Bron Maher

@bronmaher

Reporter at A Media Operator. Tips, chats and drinks proposals to bron@amediaoperator.com

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Bron Maher@bronmaher· 17d

Much to admire about The Guardian publishing its corrections publicly every day, but I particularly enjoy that the corrections extend to recipes

A recipe for a summer spritz cocktail overstated the amount of elderflower liqueur by some margin: 35ml was the intended measure, not 235ml (The good mixer, 18 July, Feast, p15).

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Jun 25

New: The new owners of Scientific American magazine have asked the U.S. National Labor Relations Board to halt a unionisation election count due to go ahead tomorrow. It comes after Canadian publisher LabX Media Group bought the 180-year-old mag from Springer Nature, cutting 15 roles

A copy of Scientific American is seen held in someone's hand in front of a newsstand. It reads: The Unsolvable Problem - A journey into some of the strangest ideas in modern math and physics.

(Picture: dennizn – stock.adobe.com)

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Jun 4

For the avoidance of doubt, here's what he said in full:

Pina’s comments in full
Pina was responding to Le Monde’s chief digital operations officer Lou Grasser, who said that YouTube needs to let publishers “put a video under the paywall, to have a product feature that will help us to engage readers on that.”

He replied: “I mean, the model that we developed, the core model of YouTube, as everybody knows, is an ad-based model—which was, by the way, already the legacy publishing model as well, so we are following the different sets and phases of the evolution of the industry.

“And of course, we put all the priority on ads, because the ads is where typically this industry, generally speaking, monetizes—both the entertainment, as well as news, so why not start with the ads? We have a very sophisticated and very successful ads model, which we do the revenue share for.

“Subscription comes next. We have subscription products already available—we have more than 10 ways of making money on YouTube, but subscription is an important component to it. And it’s already available, paywalls are already available.

“But having a paywall that has a conversation between YouTube and the current paywall of publishers is something that has not yet been developed, but we have product and engineers working on it, thanks to great partners such as Le Monde who pushed us to start developing that solution. So I would expect it to come, and happening very soon.

“It deals with sensitivity around about privacy—there’s no reason why we say no. We are eager to share the ad money with you, and we are eager to share the subscription money as well. It’s just a question of how to handle the data, and how to be incredibly careful and thoughtful about how that data is exchanged—and how to be, of course, law-abiding and privacy-safe, which is a crucial concern that we have.”

Bron Maher@bronmaher· May 29

It's a year since Tom McTague took over as editor of The New Statesman and it sounds as though things are going well: circulation is up around 10%, he told me, and peers at other outlets agreed the mag is doing more to set the news agenda. www.amediaoperator.com/news/the-new...

A picture of The New Statesman on some grass. The cover reads "What Britain Won't Face" and depicts Britannia, the personification of Britain, crouched on the beach with her head in the sand as a tidal wave approaches.

Bron Maher@bronmaher· May 6

Christiane Amanpour: "Clearly I'm concerned" about what might be coming if CNN comes under ownership of the Ellisons. "I'm concerned based on what's happened [for example at] CBS. I mean, do I have to list what's happening there? Haemorrhaging viewers [and] probably money"

Christiane Amanpour on stage at the Sir Harry Evans Truth Tellers Summit in London in 2026

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Mar 27

I spoke to Politico co-founder Robert Allbritton about his plans to expand/rebrand his DC newsroom NOTUS in order to occupy the space ceded by The Washington Post. He's bullish on its business prospects. www.amediaoperator.com/news/robert-...

Allbritton described the expense as “significant, but it’s not huge. I did have somebody come up to me going: ‘Oh my God, you’re gonna lose all this money!’ And [I said]: ‘Yeah, I might lose like, a small, single-digit percentage from the proceeds of the sale of Politico.’”

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Mar 20

After a long time saying I would get round to it, a couple of weeks ago I set up an Instagram account dedicated to discarded BuzzBallz. I'm pleased with the result, not least because my friends have taken it up and are now constantly sending me pictures of BuzzBallz www.instagram.com/ballzinnatur...

a red buzzball is seen from ground level next to a bike cart and a tree

a yellow buzzball is seen perched on the ledge of a white wall

a red buzzball is seen from directly above amid tree litter (and actual litter)

a clear buzzball is seen from above nestled amid a sort of rock garden

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Mar 10

*while

A screenshot of the Grammarly page for its "Expert Review" feature, with copy that reads: "AI that supports you without replacing you.
With Grammarly, how and when you use AI is always up to you. Our AI agents work only when you engage them, and you’re always in charge of changes, so your voice and ideas remain at the center of your work—and you continue to grow as a writer."

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Feb 4

The NYT added another slab of subscribers last quarter, but the market ain't so thrilled: its share price was down 17% at one point this morning, and is still down around 8% at time of writing.

A Google Finance share price graphic showing the NYT's price down 8% versus last night's market close. It was down as low as 17% right at the start of the day.

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Feb 2

wonderful banner ad placement

The City AM article about the London Stock Exchange Group axing FT subscriptions appears completely surrounded by website banner ads for the FT itself, featuring the line: "For the why: FT"

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Jan 19

high quality display ad here

A New York Times web article is interrupted by a display ad comprising four pictures, three of them depicting takeaway cup lids. The fourth picture appears to be a disposable food cup or bowl.

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Jan 15

a) lmao, b) it's a good question though - maybe @reutersinstitute.bsky.social, ABC or @pressgazette.co.uk can help

A screenshot from the story below, reading: "Rather embarrassingly, we’re less sure about how consumer spend splits between physical copies and paywalled subscriptions for magazines or newspapers like, erm, The Financial Times. So we’re going to have to omit reading materials from our number."

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Jan 9

A song by an AI artist named Aluna, seemingly there just to promote Cap Ferret in Aquitaine, has made it onto the actual Spotify artist page for Aluna (formerly of AlunaGeorge) and from there into my Release Radar

A screenshot of a song by "Aluna" titled "Cap Ferret c'est la Magie" illustrated with a beautiful woman sat in what is quite clearly an AI generated beach

A screenshot showing the AI song included in the new releases on established artist Aluna (formerly of AlunaGeorge)'s Spotify artist page

AI Aluna's Instagram page in which it's confirmed she is a "projet IA" (an AI project)

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Oct 3

lmao industry's cooked

“Journalism” and “media” are loaded words. “People don’t dislike what you do,” the toolkit states. “They dislike what they think ‘journalism’ means.”

The following is set apart in a quote box:
While we heard throughout the research that people value the role of local news, the word “journalism” can evoke partisanship or elitism for some audiences, while “media” sounds like entertainment to many people. In our research, “local news and information” consistently tested better than “journalism,” with participants expressing concerns that “journalism” felt too institutional or politically charged.

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Oct 3

(w alt text)

But I have to be so real and say a big reason I'm active on TikTok is because I am so stubborn, and I was getting really sick of seeing my work being used for other people's content. I was like, I don't like this. You are getting facts wrong. You're using my words as your green screen background with your big head in front. I think it's crazy that there's this concept of news influencers and they're not reporters. I said this on Bluesky months ago where I was like, I feel like as journalists we're ceding ground to content creators who don't know left from right, who didn't report the stories, who don't have the expertise to explain this to a general audience. And I don't like that. I don't like the idea of us taking some of it lying down.

Bron Maher@bronmaher· Oct 3

Very much enjoyed this from @miasato.bsky.social via embedded.substack.com/p/mia-sato-t... (I'm not sure my reporting specifically translates to TikTok virality, but "don't spend more than 30 minutes doing a TikTok explaining your story" also seems like a solid rule)