✅ Monday briefing: Celebrating 150 Substack newsletters

A week in management, media and public relations

This is the 150th edition of this Substack newsletter. It started as a COVID-19 lockdown project in 2020. We aim to make sense of the weekly top stories in our community. In addition, we occasionally share content from the Wadds Inc. blog.

Substack is a commercial organisation and a closed platform, but the culture of creators, content, links and comments feels a lot like the blogosphere and Twitter of the early 2000s.

The newsletter is distributed to 3,100 people. Around 2,500 people read each edition. Hit reply if you’d like to get in touch. Thank you for subscribing and for your support.

I hope that you have an outstanding week.

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Management

🌱 RESTORE NATURE: The UK has experienced biodiversity loss across many species groups and ecosystems, according to the 2023 State of Nature report. It recommends urgent, coordinated action across sectors to halt and reverse biodiversity loss through conservation, restoration and sustainable practices. Source: State of Nature Partnership.

🤥 GREENWASHING CONTRACTS: Analysis by Clean Creatives reveals a record number of fossil fuel contracts awarded to advertising and public relations firms. The holding company with the most contracts is WPP, with 55, despite its global net zero pledge. Holding company Omnicom is second, with 39 contracts. Source: Clean Creatives.

📖 DIVERSITY BOOK REVIEW: Building a Culture of Inclusivity provides practical advice and frameworks for internal communicators to foster inclusivity, highlighting how diversity and equality boost engagement, performance, and reputation. It links accessible guidance on inclusive communications tactics to the broader organisational strategy. Source: Wadds Inc.

🧠 AI SKILLS BOOST: Initial evidence shows AI tools such as ChatGPT can boost the skills of lower-performing workers across many fields to at least average levels, reducing gaps between top and bottom performers. However, it remains unclear if AI will continue acting as a leveller to raise averages or benefit only a minority. Source: One Useful Thing.

Media

😨 PITCH DIVIDE: Synapse, a marketplace for media relations pitches, is polarising journalists and media relations practitioners. Reach journalists have reportedly been mandated to use the platform over email pitches. Critics complain that it adds an additional level of disintermediation to the pitch process. Source: Twitter.

💰 PAYING FOR NEWS: Across 20 countries, 17% currently pay for online news, but growth is slowing as economic pressures drive cancellation rates up; publishers could attract more subscribers by better matching price to perceived value and bundling titles, though some people resist paying due to wanting diverse, accessible sources. Source: Reuters Institute.

Social Media

🐦 MUSK OVERREACH: X/Twitter will collect more user data, including biometrics and employment history, through an updated privacy policy to provide personalised services and features. This expanded data collection raises concerns about how the platform or employers could misuse the information. Source: BBC.

🤐 BBC GUIDELINES: The BBC has published new social media rules for high-profile presenters following a controversy over Gary Lineker's tweets, stating they can express views but not overtly campaign politically while on-air or shortly before/after shows air. The guidelines aim to balance free speech with impartiality. Source BBC.

Artificial Intelligence

🌐 CHATGPT INTERNET ACCESS: OpenAI has given ChatGPT access to the internet by integrating it with Microsoft's Bing search engine. It allows paid subscribers to tap into up-to-date knowledge beyond ChatGPT's original September 2021 cutoff date. Source: VentureBeat.

⚖️ AI REGULATION: There are conflicting views on whether global oversight of AI is urgent and achievable or an exercise in futility. Some experts believe an international body like the UN should regulate AI, others think this is wholly unrealistic as the technology is too decentralised, and some countries would not comply. Source: BBC.

🖼️ IMAGE RIGHTS: Getty has launched an AI image generation tool providing legal protection for users while also committing to compensate contributors whose images were used to train the AI system. It follows moves by OpenAI, Microsoft, and others to address IP concerns through artist opt-outs, indemnities, and payments. Source: Financial Times.

🎙️ PODCASTS TRANSLATE: Spotify is partnering with OpenAI to use AI to translate podcasts into other languages while keeping the podcaster's original voice. It will allow podcasters to create foreign-language versions of their shows easily. Source: The Verge.

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Thank you to the following community members for sharing and debating stories covered in the newsletter over the last week: Andrew Bruce Smith, Adrienne Cohen, Vicki Caddy, Alan Morrison, and Sarah Waddington CBE.