Schibsted’s restructuring, MailOnline experimenting with paywall – weekly news digest

Schibsted, a major European publisher based in Norway, has reached a deal to sell its news media operations to its main owner Tinius Trust. The move would see the company split into two entities, with the marketplace business remaining listed on the stock market. 

In the wake of new technological disruptions [such as generative AI], “both the media and marketplaces business will benefit from focusing on their respective business areas. This will ensure full attention to both areas without them having to compete for capital and resources”, Chairman of the Tinius Trust Ole Jacob Sunde noted in the company’s press release.

In a podcast put out by Tinius Trust Sunde and the trust’s CEO Kjersti Løken Stavrum emphasised the need for the news business to adopt a longer-term development perspective and not rely on quarterly results. The deal, which is yet to be approved by the organisation’s general meeting, is valued at 6.2 billion crowns (€520 million).

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MailOnline, one of the most popular UK’s news websites, plans to experiment with a paywall. The publisher “will charge users in [the UK] to read a select 10-15 articles a day… although the vast majority of the nearly 1,500 stories published by the site every day will remain free-to-read”, Financial Times reports.

The move is unusual for a tabloid that has traditionally relied on advertising as its primary business model. However, it takes inspiration from German tabloid Bild, which has seen success with implementing its paywalled content over the past decade, FT notes.

The advertising market is challenging in the UK today; “although the online ad market is growing, the share of revenue going to publishers has plunged this year as all the growth has instead gone to tech platforms”, Press Gazette writes.

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The New York Times has hired its first senior editorial leader with remit over AI initiatives. Zach Seward, previously co-founder and CEO of business publication Quartz, became NYT’s Editorial Director of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives.

Seward will lead a new team in charge of experimenting with generative AI tools across the organisation, and one of his first tasks will be helping the publisher come up with principles around using generative AI.

Over the past year, more newsrooms have been experimenting with integrating generative AI in their workflows, but many publishers are yet to develop organisation-wide guidelines and best practices.

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