Suzi Watford, the former chief membership officer of Dow Jones and current Sirius XM chief growth officer, is moving to The Washington Post to take up the newly-created post of chief strategy officer. Watford will work under recently-installed chief executive William Lewis, a fellow Brit and her former boss at Dow Jones. The Washington Post said in a release that the new role is “designed to oversee the publication’s strategy, aligning it across all business functions and overseeing brand identity”. Watford was chief marketing and membership officer of The Wall Street Journal between 2014 and ..read more

New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn has said covering Donald Trump is a challenge that requires a balance between sharing his statements, even when they are false, and contextualising but not censoring them. Speaking at the INMA World Congress of News Media in London on Wednesday, Kahn said covering Trump is a “particular challenge” and it takes a “certain skill” to write about him. “Our view is that when you have a candidate who does frequently indulge in conspiracy theories or depart from the facts and can hold an audience captive with long kind of soliloquies that actually don’t con ..read more

Google’s incoming AI-generated search results have been described in Press Gazette as a “potential extinction-level event”. But at the PPA Festival in London on Tuesday, Bauer Media Group’s global head of SEO Stuart Forrest shared a potential alternative view – suggesting publishers that double down on quality could see some advantages from it. Google SGE (search generative experience) began rolling out in the US last year and its UK trial started this month. Publishers are concerned about its arrival because it answers queries at the top of the search results page that otherwise may have resu ..read more

New data reveals the UK had a bumper year for advertising in 2023, but news publishers lost out as more went to the big tech platforms. The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report estimates the total UK ad market grew by 6.1% in 2023 to £36.6bn – with online formats now accounting for more than three quarters of the total. All the growth went to tech giants with Alphabet the biggest winner. Search advertising grew 11.9% last year to £14.7bn, meaning up to around £14bn was spent with Google on search alone. Google also makes money from selling advertising on Youtube and across the web v ..read more

A US investigative news outlet that has just hired nine new journalists to its team puts its ability to invest down to its flourishing subscriber strategy. The Lever was launched as a newsletter in 2020 by David Sirota, a speechwriter and senior adviser for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. Sirota has also been a columnist for Guardian US, editor-at-large for American left publication Jacobin and senior investigations editor for The International Business Times. From starting with a team of two, The Lever now has a staff of 19. The new hires announced this month included a senior ..read more

Former GB News chairman Andrew Neil has told Parliament the channel will not “ever be profitable” on its current path. Neil, a former BBC presenter and Sunday Times editor and the current chairman of The Spectator, also said he had been “surprised how tolerant” Ofcom had been of GB News, which is currently the subject of multiple investigations by the regulator. Neil made the comments before a House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee hearing into the future of news on Tuesday. ‘It’s not a very big niche, and it’s not a niche that can ever be profitable’ Asked how GB News might have ..read more

The Guardian has changed its website messaging around persuading readers to accept tracking cookies in the light of recent ICO guidance. It has also sent an open letter to the advertising industry explaining why it believes its cookie-less solution Guardian Light can result in higher viewability scores and click-through rates even if fewer people agree to be targeted by third-party cookies. Users of The Guardian’s website are now asked if they will accept the use of optional cookies which “support the Guardian and your experience”. The two options on the first screen are: “Yes, I’m happy” and ..read more

Comment-based current affairs website Unherd has found itself boycotted by many online advertisers after publishing three articles seen as containing “anti-trans narratives”. It has been placed on the Dynamic Exclusion List operated by UK-based non-profit company the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) which provides data for online advertisers about websites it considers to be unsafe for brands to appear on. GDI receives funding from the UK government and Unherd chief executive and editor-in-chief Freddie Sayers is campaigning for this to halt. He also wants advertisers to stop using a service ..read more

Newsnight deputy editor Becky Emmett is joining ITV News amid an overhaul of the BBC programme. Emmett, who was Newsnight’s acting editor after the recent departure of editor Stewart Maclean, will be head of ITVX for ITV News. She will oversee the news offering on ITV’s streaming service, encompassing its editorial strategy, the live streaming of major events, and commissioning original content. Emmett said: “I’m so excited to be returning to ITV News where I began by career as a trainee at ITV Central. I have long admired ITV’s commitment to original journalism and innovation and I am looking ..read more

Huw Edwards officially resigned from the BBC on Monday “on the basis of medical advice”, the broadcaster has announced. Edwards has been absent from screens since July last year when The Sun reported a BBC presenter was alleged to have paid a young person for sexual images. After several days Edwards was named as the previously unidentified presenter by his wife Vicky Flint, who also said he was hospitalised due to a serious mental health episode. A BBC spokesperson said: “Huw Edwards has today resigned and left the BBC. “After 40 years of service, Huw has explained that his decision was made ..read more