All posts tagged: MoneySavingExpert.com

Martin Lewis scam ads ‘worse than ever’

Martin Lewis scam ads ‘worse than ever’

Published by Sam Flores

Martin Lewis at the BAFTA Television Special Award Media Breakfast on Wednesday 29 April 2026 in London. Picture: BAFTA/Scott Garfitt Financial journalist Martin Lewis CBE has said social media scam ads that use his name and face to dupe unsuspecting consumers have become “worse than ever”. Lewis sued Facebook for defamation in 2018 over ads appearing on the platform which stole his image and settled the case after Meta agreed to donate £3m to charity and create a new reporting button. But such ads continue to proliferate years later, conning people out of money by wrongly making them believe Lewis has backed questionable financial products. Lewis was speaking at a press conference on Wednesday as it was announced he had been awarded the BAFTA Television Special Award in recognition of his “extraordinary and lasting impact on British consumers and public life”. Lewis founded the Money Saving Expert consumer finance website, has an ITV show called The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, and is a presenter and expert on Good Morning Britain. In response to a …

March Google core update brings modest gains for news websites

March Google core update brings modest gains for news websites

Published by Sam Flores

Google search results for ‘Strait of Hormuz’ search including The Guardian, The Independent and ITV News on 10 April 2026 The Guardian, Money Saving Expert, Substack and The New York Times appear to have been the biggest winners from Google’s latest core update, according to new Sistrix data. But overall there was “little impact” on news websites, SEO consultant Barry Adams told Press Gazette. Google described the rollout as “a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites”, the standard wording for its core algorithm updates when there is not a specific behaviour being targeted. It rolled out between 27 March and 8 April, following quickly behind a separate update designed to target spam sites. Sistrix has now shared data showing how the search visibility index scores of major UK and US news websites changed during that period. In the UK, The Guardian saw the greatest absolute visibility gain of 9.014 points, rising to 228.076 – already by far the highest visibility score for a newsbrand. The …

Top 50 UK news media companies ranking for 2026

Top 50 UK news media companies ranking for 2026

Published by Sam Flores

Top four media companies in UK by revenue. RELX Group (picture: Igor Golovniov, Shutterstock), BBC (Chris Dorney, Shutterstock), Informa (Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images), ITV (Piotr Swat, Shutterstock). The top three news media companies in the UK by revenue saw turnover increase in their latest full-year accounts, Press Gazette’s latest top 50 ranking shows. Collectively the top 50 increased their revenue by £1.1bn compared with last year, representing a 3.1% increase reporting £37.5bn versus £36.3bn. Most of the top UK media companies (29 out of 50) grew their revenue in their most recent accounts, while 17 saw decline and four remained stagnant. RELX, the BBC and Informa topped the list with highest revenues, all posting more than £3.5bn. Most of the accounts (30) cover the 2024 financial year, a period which saw inflation average 2.5% while gross domestic product (GDP, a key measure of the economy) grew by 0.4%. Our ranking is based on the most recent full-year revenue reported by each business. Because not all companies break out their different revenue streams the …

Times among few UK winners in December Google core update

Times among few UK winners in December Google core update

Published by Sam Flores

The Times and Money Saving Expert website homepages on 7 January 2026 The Times, Substack and Money Saving Expert were among the winners from a “rough” Google core update rolled out in December. However, many major newsbrands published in the UK saw their prominence in Google search results fall sharply, including: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The New York Times and The Independent, according to Sistrix search visibility data. The Google core algorithm update rollout took place between 11 December and 29 December. Google described it as a “regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites”. It was the fourth major Google algorithm update in 2025, following core updates in March and June and a rollout in August specifically targeting breaches of the platform’s spam policies. Most UK news websites were also negatively impacted by the June update according to our previous analysis. More than two-thirds of major news websites saw search visibility drop in December Google core update Of the 75 news websites analysed by Press Gazette, …