Weekly Digest: Fallout from Twitter Acquisition, Further BBC Cuts

Twitter has been in the news a lot recently. As Elon Musk finalised the purchase of the company, he immediately started stirring controversies – from posting an ugly conspiracy theory, to planning massive layoffs, to announcing verification would soon become a paid service. News media have been impacted by the implemented and planned changes as well.

For one, paid (and perhaps quite expensive) verification might be a security concern for journalists. As Vanity Fair’s Joe Pompeo writes, “the coveted blue profile signifier… is about more than status—it confirms your identity and prevents trolls from hijacking it, which is a not-at-all-trivial security measure for any public-facing person”, particularly reporters. 

In the meanwhile, Twitter is ending ad-free article offering for subscribers of its paid Twitter Blue service, as part of broader revamp of the platform’s paid services. As The Wall Street Journal notes, the year-old program, which has compensated news outlets according to the number of readers their materials get, “never accrued enough subscribers to have a meaningful impact on publishers’ revenue”.

At the same time, the company’s new owner announced “paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us” as part of the future reformed paid service.

---

The BBC announced major cuts to local radio stations in England, reducing the amount of content created for specific stations. Almost 50 jobs will be eliminated as a result.

While all 39 regional networks across the country will keep their own programming 6am to 2pm on weekdays, programs will be shared across multiple local stations for other time slots.

“The changes are understood to be due to cost pressures arising from the combination of the licence fee freeze and inflation, as well as a shift in focus from older audiences to younger listeners, who prefer online content”, The Guardian writes.

---

Facebook’s parent company Meta will replace editors of its News section with AI. As Press Gazette reports, the company recently “informed publishers of its decision to end a curation contract with Upday”, an aggregation startup owned by Axel Springer. The aggregation tool is maintained by some 15 journalists today. 

The shift is part of Meta’s broader pivot from news in recent months as the company focuses on promoting short-form entertainment video in competition with TikTok, as well as invests in building a metaverse. 

Bonus — Five more stories you might want to check out:

• The Guardian: The Independent puts 52 staff roles at risk of redundancy as digital ad market declines 
• Scroll: Delhi Police search ‘The Wire’ office, homes of Siddharth Varadarajan and three other editors  
• TechCrunch: Substack targets Twitter with launch of discussions feature, Substack Chat
• The New York Times: The New York Times Company Adds 180,000 Digital Subscribers 
• NiemanLab: NPR launches a paid podcast bundle, hoping to convert a national audience into local donors

---