March 20, 2024
Sports Illustrated Lives On with New Publishing Agreement
With new waves of layoffs and consolidations, many media outlets face a fraught future. Despite setbacks, some press have persisted. Sports Illustrated will continue in print and digital after the brand’s new agreement with publisher Minute Media. Despite the challenging media landscape, digital start-ups like Puck, Punchbowl News, and Semafor are achieving sustainable growth by diverging from high-investment audience strategies and pursuing direct audience relationships.
A renewed philanthropic commitment to local journalism is beginning to bear fruit. The National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit that’s acquired fading newspapers across the country, has acquired a “mission-driven” printing press to sustain and modernize local journalism in Colorado. The Society of Professional Journalists has announced new funds to support journalists facing legal challenges.
U.S. Supreme Court Considers Social Media Speech
The highest court in the U.S. is setting social media precedent while Europe is moving to establish new safeguards for journalists. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that public officials can be sued for blocking critics on social media if they use personal accounts for official statements. In another case, the Court appeared skeptical of efforts to broadly limit the Biden administration’s interactions with social media companies around preventing disinformation.
The European Parliament has passed legislation intended to protect E.U. journalists from interference—the new law mandates transparency of media ownership and bans spyware use against journalists. Lawmakers in the U.K. are planning to introduce legislation preventing foreign governments from owning U.K. news outlets, which will likely block the sale of the Telegraph to a UAE-backed consortium.
More PR Pros and Business Leaders Adopt AI
As AI technology develops, new norms are emerging. To address growing concerns around misinformation, YouTube now requires creators to disclose AI-generated content in videos—a label will be placed on all significantly altered material. A new Institute for Public Relations survey confirms generative AI is transforming workplace communications with nearly 90% of business leaders reporting using it. However, only half of employees surveyed felt they had sufficient knowledge to use tools effectively.
Muck Rack’s latest State of AI in PR survey found the number of PR professionals using generative AI doubled from March to December 2023. The same study found only 21% of companies have an AI use case policy. At the annual SXSW conference, communicators discussed the future of AI in media, with some estimates suggesting more than 90% of online content could be AI-generated one year from now.
Sequence Summaries: Press Persistence, Court Comms, and AI Adoption
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