Media News Daily: Top Stories for 09/05/2025

AI Scraping Floods Publisher Sites With No Meaningful Value Exchange

A sharp rise in unauthorized AI scraping is causing operational disruptions and financial strain for publishers, with negligible user traffic in return, according to Chris Dicker, CEO of Candr Media Group. Trusted Reviews, a Candr-owned site, was scraped 1.6 million times in a single day, with only 603 human visits resulting—a 0.037% clickthrough rate. MBFC data supports the trend, with only 200 daily visits from AI out of 1.5 million scrapes, a referral rate of just 0.013%. Dicker says scraping spikes have caused site outages. Stuart Forrest of Bauer Media notes that LLM bots now account for approximately 20% of all scraping, but generate minimal traffic—ChatGPT sends only 0.2% of overall referral traffic to websites. Publishers face mounting infrastructure costs with no proportional value, prompting many to consider blocking AI crawlers entirely. (Read More) (Press Gazette Rating)

Nepal Blocks Major Social Media Platforms for Not Registering with Government

Nepal’s government has begun blocking major platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube after they failed to comply with regulations requiring official registration. Communication Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung stated that only platforms such as TikTok and Viber, which have registered, are permitted to operate. The move follows a proposed bill to enforce platform accountability, but critics warn it may be used for censorship and repression of free speech. Rights groups have expressed concern over its impact on civil liberties and access to independent information. (Read More) (PBS Rating)

Kentucky Public Television Cuts Staff Following Elimination of Federal Funding

KET, Kentucky’s public television network, announced a 22% workforce reduction, including 15 layoffs, due to the loss of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The funding cut was driven by Congressional Republicans and endorsed by President Donald Trump, who pushed for a rescission of over $1 billion in public broadcasting support. KET, which had relied on federal funds for local productions and 25% of its workforce, now faces operational restructuring. Executive Director Shae Hopkins emphasized KET’s continued commitment to public service despite the financial hardship. (Read More) (News from the States Rating)