Ricky Sutton

Our pleasure to have you big guy.

The AI Reboot: Nine pointers for publishers to win the next decade #406: Plus, Apple maps its ad future, Meta discovers it can help kids, Australia backs creators, TikTok's fined over data failures, and Chinese humanoids go on sale...

The Scotch & Watch World Tour rolled into Madrid as we took the rage on stage and brought the heat. 🇪🇸🔥🥃

It was standing room only as we shared hot takes and bold predictions on media, tech, and AI with OpenAI, The NY Times, The Atlantic, Time, Semafor, and more.

After a year of tech-tonic shifts, how about this as a big idea... #403: Plus, OpenAI launches a browser, Netflix sinks on earnings, Apple laps Disney, RayBans soar on Meta vision, and three letters that unlocked AI...

I just presented a huge idea to the board of global publisher industry group FIPP in Madrid. If they take it, it’ll change the trajectory of media.

The splinternet is here as AI and FOMO makes bits start to bite #398: Two-thirds of the planet now lives behind data borders. For global media, the challenge isn’t scale any more - it’s smarter thinking...

Big post on the invisible menace that's locking up most of the web. open.substack.com/pub/rickysut...

Google asks court to allow its AI a free ride on Maps and YouTube #394: The search giant argues the AI market is still forming and its rivals are bundling already, but the judge fears it could spawn a new monopoly...

Who's being taken for a ride here?

WaPo challenges ChatGPT in the AI conversation game #387: I tested Ask The Post on America’s debt crisis. The results were sharp, sourced - and a glimpse of how we’ll interrogate the news in future...

This looks like a signal for how readers will be able to interrogate the news in the future...

After 987 days and $823 billion, Google’s fate rests with one judge #391: Judge Leonie Brinkema will now decide whether to dismantle Google or trust it to reform itself - a choice that will decide the economics of publishing...

Google’s a 3x monopolist and Judge Leonie Brinkema will deliver a ruling before Christmas that will determine the economics and direction of global digital advertising.

Yesterday, the final word went to Matthew Wheatland of The Daily Mail. He’s no mug, and that’s why he didn’t miss...

World first study reveals who Google's AI search hurts most A months-long investigation with five global publishers shows how news traffic will be impacted by Google's new AI Overviews...

This is the post that began it all. The world first study into the impact of AI Overviews revealing unseen data on its impact as it passed from beta trial to traffic killer.

The data within is now the backbone of an EU action to compensate publishers for the damage.

Maybe local news ain't dead, it just needs to be in your inbox #389: Am I imagining it, or is there a buzz around hyper-local news again? Signs of a recovery seem to be emerging on Substack and Nextdoor...

Has newsletter veteran Sam Shedden hit on an answer to reviving local news using Substack?

Stockholm Syndrome takes the stand at Google break-up #388: In 1973, a young bank teller shielded a robber from snipers and changed psychology forever. We saw a publisher do it again yesterday...

In August 1973, a masked gunman stormed into a bank and fired a machinegun into the ceiling.

It escalated into a six-day siege that would change psychology, policing, and the English language forever.

Yesterday, we saw a frightened publisher do the same thing at the Google break-up trial…

Finally! Why Google ad avails vanish just when newsrooms need them #386: Google just testified that it's helping publishers to hit campaign goals, but the real-world experience suggests the game is rigged...

The world has many great mysteries. Big Foot. The Bermuda Triangle. Why autocorrect thinks my name’s Ticky. And why Google’s ad avails are always so very wrong.

Yesterday, in court, Google was finally forced to try to explain itself, under oath, with a US$790 billion digital ad empire on the line.

How Google's eight million ads a second add up to nonsense #385: How a fake Viking, a champion karaoke singer, an 81-year-old judge and a giant bureaucracy are trying to return sense to digital advertising...

Chris and I dive into two trials chasing the same goal: Cracking open Google’s black box.

If you depend on ads for monetisation on the open web, these will decide your future.

And the kicker? Google’s already whispering that the open web is dead. We’re here to find out if that’s true...

Fireworks ahead as Europe jumps the gun on Google break-up #383: Brussels issues a November 5 deadline on fixing ad tech, sparking a geopolitical storm which could split the world wide web...

The US Department of Justice is locked in courtroom theatre trying to convince a judge to dismantle Google's ad monopoly.

But Europe isn’t bothering with theatrics. It's passed laws that mean it doesn’t need to wait.

The deadline is November 5. Bonfire night. A date famed for delivering fireworks.

Google's ad text fix is "a Band-Aid on a severed limb" #376: The future of digital advertising and whether publishers or Big Tech get the spoils is now being decided by a judge...

The future of digital advertising and whether publishers or Big Tech get the spoils is now being decided by a judge...

It's time to pull a dusty legal bomb out of the basement... #375: DOJ and FTC veteran John Newman hasn't minced words about Google’s monopoly in search. Now he shares how victims can strike back...

Most lawyers have been cautious about their feelings following Google’s soft verdict after losing the search antitrust trial.

Former FTC and DoJ enforcer John Newman hasn’t. He’s been outspoken and unequivocal. And he has some suggestions…

Meta's misogynistic culture puts kids at risk, warns insider #345: A director who worked on Zuck's Metaverse claims execs treat perverts preying on kids as "a distraction from business goals"...

Two Meta safety researchers have warned a US Senate committee that it covered up child harms in its VR products.

Here, the former director of Horizon Worlds tells me what really goes on behind the social media’s marketing spin…

AI monopolies kneecap the economy, risk one in eight news jobs #372: Google’s monopoly swerve sent Wall Street into overdrive. With Apple riding shotgun, the entire economy now hang on their whims...

Ten tech giants on the S&P are now worth more than the other 490 combined.

Now a court’s decision not to break-up Google has handed it the key to the AI future, risking a Big Tech bubble.

If it bursts, the impact will destroy one in eight jobs.

This is how.

open.substack.com/pub/rickysut...

You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don't take - Kanter #371: Weak remedies have left Google strong but appeals and the looming ad-tech ruling can still come to the rescue of publishers...

The antitrust chief who nailed Google as a 3x monopolist has spoken.

"Google would be unwise to declare victory. The game isn’t over," he said.

"Later this month, a court will decide whether Google’s ad system should be broken up. That’s another wide-open shot. My advice: Shoot the damn puck."

WTF is the law now on monopoly, rights, and wrong? #370: Three-time monopoly Google just walked away Scot free for banking trillions from crime. Now loss-making upstart Anthropic gets a record fine. Eh???

Two courts. Two rulings. One winner, and a clusterf*ck for the rest of the world.

🚨 About to go live: Chris Duncan and I on Scotch & Watch diving into the Google search ruling. lnkd.in/gb_ZCkgT

What’s at stake? Just journalism, AI, democracy… and the future.

Judge spares Chrome and leaves publishers stranded #369: The verdict shields its ad billions, validates content lifting for AI, and shortens the timeline to Google Zero. It's just brutal as usual...

Who would’ve thought the seven-year trial over Google’s $2 trillion monopoly would come down a frog and two lily pads…

The rev share Google pays Apple for default is 36% of total revenue Witness reveals the secret advertising revenue share number that Google pays its rival Apple to have its search locked in on iPhone and Safari

The sneaky $26 billion backroom deal between Apple and Google is about to be unwound, and it'll shoot a 17.5 per cent hole in Apple's profits.

It will impact all of us too because Apple needs a new route to direct 400 billion search queries a year from iPhone users.

Death by design: The murder that could break Meta's algo
open.substack.com/pub/rickysut...

We’re letting algos rewrite how children learn about intimacy - insider #367: An ex-Meta director reveals the truth about how Meta trains its AI, including flirting with children, and glorifying violence...

You've heard the scandal about how Meta's training its AI. Now hear it from a Meta director turned whistleblower in her own words...

Q: Is Perplexity a real contender to buy Google Chrome? #366: AI wannabe Perplexity made a US$34 billion bid to buy Google’s dominant web browser Chrome this week. Here's the skinny on its chances...

Is Perplexity a real contender to buy Google Chrome?

FT’s deal chief on licensing to AI, and the Perplexity fallout #364: The inside line on how to get a deal with OpenAI, do these numbers expose an AI bad guy, and is AI's spending boom creating a bubble?

How to get a deal with OpenAI from a guy who's done one.

A thought for publishers eyeing those shiny AI deals…

99% of the world’s information isn’t published yet - because 99% of the world’s news hasn’t happened.

So what’s the rush? rickysutton.substack.com

Tiny publisher gets court nod for multi-billion-dollar Google attack $364: A tiny country newspaper in Australia will now lead the global class actions to claw back billions from Google’s ad monopoly. It just got real...

Small maybe, but mighty - definitely...

How is News' $250 million bet on OpenAI looking today? #363: The pact with OpenAI was hailed as visionary, but the first financial report since its signing barely mentions its impact...

Good, bad, or just feeding the trillionaires?

He sued Google, and won. Now he gets to decide its future Exclusive: Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser reveals what comes next for Chrome, AI, ad tech and whether publishers might finally get a fair go...

We're just weeks now from the Google break-up ruling, and this guy holds the balance of power...