Nieman Lab
The Daily Digest: June 24, 2025

AI-personalized news takes new forms (but do readers want them?)

Many outlets have been personalizing news recommendations for years, but generative AI introduces the possibility to personalize news formats. By Amy Ross Arguedas.
A new report documents “the surprising breadth of student reporting in public media”
What we’re reading
The Washington Post / Ben Strauss
Jordan Schulz: Starbucks scion and…NFL reporter? →

“Schultz views himself as ‘a new breed of sports journalist,’ he said, ‘breaking the mold of traditional reporting by forging direct, trust-based relationships with athletes.’”

A veteran NFL reporter puts it differently: ‘Jordan is Saudi-wealth-funding the insider game.’”

Semafor / Ben Smith
Steve Bannon goes to war with Fox News →

“As the MAGA right has pivoted against the war, ideologies have scrambled, and Bannon’s show has hosted journalists from The Guardian and Axios.”

Reuters / Thomas Escritt
German court overturns ban on far-right magazine →

A judge ruled that “though Compact contained many extreme statements, including voicing support for expelling German citizens of migrant background, they did not amount to proof that the organization behind the magazine was ‘intrinsically’ unconstitutional.”

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Columbia Journalism Review / Jon Allsop
Old media meets new on primary day in New York →

“[Mamdani] was initially a nonfactor in the race, but Politico noted back in March that he had started to gain momentum through his prowess on social media…Previously apolitical influencers have endorsed him, with Rolling Stone going so far as to conclude that he has changed influencer culture in the city.

Cuomo, by contrast, does not make good videos…He has, in the past, made good TV — who can forget his reassuring televised briefings and supposedly endearing (yet, actually, obviously compromising) chats with his brother, Chris, on CNN during the early days of the pandemic, when he was governor — and could thus be seen as a very old media type of figure.”

404 Media / Jason Koebler
Judge rules training AI on authors’ books is legal but pirating them is not →

“This case did not consider what it means for AI training of free-to-access content on the open web, on social media, from libraries, etc. It’s largely a win for AI companies, who, when faced with these sorts of lawsuits, have almost universally said that their data scraping and training is legal as a transformative fair use under copyright law, arguing they do not need to ask for permission or provide compensation when they scrape the internet to build AI tools.”

The Verge / Arabelle Sicardi
How AI infiltrated perfume →

“Perfume’s origins lie far from data centers. Orris root takes years to cure before it’s ready for formulation. Sandalwood also takes years to be ready for cultivation. Natural materials must be harvested, aged, blended. AI compounding labs like Osmo can ship a custom sample within two days.”

Press Gazette / Dominic Ponsford
The U.K. is set to force Google to work more fairly with publishers →

Among other things, the move “could allow publishers to opt out of Google AI Overviews without removing entire websites from search.”

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“This is something that takes time and effort and your heart and your soul, and you do this in a community.” →
—Nikki, a writer who found her work in a dataset of millions of fanfics scraped for AI training. (The Verge / Decca Muldowney)
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Committee to Protect Journalists
Russia and Belarus release two journalists who had been detained for years →

Russia freed Ukrainian journalist Vladislav Yesypenko after he served a five-year prison sentence on charges of possessing and transporting explosives, which he denied. Belarusian journalist Ihar Karnei, who had been detained for nearly two years, was released alongside 13 other political prisoners. Both had been freelancers for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The New York Times / Kate Conger and Kenneth P. Vogel
Media Matters sues FTC over advertising investigation →

“The FTC started investigating Media Matters last month over whether the organization had illegally colluded with other advertising advocacy groups to pinch off revenue from X…Media Matters reported in 2023 that ads on X appeared alongside antisemitic content. Media Matters said in its lawsuit that the Federal Trade Commission had employed ‘sweeping governmental powers to attempt to silence and harass an organization for daring to speak the truth.’”

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