Thursday newspaper round-up: Reddit, Daily Mail, zero hour contracts
The disgraced former owner of Norton Motorcycles should have served jail time for his role in the multi-million-pound pension fraud, the chair of the Pensions Ombudsman service has told a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal. The comments by Anthony Arter will be viewed by victims as a thinly veiled criticism of a prosecution run by the Pensions Regulator against former Norton boss, Stuart Garner, who was convicted of three pensions offences in 2022 but avoided prison because the regulator did not allege dishonesty. – Guardian
Reddit will enter a new era as a publicly traded company with a market value of $6.4bn after the social media platform’s initial public offering was priced at $34 per share. The price, announced late on Wednesday, came in at the top of the target range set by Reddit’s investment bankers as they spent the past few weeks gauging investor demand for the stock. It sets the stage for Reddit’s shares to begin trading Thursday on the New York stock exchange under the ticker symbol RDDT in the largest initial public offering by a social media company in years. – Guardian
Joe Biden has announced new rules that will see as many as half of all cars sold in America run on electricity by 2030. The US President on Wednesday moved to adopt strict European-style tailpipe emission rules. The finalised regulations will require manufacturers to drastically cut the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from cars and trucks from 2027 through to 2032. – Telegraph
Journalists at the Daily Mail are braced for job cuts after bosses warned of changes to working patterns as the newspaper group races to adapt to the digital age. In a note to staff, Ted Verity, editor of Mail Newspapers, said the publisher was taking further steps to merge its titles to put digital “at the heart of everything we do”. He said: “Inevitably, this will mean changes to the way some reporters and news desk executives work. Some staff will see a change to their working pattern, job title, line manager or duties.” – Telegraph
A record 1.1 million Britons are working on zero-hour contracts, with most lacking regular pay and employee protection. Research from the Work Foundation think tank found that 136,000 extra zero-hour contracts were given out in 2023 compared with the previous year, with 88,000 for younger workers aged 16-24. – The Times