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Fighting for journalism and profitable news media
Independent doubles revenue in six years to reach £55m
And Penske AI Overviews lawsuit dismissed because ‘no formal bargain’ struck with Google
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👋 Hello from the team at Press Gazette on Monday, 5 October.
📈 The Independent celebrated record revenue in 2025 – despite website page views dropping sharply in the year.
The title has more than doubled revenue since its first year as a digital-only publisher in 2017, making £55m in its latest published accounts. Pre-tax profit rose by 9% to £3.5m.
The secret to The Independent’s success appears to be its ability to move fast, work hard and make money from many different places.
The main areas of growth are now: the US, branded content (in the form of creator-style videos), e-commerce (via its Indy Best product reviews) and AI (largely in the form of AI-enhanced news service Bulletin).
Bulletin was launched in March 2025 and works with Google’s Gemini AI model to provide an alternative version of The Independent website.
Stories are boiled down to five bullet points that can be read in less than 30 seconds. For the “seriously busy people” it targets there is probably no quicker way to catch up with the news. Readers can click through to the main Independent website for a longer read and the service is ad-funded.
The Independent has not said much publicly about Bulletin since launch, but I understand it now has a decent sized-team working with AI to create the website and app (so it is not a case of technology replacing journalists yet at any rate).
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⚖️ Publishers hoping for a legal solution to the challenges posed by Google AI Overviews were dealt a blow as Penske Media Corporation lost its legal case against the tech giant.
Penske argued that Google’s rollout of AI Overviews was a breach of its monopoly position and so in contravention of the Sherman Act – an 1890 law that aims to stop “anti-competitive agreements”.
The publisher of brands including Variety and Rolling Stone complained that website traffic and revenue have fallen sharply since the rollout of AI Overviews.
US District Judge Amit Mehta said he sympathised with publishers but the claim failed because they had no formal agreements with Google for it to break.
Jason Kint, CEO of US trade body for publishers Digital Content Next, said Google “is now swallowing up all of the journalism of humanity to power its AI products, while sending less and less traffic and value back to the publishers who create it”.
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🤏 News In Brief
'The Rest Is' producer Goalhanger is creating an in-house advertising sales operation offering partnerships across audio, video, social media, newsletters, live events and branded content. (Press Gazette)
This week's Foresight News diary includes the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel and marches for Palestine. (Press Gazette)
Porn industry entrepreneur David Sullivan is lodging a £150m claim against the BBC for “libel and malicious falsehood” over a Panorama documentary which accused him of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. (The Telegraph)
Channel 4 director of news, digital and audience trust Louisa Com