AI’ll be back It’s nearly 100 years since the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell penned “In Praise of Idleness”, an essay in which he critiqued capitalist logic in the age of technological advancement. In it he asks the reader to imagine a pin factory in which a certain number of workers make all the pins the world needs by working 8 hours a day. Suppose an innovation suddenly allows the same workers to make twice as many pins in the same hours. In a rational system, Russell wrote, the workers would simply work 4 hours instead of 8 and everybody would enjoy increased leisure without loss of income. Awesome. But does that happen? No. In actual practice, hours aren’t reduced, twice as many pins are produced, and the surplus drives down prices and wages; or the same amount of pins are produced but half the workers are sacked. Yes, yes, antique Commie nonsense, obviously. Still, it sprang to mind afresh reading AFR tech writer Paul Smith’s front page

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has extended the deadline for submitting feedback on the proposed amendments to the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India by 30 days. Stakeholders and the public can now share comments on the draft, released on July 2, 2025, until September 1, 2025.  The draft policy proposes sweeping reforms to the decade-old Television Rating Points (TRP) guidelines, aiming to democratise the ratings ecosystem, foster competition, and capture the full spectrum of India’s increasingly digital-first content consumption.  A key concern is the outdated methodology overseen solely by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), which excludes viewership from connected TV devices.   MIB has also flagged restrictive clauses and cross-holding limitations in the existing 2014 policy that have deterred new players, broadcasters, and advertisers from investing in or creating alternative measurement solutions, even when

Image source: MSN, HT, NDTV and CNN; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   The row over whether US intervened to stall Operation Sindoor continued to rock the Parliament with the Opposition demanding full explanation on Trump's role in the developments. PM Modi on Tuesday asserted that no foreign leader had asked India to pause Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, in a clear refutation of US President Donald Trump's repeated statements that he leaned on the two inimical neighbours to cease hostilities on May 10 this year. Hot off the Press “No world leader asked for suspension of Operation Sindoor,” the PM said. Modi’s assertion came in response to the opposition’s taunt that he should show the courage and call the US president out if he had made a false claim. Earlier, Leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi challenged the PM to announce that Trump is a liar and did not force the “ceasefire”, and that India did not lose any planes, reported Akhilesh Singh for The Times of India

Google has teamed up with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to launch the Google News Initiative AI Skills Academy, a program designed to help journalists and media students learn how to use artificial intelligence (AI) in their work. The 10-week hybrid course will teach participants how to use Google’s AI tools like NotebookLM, Gemini, AI Studio, and Pinpoint. These tools will help newsrooms transcribe interviews, analyse large reports, extract data, and create content in multiple formats and languages making daily journalism more efficient and creative.  Durga Raghunath, head of news partnerships at Google India, said, “Our early engagements with small, medium and large newsrooms have shown us the powerful impact that Pinpoint, NotebookLM and Gemini can have in transcription, translation and presentations, including using and deploying code. We are excited to partner with IIMC to make our lessons evermore relevant to the widest possible cohort of us

    Christien de Garis.   The Seven Network has today announced the appointment of Christien de Garis as Perth News Director, effective from October. Reporting to Seven’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Ray Kuka, de Garis will lead the editorial and managerial direction of 7NEWS Perth. The Perth-born award-winning journalist brings more than two decades’ experience across broadcast news, government communications and branded content. He began his career with Seven West Media’s regional newspapers in Bunbury and Kalgoorlie before moving into broadcast roles with the ABC, Network 10 and Seven Perth. De Garis worked as a senior crime reporter in Perth and Sydney, covering one of the toughest rounds during the infamous Brothers 4 Life gang war in Sydney. He also served as a senior advisor in the WA Government. Most recently, he led a major creative content team in the advertising industry on national and international campaigns. He has received three WA Media Awards

To uncover and reveal the latest cyber attacks and data breaches, CyberDaily’s Deputy Editor, David Hollingworth, said the team “spends a lot of time on the dark web”. Hollingworth told Influencing Insider last Friday, “We follow a lot of threat feeds. We are familiar with the dark web, so when we see that a company's been hacked in one of these feeds, we know where to go, what to look for, and how to prove if this is a real hack.   “This is knowledge we've learned on the fly, as it were, and not to blow my own horn, but no one in Australia was doing this kind of reporting before we started, so Daniel [Croft] and I are very proud of our work.”  Hollingworth joined Influencing Insider to detail how the CyberDaily team go about their cybersecurity reporting, what topics interest them, and how they engage with the PR community.  While following the threat feeds, Hollingworth and fellow journalist Croft look out for particular buzzwords or details of a cyber attack.�

Adelaide-based Solstice Media has purchased a majority shareholding in Australian Traveller Media, the publisher of Australian Traveller and International Traveller magazines and digital assets. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, gives Solstice Media an immediate 80% stake in the company, with the remaining 20% to be purchased over time. Solstice Media said Australian Traveller Media will continue to operate as a separate business. Australian Traveller Media co-founder Quentin Long - who was on Influencing Insider just last month -  has confirmed all executives and staff will remain with the company in their current positions. He said there are no exit plans for himself or fellow co-founder Nigel Herbert, and also committed to keeping its magazine titles in print, with plans for further expansion. Quentin Long. Check out our Insider interview here. Paul Hamra, Solstice Media’s managing director, said the company had been looking to broaden and grow the types of media produc