Nieman Lab daily news digest

The Daily Digest: October 15, 2026 Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say Starting October 30, business accounts will consent to Meta scraping their websites if they continue using Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. By Andrew Deck and Hanaa' Tameez. A new report argues newsrooms need to do more experiments — like, the kind with randomization and results Google’s News AI pilot expands to over 400 publications, including U.S. local news outlets What we’re reading Digiday / Sara Guaglione Wirecutter is trying to diversify beyond affiliate revenue as AI reshapes discovery → Wirecutter deputy publisher Cliff Levy: “So much of Wirecutter’s journalism and audience and revenue models were really structured around organic search. That has obviously changed for us in recent years as we focused on diversification.” Some other ventures dependent on affiliate revenue have not fared well. “Last year, Business Insider shuttered its commerce business due to its reliance on search. Google’s algorithm change at the end of 2024 decimated publishers’ product review sites, and led to the shutdown of USA Today Co.’s Reviewed and AP’s Buyline.” ⁂ “My WhatsApp number is in the middle of every piece. I get 20 or 30 tips a day that could be national stories.” → —Jim Waterson, founder of the newsletter London Centric. London Centric now has 5,500 paid subscribers and 42,000 free subscribers. Waterson is the former media editor at The Guardian. (Press Gazette / Alice Brooker) ⁂ BBC News / Katie Razzall and Paul Glynn BBC News channel launches on YouTube for viewers in U.K. and U.S. → Watch here. “Viewers in the U.K., watching the channel live on YouTube, may not realize they still need a TV license to do that. But with no guardrails around who’s watching, no ability — for now anyway — for the BBC to insist you prove you’ve paid the fee before you can access its YouTube channels (or its own streaming channels), it’s going to be hard to enforce.” TechCrunch / Lauren Forristal YouTube Music launches new labels as AI-generated music floods streaming platforms → “Apple Music has plans to introduce ‘Made With AI’ labels as part of its AI Transparency Tags later this year. Spotify also has AI labels, as well as a music spam filter.” News Media Help Desk At the News Media Help Desk, local news publishers can chat with (gasp!) real humans → “Local news sustainability isn’t one-size-fits-all. So, we needed to make sure the answers this chat service provides are high-quality and reliable,” said Leah Becerra, product director for the help desk. “We trust humans to do that more so than AI.” The help desk is a free resource to connect local news organizations with digital resources, experts, and “affordable hands-on help through Digital On-Demand Services fractional support.” ⁂ “We’re the eyes and ears of the public, and when Trump restricts access to these federal buildings, he’s restricting the public right to know.” → —Mark Feldstein, broadcast professor at the University of Maryland, on the Trump administration's latest attempts to restrict press coverage (★ Nieman Reports / Jared Schroeder) Nieman Lab | View in browser | Unsubscribe You are receiving this daily newsletter because you signed up for it at niemanlab.org. Nieman Journalism Lab · Harvard University · 1 Francis Ave. · Cambridge, MA 02138 · USA