Old approach of seeking ultra-niche audiences has fallen out of favour as main parties spend tens of millions online

Don’t expect to see Cambridge Analytica-style microtargeted political adverts driven by personal data during this general election: the tactic is now considered by many to be an ineffective “red herring” and is increasingly being blocked by social media platforms.

The digital strategist Tom Edmonds said Facebook had banned political campaigns from using many of the tactics deployed in past contests. “Running a campaign aimed at 500 people didn’t earn them much money and just got them loads of shit,” he said.

Chair Paul Kanareck says newspaper’s losses – £84.5m in the past six years – not sustainable

London’s Evening Standard has announced plans to shut its daily newspaper and replace it with a weekly outlet, bringing an end to almost 200 years of publication in the capital.

The newspaper said it has been hit hard by the introduction of wifi on the London underground, a shortage of commuters owing to the growth of working from home and changing consumer habits.

Tabloid had women on payroll to get stories about people’s sexual performance, singer tells Hay festival

James Blunt claims the News of the World paid women to sleep with celebrities in order to get stories about their sexual performance.

The singer, who settled his legal action against News International in 2012, said the police had sent him emails from the News of the World, which showed that two “beautiful” women were on the payroll of the now closed tabloid “to go out and shag celebrities”.

With BBC news app alerts reaching as many as 7m Britons, parties are desperately trying to influence what gets pushed out

The most powerful person in British media during this election, in terms of having the most direct access to voters, is no longer the editor of BBC’s News at Six or the person who chooses the headlines on Radio 2. Nor are they a newspaper editor, a TikTok influencer, or a podcaster. Instead, they’re the anonymous on-shift editor of the BBC News app, making snap judgments on whether to make the phones of millions of Britons buzz with a breaking news push alert.

The BBC does not publish user numbers, but external research suggests about 12.6 million Britons have its news app installed. BBC newsroom sources say the actual number is higher and the assumption is that about 60% of users have notifications enabled. This means that on a conservative estimate, a typical push alert is reaching the phones of 7 million Britons – more than any other broadcast news bulletin in the UK.

Lib Dems, Greens and SNP could lose out as broadcasters focus on head-to-heads between Sunak and Starmer

The Lib Dems, Greens and SNP face being cut out of televised leadership debates, as broadcasters plan to focus on two head-to-head contests between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

ITV is working on a debate featuring only the leaders of the Labour and Conservative parties, according to sources at the broadcaster, in line with the format demanded by Labour.

Regulator says channel breached rules by failing to sufficiently challenge Rishi Sunak’s views in February broadcast

Ofcom is considering a statutory sanction against GB News over “serious and repeated” breaches of British television laws relating to the channel’s lack of impartiality.

The media regulator said the channel breached regulations by allowing the Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to be interviewed on air without sufficient challenge to his views.

Audience members were not able to challenge the prime minister’s responses and the presenter Stephen Dixon – a former Sky News host – did not push back to any “meaningful extent”.

The prime minister was able to set out future policies he planned to implement if re-elected. Neither the audience nor the presenter challenged or otherwise referred to significant alternative views on these.

Sunak criticised aspects of Labour’s policies and performance – but neither Labour’s views or positions on those issues were included in the programme.

GB News did not include a reference in the programme to an agreed future programme in which a wide range of significant views on the major matter would be given due weight.

Labour leader’s appearance on chatshow reflects politicians’ more general move away from hard news outlets to cosier, more niche settings

When Keir Starmer appeared on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch to cook his favourite tandoori salmon recipe, host Tim Lovejoy had a question: “What on earth are you doing here? You should be on the BBC with Laura Kuenssberg.”

“This is so much nicer!” replied the Labour leader.