Supporting freelance games journalism and wanting to be part of a broader movement towards subscriptions in gaming journalism, has led writer and owner of the Infinite Lives Substack, Harrison Polites, to introduce a paid subscription. Polites said he’d considered the paid subscription model since reaching the Substack's one-year milestone.  “When I announced the paid subscriptions, I added six paid subscribers, which is phenomenal, so I managed to get six paid subscribers on my first day of announcing paid subscriptions, which is pretty remarkable. So far, so good, and I hope to keep the pace up.” The genesis of paid subscription came about because, “I’m working towards trying to afford my first freelancer piece on the site…I've thought about the movement to subscription-based games journalism, and traditionally, gaming media has been resistant to asking its audience to pay, as major publishers get high traffic from articles”, said Polites. “This means it's he

  Media Watch presenter Linton Besser.  The ABC is investigating a senior defence correspondent over allegations he travelled to Germany on a trip paid for by a major weapons manufacturer without disclosing the arrangement to the broadcaster or its audience. The issue came up yesterday evening on Media Watch with presenter Linton Bresser revealing ABC defence correspondent Andrew Greene is reported to have travelled to Japan and Germany last year, attending press events funded by foreign organisations and arms manufacturers. While his trip to Japan was financed by the privately funded Foreign Press Centre Japan, his recent visit to Germany was reportedly paid for by TKMS. According to Media Watch, Greene did not inform ABC management of his German trip, which involved a business class flight and stays in premium hotels, estimated to cost around $16,000. And Greene did not disclose to the ABC audience that the arms company had funded his travel. The ABC claims it was unaware

The ABC has announced award-winning journalist Jacob Greber as the new Political Editor of nightly current affairs flagship 7.30. The announcement was made during Thursday night’s program, with 7.30 presenter Sarah Ferguson breaking the news to viewers. Jacob joined the ABC in mid 2024 and is currently Chief Digital Political Correspondent. He will take up the new role from 7 July.  Jacob has had an almost 30-year journalism career covering economics, politics and world affairs, starting as a copyboy in the Canberra Press Gallery. After covering state politics for The Courier-Mail in Brisbane he moved to his father’s homeland of Switzerland and worked for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and then Bloomberg News in Zurich, covering the European economy and Switzerland’s global banks.   Returning to Australia in 2012 he joined The Australian Financial Review as Economics Correspondent, based in Canberra, US Correspondent in Washington DC from 2018-2021 and most re

  The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has acquired India Lifestyle Network (ILN), the parent company of MensXP, iDIVA, and influencer platform HYPP, for approximately $9 million. The deal marks a sharp 85 per cent drop from ILN’s earlier $60 million valuation, according to media reports.  ILN was previously owned by BRND.ME (formerly Mensa Brands), which had acquired the assets from Times Internet in 2022. Industry insiders say the sale reflects BRND.ME’s strategic shift away from non-core assets, as it now focuses on scaling its health, wellness, and lifestyle portfolio. ILN founder Angad Bhatia, who built MensXP into a notable player in men’s digital media, exited earlier this year and has joined Network18.

India has secured seven shortlists for three impactful campaigns at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025. According to Adgully, FCB India leads the way with its innovative ‘Lucky Yatra’ campaign for Indian Railways. This campaign transformed train tickets into lottery tickets as a creative strategy to reduce fare evasion and build goodwill among passengers. The campaign has been shortlisted in four subcategories, including Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants and Fast-food Chains; Local Brand; Social Behaviour; and Breakthrough on a Budget. Grey India, Mumbai, has also made its mark with the ‘Most Ignored Painting’ campaign for Volvo Cars, which was shortlisted in the Use of Events and Stunts subcategory. Meanwhile, Ogilvy Mumbai, in partnership with Avian WE New Delhi, has secured two shortlists for the ‘Box to Beds’ campaign for Amazon. This initiative was recognized in the Use of Events and Stunts category as well as Cultural Engagement. These

Image source: Indian Express and India Times; Edited by Dinesh Raj M   A helicopter, ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple crashed near Guptkashi on Sunday morning, killing all seven people on board, including the pilot and a two-year-old child.  This is the fifth chopper accident on the Char Dham yatra route in the State since the pilgrimage began on April 30 and the second crash with fatalities. Hot off the press The accident likely occurred due to low visibility caused by bad weather, officials said. Police have filed an FIR against the chopper company for allegedly not following rules on checking weather conditions before plying a helicopter in the valley, reported Ishita Mishra for The Hindu. The Uttarakhand government suspended all helicopter services till Monday, in order to review the high-altitude experience of all helicopter operators and pilots. Concerns have been raised that other pilots have also been airborne in similarly unsuitable weather conditions, with a

Artificial Intelligence is becoming a regular fixture in Indian newsrooms, quietly supporting tasks like data extraction, code generation and headline suggestions. However, newsrooms remain cautious, ensuring transparency in AI usage while preserving editorial ethics. But while it’s changing the way stories are built, editors and reporters remain clear—AI can assist, not replace. At least not right away. In an interview with Influencing India, YourStory editor-in-chief Jarshad NK confirmed that their newsroom has in-house engineers working on AI tools. “We make very clear where we use [AI]—if a certain story is produced by AI, we label it as such. We don’t do stuff that is AI and not claim it,” he said. “AI can’t replace talking to people in cafés. It can’t catch the emotional nuance of a startup founder’s pitch.” Jarshad added that entry-level reporting roles are already declining as machines handle basic newsroom tasks. “Earlier when I joined, I used to