Good morning from the team at Press Gazette on Tuesday, 4 August.

🤨 Beware of geeks bearing gifts, as Roman poet Virgil almost said.

The message being that presents from your enemy may contain a trap.

For several years now most major UK publishers have been receiving payments ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions per year from Google in exchange for appearing on a confected platform called News Showcase.

These deals helped stave off the threat of Google being forced to compensate publishers for using their content (as has happened in Australia).

Now, instead of being offered money for nothing, the same publishers are being asked by Google to give access to all their content for AI training – and they are finding it difficult to say no.

Financial directors have got used to seeing that Google revenue line and if it disappears, cuts will have to be made elsewhere.

The mutation of Showcase deals into AI ones render a recent ruling from the Competition and Markets Authority, forcing Google to let publishers opt out of AI training without harming their position in search, moot.

In exchange for cash (and a little traffic) publishers are signing away the right to opt out of AI products whilst also agreeing not to sue Google or talk publicly about the deal (apart from perhaps via a jointly agreed press release).

The fear is that the long-term collective viability of the UK news business is being sacrificed for short-term individual expediency.

The deals last two years, by which time Google may have cemented its hold over the market for AI-generated answers and publishers’ collective bargaining position could be much weaker.

The era of traffic is over. The era of AI-generated answers has begun. There is no turning back, the user experience is just too damned convenient.

Publishers globally need to focus on striking a collective bargain that ensures fair payment for their crucial role feeding the AI beast, rather than piecemeal short-term deals designed to prop up yesterday’s business model.

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🤏 News In Brief

Rod Liddle, columnist for The Sun, The Sunday Times and The Spectator, and presenter on Times Radio, has died aged 66 after a short illness. (Press Gazette)

The editor of the Belfast News Letter has been made redundant after parent company Iconic Media decided to replace the role with a wider editorial leader for its titles across Northern Ireland. (Press Gazette)

BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Tony Livesey has left the broadcaster after an investigation from Panorama and The Times cast light over his previous career as editor-in-chief of Sport Newspapers. (Press Gazette)

Tennessee-based Chattanooga Times Free Press has laid off 50 staff including editors and reporters after the paper was sold to media executive Craig Fuller and his father Max Fuller for an undisclosed sum. (Press Gazette)

People Inc has reported its eleventh consecutive quarter of digital growth (up by 6%) driven by revenue not based on web sessions including licensing and performance marketing. Its subsidary The Daily Beast grew revenue by 53% in Q2. (People Incorporated Reports)

👀In case you missed it:

1) Creator-style content helps Time deliver seven-fold increase in Youtube views

Editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs says Time focus on social-first creator content is paying off.

2) Google adds Top Stories links to many news-related AI summaries

Entertainment is news category most likely to generate Top Stories carousel within AIO.

3) What I’ve learned: Newsguard co-founder Steven Brill on the fight for truth

Brill shares insights from his near 50-year career in media.