 |
| 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.
 |
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.
 |
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.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
