The Long Beach (California) Post, a nonprofit newsroom, is facing a backlash following the layoff of nine employees on its news staff. The Long Beach Media Guild, which was formed earlier this month and seeks recognition by the company, reported that the staff was reduced from 17 to eight, according to the Los Angeles Times. The union claims that the layoffs followed a decision to unionize and some staff members saw them as retaliation. However, CEO Melissa Evans argued in a memo that she and the board “reached the conclusion that immediate layoffs were the only feasible option to keep the Post solvent.” Evans added, “I’m aware of both social media posts and an online petition alleging staff layoffs were carried out in retaliation against news staff who sought to unionize. This is false. In reality, staff were made aware that layoffs were inevitable before they moved to unionize.” Specifically, “As of Friday, our full-time staff is now roughly 50% smaller, consisting of six exceptionally talented journalists and two tenacious business-side employees,” Evans continued. Explaining the corporate history, Evans wrote: “Four months ago, the Post separated from our for-profit ownership, quickly became a nonprofit and retained nearly all of our previous staff based on the promise of several large donations, some of which did not materialize,” Evans said.
Bucking the trend of newspapers selling off real estate, Reade Brower, publisher of The Courier-Gazette, Camden Herald, Republican Journal and Free Press, is buying a two-story building in Camden, Maine. The newspaper operations could move into the location on Mechanic Street as early as this summer. Now housed in the building are Jaret & Cohn, Bagel Café, the Mechanic Street Barbershop and the Inn at Camden Place. Brower plans to use the second floor for the newspapers for Islandport Press, a book publication firm, and for Mail Maine, his direct mail marketing company, according to an article by Daniel Dunkle, executive editor of the newspapers. “It’s the perfect building,” Brower says, the report continues. “It fits all the criteria. It is much more versatile and allows us to branch out.”
Three high-level news executives are leaving Gannet for apparently different reasons. According to Poynter, which broke the story, the executives are:
The Financial Times has debuted a generative AI feature that will allow subscribers to ask questions and get answers based on FT content. The tool, now in beta, is available to a select number of FT professional subscribers. As part of the FT professional offering, it combines the FT’s internal search capabilities with a third-party large language model, the FT says. The solution “will help our subscribers make confident strategic and commercial decisions quickly by getting answers rather than search results,” says Nick Fallon, managing director of FT Professional. “It’s a perfect complement to the broader, in-depth offering our readers expect from FT news products.” “The FT has a strong track record of embracing the disruption of technology, from the arrival of the internet to the mobile revolution, and now AI,” adds Lindsey Jayne, chief product officer for FT. The FT professional capability equips nearly 8,000 business, government and educational entities with features that make FT journalism more personalized and actionable, the FT adds.
Some email marketers may be worried about losing their jobs. But they are probably not suffering the highest levels of anxiety, judging by a study from Authority Hacker. IT people are increasingly troubled about possible job loss, which is no surprise given the massive layoffs at some tech companies. They are followed by employees in software development and advertising. And, yes, there is a certain level of fear in marketing and sales and publishing. But it depends on the salary level and title. Those at the top are so concerned that it is a wonder they can function at all. For instance, 79.31% of executives at the C suite or senior management levels are fretting more about their job stability, compared to 65.65% of management staff, 48.82% of non-management staff and 45.80% of administrative staff. Within that top echelon, 85% at the C level fear getting sacked, versus 78.38% of directors. Those totals are well above the general average of 55%. Younger people in the 24-44 age cohort are more worried than older workers about suddenly being unemployed. And college graduates feel more vulnerable than those without higher education. But industry vertical may be the biggest indicator. Based on a recent survey of 1,200 employees across industry sectors, here are the percentages of workers concerned about job security:
Google engineered a way of using generative artificial intelligence (GAI) and large language models (LLM) to more quickly identify and suspend millions of ad accounts and block billions of ads in 2023. In fact, the company stated in its Ads Safety Report 2023 that it suspended 12.7 million ad accounts and blocked 5.5 billion ads in 2023. "The key trend in 2023 was the impact of generative AI," said Duncan Lennox, VP and GM, Ads Privacy & Safety at Google. On a call with reporters this week he said it’s important to trust the information and not get blindsided by false claims. “When it comes to ad safety, gen AI has presented us with some challenges, which we take quite seriously,” he said. “While it introduces new issues, we also see it as a transformative technology to keep users safe.” The number of advertisers who were blocked or removed due to policy violations nearly doubled compared with the previous year. The speed is tied to LLMs that can rapidly identify, review and interpret content at a higher volume, while capturing important nuances within the context and content. Google declined to elaborate on the speed in which the models can identify the accounts, only to say it is based on better reasoning capacities and can identify patterns of those abusing consumer trends. Brand safety required Google and others to keep vigilant on fraudulent accounts to ensure a safer space for consumers. Google, overall, blocked or removed 206.5 million advertisements for violating its misrepresentation policy, which includes scam tactics and 273.4 million advertisements for violating its financial services policy. The company also blocked or removed more than 1 billion advertisements for violating its policy against abusing the ad network, which includes promoting malware. Google blocked or restricted ads from serving on more than 2.1 billion publisher pages, and took broader site-level enforcement action on more than 395,000 publisher sites, up from 2022. Efforts to help keep the internet a safer place continue. The company reminded us that in 2023 it launched the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads from verified advertisers, which helps people learn more about the ads they see on Search, YouTube and Display. The company also updated its suitability controls to make it simpler and quicker for advertisers to exclude topics they wish to avoid across YouTube and Display inventory. Overall, Google made 31 updates to its Ads and Publisher policies.