#86 - News: Add of subtract?

What is the value of news for platforms and vice versa? The answer varies widely: 'a lot' in terms of traffic for publishers, but potentially 'little' for platforms, depending on perspectives*. A new Canadian study highlights the significant impact of Facebook's "news ban," which resulted after the platform was required to compensate publishers. Following the ban, national news outlets saw their Facebook engagement drop by 64%, while local outlets experienced an 85% decline. Despite this, the study found that Facebook usage remained largely unaffected.

At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, the sentiment that platforms may not need news was evident. This shift became more apparent as former employees of platform news teams, previously advocates for partnerships with media, faced a reality check on stage. Jesper Doub, ex-Director of News Partnerships in Europe, starkly noted that news holds "no value" for platforms, describing it instead as a potential "cost" due to friction. This skepticism casts doubt on the future of new partnerships, including those with AI companies, suggesting they might face similar challenges.

*Check the end of the newsletter for other studies.

IN FOCUS

This week the annual International Journalism Festival took place in Perugia. It is both a thermometer of what is going on in the field (AI) and a collective group therapy (how do we survive this?).

• I don't need to summarize, the Reuters Institute has an excellent page with an overview of the best sessions.
• You can also look back at everything on the Youtube page of the festival.
• If I could pick a session, I would choose these practical tips to counter news avoidance from Nic Newman & Ellen Heinrichs.
• Wayfinder was also there, talking about news, AI and the new dynamics that brings.

AI IN NEWSROOMS

AI is increasingly finding a place in the newsroom. This is evident from more and more articles about it.

• NiemanLab takes a look at how Newsweek is employing AI for video production, runs an AI-focused live news desk for breaking news, and uses AI to draft some articles.
• Verdens Gang (VG), a leading Norwegian news outlet, enhances its newsroom with AI, supported by a seven-developer team testing various tools.
• Ten months post-launch, an AI assistant at EXPRESS.de has written over 1,500 articles, driving about 12% of the site's traffic.

Given all these AI newsroom evolutions it's perhaps good to also consider two new studies that show people in Europe are wary about using AI in journalism.

• In Finland, most working-age people feel either neutral (57%) or negative (27%) about AI-made media and news read by AI.
• In the UK, nearly half the people (48%) think AI will have a negative effect on news, and 12% believe it will bring no benefits at all.

Meanwhile, the WSJ showed how ridiculously easy it is to put together an AI-filled news site, publishing thousands of articles daily at a cost of $105.

OTHER AI UPDATES

Stanford's annual AI index report is out and has over 500 pages of AI stats. Two take-aways from my side: AI now surpasses humans in mosts tasks, while training costs for cutting-edge models soar.

Short:

• Google is piloting an "AI overview" of answers for search queries in the US and UK. Link
• Meta releases Llama 3, claiming it as the most capable open-source large language model to date. Link
• IBM has worked on new design principles for generative AI, addressing unique challenges not covered by existing guidelines. Link
• According to Similarweb, ChatGPT's traffic growth has stagnated over the past year. Link
• A Reuters Institute study examines the effectiveness and limitations of AI detectors in spotting deepfakes. Link
• Dan Taylor Watt offers a comprehensive comparison table for AI image generators. Link

VIDEO

FAST (Free Ad Supported Streaming) is maturing rapidly. Major studios are now curating content for FAST platforms, focusing on high-quality offerings rather than just filling space. FAST services originated in the U.S. but are increasingly making waves in the rest of the world.

To counter the above somewhat - 404 media paints a dystopian future of TV, seeing a rise of FAST channels filled with AI-generated garbage.

EBU released a new report on the economic impact of public service media sports broadcasting contributing EUR 4.9 billion to Europe’s GDP and supporting over 60,200 jobs in 2022.

AUDIO

UK media regulator Ofcom has released data on audio listening in the UK. Podcast listening is not growing overall in the country; but younger listeners have really grown in the past 12 months.

AirChat, a new social media app blending Twitter and Clubhouse, lets users speak their posts. It transcribes spoken words and plays the audio as followers scroll, showing both voice and text.

And voice 1.0 is now officially dead. Amazon kills Alexa skills.

SHORT

• Meta is launching AI-search in WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.
• Instagram is testing a program that turns creators into AI chatbots.
• TikTok is working on a new AI tool that would let advertisers build their own TikTok influencers.
• Adobe now also has an AI assistant to talk with PDF’s.
• The launch of Twitch’s TikTok-style Discovery feed is just weeks away.
• Elon Musk plans to charge new X users to enable posting.
• The European Data Protection Board says Meta should give users free option without targeted ads.

TRENDS & IDEAS

According to the Economist there are reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z. They are not doomed to be poor and anxious.

According to stats from Supersocial, Roblox is the most-engaging platform on the Internet, with each of the 72 million daily active users spending on average 2.4 hours per day on the platform.

My inspiring finds of the week.

• Synthetic Memories is an initiative aimed at recovering lost or undocumented visual memories using AI image generation. Algorithms interpret descriptions of personal experiences and turn them into images and short videos.
• The Ministry of Imagination Manifest is an attempt to of what policymaking underpinned by the radical imagination could look like, containing over 600 policy proposals spanning arts & culture, the economy and education

That's it for this week. As always Wayfinder is made to travel - so share it with friends or colleagues!

Ezra

*The case for Google is, if possible, even more complex. A Swiss study from 2023 claims that news content provided to Google Search would amount to about 40% of total revenue. However the methods of the study are somewhat contested. A UK study of 2022 estimated that the annual revenues derived from news content by both Google and Facebook combined are approximately £1 Billion per year.