The Guardian·2026-03-25
From YouTube to Trump: six urgent issues for BBC’s new boss, Matt BrittinMatt Brittin may have only just been announced as the new BBC director general, but his inbox is already overflowing. Here are his immediate challenges: Crucial talks over the BBC’s future A major reason for Brittin’s appointment is that he was seen as a figure with the presence to plunge straight into government talks over the renewal of the BBC’s royal charter, which expires at the end of 2027. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has already said she is keen to give the BBC additional political protection. However, Brittin will face huge decisions over reforming the BBC’s funding model. Tim Davie, his predecessor, pushed back against a subscription or ad-funded model, but also called for radical reform to the licence fee. That could result in a big change to the rules governing when someo
The Guardian·2026-03-25
Former Google executive Matt Brittin selected to be next BBC director generalThe BBC has turned to a former tech executive to steer it through a critical period in its history, as it attempts to navigate government talks over its future and huge changes in media consumption. Matt Brittin, who stepped down as Google’s president in Europe, the Middle East and Africa last year, will replace Tim Davie as the corporation hammers out its crucial future funding model with the government. The 57-year-old’s appointment was confirmed after a BBC board discussion on Thursday. Brittin, a former Olympic rower and Doctor Who fan, was seen as a substantial figure capable of diving straight into crucial government talks over the renewal of the BBC’s royal charter. However, his lack of editorial experience has been noted by insiders, who worry about his ability to deal with the per
The Guardian·2026-03-25
BBC and NWA: the day ABC staff went on strike – and left Aunty looking ‘a bit different’Broadcasters had warned their audiences that the ABC would look “a bit different” on Wednesday – and as the clock struck 11am, they weren’t wrong. As more than 2,000 ABC staff walked off the job for the first time in two decades in protest of their working conditions, the public broadcaster’s news channel switched over to the BBC. The ABC’s radio networks pivoted to the dulcet tones of classical music and pop hits. “My colleagues and I are on strike,” Hilary Harper told listeners to Radio National’s Critics Corner program before a pre-recorded episode of The Law Report began at 11am AEDT. “Normal programming will resume at 11am tomorrow.” ABC radio Melbourne and Sydney entered the first minutes of the strike with Boy Meets Girl’s 1988 hit Waiting for a Star to Fall. Sign up to get Guardian
The Guardian·2026-03-25
ABC strike: national broadcaster switches to BBC programming as staff walk off the job for 24 hoursMore than 2,000 ABC staff around Australia have walked off the job for a 24-hour strike, forcing ABC services across TV, radio and digital to use BBC World Service and repeat programming. The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, was defiant and said the ABC would not back down on staff demands, despite the severe disruption. At 11am, the ABC News channel switched to broadcasting the BBC News channel as staff walked out in protest. The ABC News channel filled the schedule with repeats of Planet America and the National Press Club, but broadcast Question Time as normal. Broadcasting great Fran Kelly told striking staff outside the broadcaster’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney that some of her producers live in Wollongong or Newcastle because they can’t afford to live in Sydney, and have been in
Digiday·2026-03-25
Marketers shift growing shares of search spending to GEOThe old search playbook is in free fall in the age of AI. Marketers aren’t cutting their search budgets — at least not yet. They’re just shifting how search dollars are spent. As generative AI upends how people search and shop, marketers are funneling more dollars into the industry’s latest buzzword de jour: generative engine optimization, or GEO. It’s less about abandoning tried and true SEO stra
Digiday·2026-03-25
Future of TV Briefing: WTF is the DASH TV universe study at the center of the latest Nielsen drama?This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at what is the TV universe study at the center of the recent drama surrounding Nielsen’s The Gauge TV viewership report. Measuring the universe Meta’s creator courtship, Disney’s runaway “Bachelorette” and more Measuring the universe What’s with all the hubbub over Nielsen’s delayed The Gauge TV viewership report for February, right? This is a member-exclusi
Digiday·2026-03-25
‘Be an engineer to understand the engine’: Why consultant Nick Manning thinks principal media is anti-marketerA trove of documents published during an ongoing court case between WPP and a former employee, Richard Foster, has exposed the inner agency calculations around principal media — and the tensions between their business interests and those of their clients. For media consultant Nick Manning, a former CEO of OMD U.K. and chief strategy officer of consultancy Ebiquity, the so-called “Foster Papers” ar
Digiday·2026-03-25
“It’s about change management’: Sir Martin Sorrell says the billable hour is dying, but getting clients to move in is proving harderYes, outcome-based pay is en vogue. But none of it matters if agencies aren t using AI at the scale the economics require. And that only happens if clients are willing to pay for it. Most aren t. S4 Capital CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said as much on his marketing group s latest earnings call yesterday — a cold dose of realism about the hype that comes after the billable hour. For S4, the answer is sub
Adweek·2026-03-25
EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Is Planning a First-of-Its-Kind Audio Ad Deal in the U.K.The company plans to unveil a data partnership next month with Dax, the latest in a series of tie-ups signalling Amazon's growing ambitions.
Adweek·2026-03-25
LA Verdict Against Meta and YouTube Is a Warning Sign for Social MediaAfter years of allegations of harm by youth advocacy groups and corresponding denials from corporate, Meta and YouTube have been found liable for causing mental duress to an adolescent girl—identified [ ]
Adweek·2026-03-25
Two-Thirds of American Marketers Would Fail a Basic Marketing TestBefore marketers learn AI, or the language of the boardroom, or purpose, or storytelling, or any of the other things we keep telling them they need to master, many of them need to learn something more basic. They need to learn marketing.
Adweek·2026-03-25
Brands Strut Into The Devil Wears Prada 2 UniverseDiet Coke, Grey Goose, and L’Oréal are among the brands making their Runway debut
Nieman Lab·2026-03-25
The BBC’s new director general is former Google executive Matt BrittinToday the BBC announced it had selected a new director general: Matt Brittin, the former president of Google s operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. One might see this news and wonder about Brittin s editorial experience. He has very little but, as both the Guardian and the Telegraph took pains to point out, he is a Doctor Who fan, which I guess means he does at least like one BBC pro
Nieman Lab·2026-03-25
“I was surprised how upset some people got”: A conversation with the creator of TomWikiAssist, the bot that edited WikipediaBehind the scenes at Wikipedia, some editors were alarmed recently when they saw a flurry of edits and new articles by a contributor known as TomWikiAssist . It turned out that Tom was a bot and was making edits and creating articles that the bot believed were interesting. The editors then blocked Tom from doing any more editing or writing. The more the editors looked into Tom, the more alarmed th
Nieman Lab·2026-03-24
ProPublica’s union authorizes the first U.S. newsroom strike over AI protectionsOn March 20, members of the ProPublica Guild, one of the largest nonprofit newsroom unions in the U.S., overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. Out of the roughly 150 journalists, copyeditors, videographers and other newsroom workers in the Guild, 92% of members voted to walk off the job if ProPublica doesn’t agree to their contract terms in the coming weeks. The vote comes two and a half year
Nieman Lab·2026-03-24
Young people want their news to be more fun, a new report saysIn the news industry, there s no shortage of data that says the same thing: young adults and older adults get their news in different ways. While older adults (age 55 and up) are mostly locked in on traditional news sources, young people increasingly turn to influencers and AI. As newsrooms grapple with how to lure younger audiences to their platforms, a new report published Tuesday asks a differe
Fast Company·2026-03-21T13:01:00Z
John Stamos debated live-streaming his first tattoo at SXSW: Is the future of media 'life in real-time'?Speaking with Fast Company at SXSW, the 'Full House' actor shared why he’s excited to be the chief innovation officer of streaming platform Zeam.
Reuters·2026-03-11T07:06:55Z
Canal+ taps Google's AI for video production, content recommendationFrench media group Canal+ on Wednesday said it had struck a multi-year partnership with Alphabet's Google Cloud to deploy generative artificial intelligence across its production operations and streaming platform.
Adweek·2026-03-04
A+E Turns Brands Into Lifetime Movies as It Looks to Compete in Upfront PitchA+E Global Media announces new content and brand creative studio.
Adweek·2026-03-04
Netflix Taps Amazon’s Shopping Data to Sharpen Ad TargetingThe move pairs Amazon’s shopping signals with Netflix’s new Conversion API as the streamer courts performance budgets.
Adweek·2026-03-04
Ad Agencies Are Embracing ‘Vibe Coding’ to Build GEO Products for ClientsFrom two-hour builds to full SaaS platforms, agencies are using Anthropic's Claude to create custom tools that track how brands show up in AI-generated answers.
Adweek·2026-03-04
Havas Bets on AI Veteran Sharona Sankar-King to Lead Proprietary Tech PushHavas Media Network North America has hired data and AI veteran Sharona Sankar-King as chief data and product officer to lead its Converged.AI platform.
Digiday·2026-03-04
How creator talent agencies are evolving into multi-platform operatorsThe legacy agency model, long overdue for a reckoning, is finally being rebuilt from the ground up — with creators at the center. The old agency model — brokering deals, manually sourcing talent and running slow, service-heavy operations that treated creators like traditional talent — came of age in a fragmented market. But that model is giving way to something faster, more scalable, and built aro
Digiday·2026-03-04
Why one brand reimbursed $10,000 to customers who paid its ‘Trump Tariff Surcharge’ last yearThis story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Dame is refunding customers who paid its “Trump Tariff Surcharge” last year, becoming one of the first brands to proactively return money tied to President Donald Trump’s now-invalidated tariffs. The sexual wellness company began adding a visible $5 line-item fee at checkout in 2025 as the Trump administration’s trade war pushed up
Nieman Lab·2026-03-04
AI-powered search is fueling a wave of Epstein Files transparency projectsThe Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) requires that the millions of documents collected by the Department of Justice (DOJ) about Jeffrey Epstein be shared with the public in a searchable and downloadable format. In practice, though, the searchability of the DOJ releases has been crude at best. Keywords may turn up individual links to PDFs, but users have reported major search malfunctions and
Digiday·2026-03-04
Future of TV Briefing: How Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad tech stacks stack upThis week’s Future of TV Briefing breaks down Paramount’s and Warner Bros. Discovery’s ad tech stacks now that the companies seem set (finally) to combine. Streaming stacks Netflix’s exit, WBD’s town hall, CNN’s future and more Streaming stacks Paramount plans to combine its and Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming services after Paramount+’s owner completes its acquisition of HBO Max’s parent. But
Digiday·2026-03-04
‘The conversation has shifted’: The CFO moved upstream. Now agencies have to as wellCFOs are demanding more from marketing — and not in the usual way. The familiar playbook of squeezing costs and investing in performance spend is still in motion, driven by an uncertain economy and an unpredictable geopolitical backdrop. But CFOs now are asking harder questions driven by a better grasp of how marketing actually works, and a sharper instinct for where it doesn t. For example, Vayne
Nieman Lab·2026-03-03
Newsonomics: Will national news shrink even faster than local news did?Anderson Cooper may be running out of lily pads. Just two weeks ago, he announced his decision to leave CBS’s 60 Minutes, after almost 20 years of multitasking. Over time, he arrived at the pinnacle of the TV news profession as a CNN anchor, growing his gravitas as a cascade of crises consumed our world while contributing to the most storied newsmagazine of the entire TV era. He’d seen enough of t
Nieman Lab·2026-03-03
X will demonetize users who post AI-generated videos of war (but not other kinds of disinformation)On Tuesday Nikita Bier , head of product at X, announced that users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict without disclosing they were AI-generated will suspended from the site s revenue-sharing program for 90 days, with repeated offenses leading to a permanent suspension from the program: Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on
Nieman Lab·2026-03-02
New York Times runs in-house ad asking listeners to “support any news organization dedicated to original reporting”The New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has voiced a new ad encouraging listeners to support any news organization dedicated to original reporting — even if it s not the Times. It s Sulzberger s first-ever advertisement, the Times confirmed, and it ran for the first time on Monday. A New York Times spokesperson said the publisher wanted to call attention to the shrinking of the news industry.