Good morning from the team at Press Gazette on Wednesday, 10 June. Press Gazette’s awards for the best digital journalism products (newsletters, podcasts, websites, etc.) are now open for entries. Find out more here. 📉 Our 50 UK news websites traffic ranking for April shows a sharp decline in fortunes compared to the previous month and is a sign Google changes are starting to hit hard. This follows a trend we have already seen in the US for around a year where traffic has been cratering due to the rise of zero-click searches on Google, ChatGPT and elsewhere. Publishers such as Reach have also reported reduced returns from Google Discover (which for a while mitigated the impact of AI Overviews). Some 26 websites in the UK top 50 lost more than 10% of their monthly audience year on year in April. Reach sites Examiner Live, My London, Chronicle Live, Birmingham Live and Manchester Evening News all lost more than 24% of their monthly audience compared with a year ago. Substack, Reuters and Newsquest-owned titles the Oxford Mail and Herald Scotland were among a handful of titles to achieve strong year-on-year growth. READ THE FULL STORY 😠 Recent UK local elections and subsequent opinion polls have revealed huge dissatisfaction with the political status quo – with Labour and the Conservatives reduced to minority party status. But does this mood also extend to people turning away from established media? Left-wing journalist and political commentator Mehdi Hasan is betting that it does, and yesterday announced the launch of his Substack-based title Zeteo in the UK with a full-time team of two and cast of star contributors including Afua Hirsch and Peter Oborne. Since starting his career at Press Gazette sister title The New Statesman, Hasan has found fame and fortune in the US. He told us that Substack-based Zeteo, launched in America two years ago, now has 50,000 paying readers. He explained why he thinks that success can be replicated in the UK (despite the comparative stinginess of UK consumers when it comes to paying for news). READ THE FULL STORY 🎓 And we report on the closure of two magazine MA journalism courses in the UK that appear to be part of a wider trend . £10,000-plus is a lot of money to spend chasing a career in broadcast or magazine journalism given the current pressure on jobs and the ongoing contraction of legacy media. With the world of journalism changing so fast – and the current focus on influencers, creators and online video – it is hard for the university sector to keep up. I wonder if the next crop of digitally native journalists will learn their skills in a classroom or by constant experimentation on their own. My advice to aspiring journalists is still to take an NCTJ diploma (whilst experimenting as much as they can on Youtube, Substack, Tiktok and elsewhere). Much cheaper than an MA or degree and it will give prospective employers assurance that they know the basics of ethics, law and storytelling. READ THE FULL STORY A judge has ruled there is enough evidence to try the alleged mastermind and financial backer behind the murder of the British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira in 2022. ( The Guardian ) A Labour MP has called for a parliamentary probe into the Judicial Appointments Commission’s use of public funds after a £14k costs claim against journalist Barnie Choudhury was thrown out . ( Eastern Eye ) After Donald Trump’s lawyers missed a deadline to respond to the BBC ‘s motion to dismiss his defamation lawsuit, they said Trump has not had time to review the BBC’s deposition transcripts and blamed other necessary court procedures. ( Courthouse News Service ) New York lawmakers have passed legislation mandating state-based news organisations provide disclaimers on AI content and protect journalists’ sources from AI access. ( The Wrap ) Paramount has reportedly discussed hiring a business-side counterpart to Bari Weiss, suggesting she could oversee editorial operations across CBS News and CNN if the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros Discovery deal is approved. ( Axios ) Facebook owner Meta must do more to prevent scam adverts on the platform , the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has said, calling for meaningful financial penalties and more resources allocated to removing fraudulent and misleading ads. ( CTSI ) More than two-thirds (68%) of Google searches in the US ended without a click in the first four months of 2026, up from 60% in 2024. ( Sparktoro ) New Muckrack data suggests The Guardian is AI’s most cited newspaper in the UK (around 45% of answers). ( Generative Pulse ) 1) Tony Livesey facing questions over time as Daily Sport editor amid allegations against former boss David Sullivan Livesey stepping back from presenting radio show ‘for a short period’. 2) US publishers tell Common Crawl to stop scraping and delete archive Common Crawl Foundation database underpins many AI models. 3) World’s biggest news websites ranking: Traffic decline is global issue New ranking of the biggest news websites in the world in any language. 4) Simon Calder: The Jack Reacher of travel journalism The Telegraph’s new travel correspondent on travelling light and paying his own way. 5) Viner says Guardian has seen decade of booming foreign and reader revenue Guardian editor-in-chief reveals digital reader revenue was up 17% in past year. Thai police jokester drags down UK press standards In the latest edition, Dominic Ponsford and Charlotte Tobitt talk about the latest changes to Google. Agentic search will probably stay niche, but forcing AI mode into search engine queries is a new threat to publisher referral traffic. They also discuss the publishing dilemma du jour: should publishers block LLMs or do all they can to optimise content to show up in ChatGPT-style answers? And publishers in the UK and US have been caught out by another AI-generated hoax. What can we learn from the curious case of the ‘LADYBOYS IN BLUE’ – the Thai police officers who didn’t really dress as carnival dancers to carry out an undercover drug dealer arrest? Listen now Thank you for reading Press Gazette. Subscribe for free to receive our daily media newsletter straight to your inbox. SubscribeRead More
British news websites plunge in April | Mehdi Hasan launches Zeteo UK
