier PC gaming marketplace bar none. Naturally, it has a subreddit devoted to it. Except now, after Reddit CEO Steve Huffman caused a rebellion in the rebellion-prone Reddit ranks, the subreddit devoted to Steam is now largely about steam, in all its manifestations.
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-steam-subreddit-has-suddenly-become-all-about-actual-steam-and-steam-trains/
Brawl at presentation on everlasting life
Scientists unable to get into a presentation on anti-ageing advances by a group of stem cell researchers in Boston got into a bit of a brouhaha this week.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/06/17/1075097/got-rejuvenation-better-call-security/
