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| David Dinsmore |
News UK chief operations officer David Dinsmore joins the UK government as director of communications at permanent secretary level, a newly created position, effective in November. In that position, Dinsmore will lead the Government Communication Service, the professional body that oversees communications activity across the government. Dinsmore served as editor of News UK’s The Sun before ascending to the COO spot at the media platform in 2015. News UK is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. According to The Guardian, Dinsmore was chosen from a short list of two that included Portland founder Tim Allan, who was an advisor to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. UK Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald said that “under David’s leadership the Government Communication Service will take advantage of the rapidly evolving media landscape and go from strength to strength.” Some members of the UK Labour Party had a less positive reaction to Dinsmore’s hiring. The Guardian noted that three Liverpool MPs sent a letter to PM Keir Starmer expressing their concern about Dinsmore’s appointment.
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Gannett reaches a deal with AI-powered answer engine Perplexity to license content from USA TODAY and the USA TODAY Network. As part of the agreement, Gannett joins the Perplexity Publisher Program. The content and journalism from USA TODAY and local USA TODAY Network publications will be integrated into Perplexity’s search experiences, including its newly released agentic web browser, Comet. Gannett will have access to Perplexity technology including Perplexity’s Sonar API and Perplexity Enterprise Pro for all employees. “This deal allows us to further accelerate AI opportunities as we share advertising revenue and leverage data to deliver shareholder value while providing credible content for users of the Perplexity platform,” said Gannett chairman and CEO Michael Reed.
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YouTube is introducing “age-estimation technology," which aims to identify teen users, in the US on August 13. When a YouTube user is identified as a teen, the platform introduces such protective features as disabling personalized advertising, limiting repeat viewing of certain types of content, and enabling digital well-being tools such as screen time and bedtime reminders. While the protections are already in place on the platform, they are only applied to those who verified themselves as teens, not those who may have withheld their real age. YouTube will use a range of signals to determine a user’s possible age, regardless of the birthday that user listed when signing up for an account. Users who contest the technology’s age estimates, will have the option to verify their age through government ID, selfie or a credit card.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
