Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport.

This week, Dylan Jones announced he was stepping down as editor of the London Standard, 18 months into his tenure and just two months after he turned it from a daily newspaper into a weekly one. He will become editor-at-large on 19th December, with a successor set to be announced. This is all no surprise. One Standard insider, who described Jones as “a lovely guy”, previously told me that “senior people are phoning it in” with marketing a “disaster”.

Newsrewired, an annual gathering discussing all things digital publishing, took place on Wednesday. There were some fascinating talks on stage and good conversations off it. However, others and I were struck by how much focus there was on things like AI instead of the audience.

It seems that in journalism, people have forgotten AI is a tool, not the work itself. It means that we are in a situation in which people are doing deals and handing over their content to placate the AI beast, pretending the beast is not going to eat them anyway. We need to remember that we are writing for real people, an audience, and we need to know what they want and need instead of using the next big thing to churn out slop.

The most inspiring talk came from Mattia Peretti..

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From the Podcast

Tortoise Purchase of The Observer – With ex-Guardian Journalist James Ball

James Ball, The New European's political editor and ex-Guardian staffer, discusses the potential sale of The Observer to Tortoise.

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