News
Reach announces creation of new ‘Live’ sites
Reach plc this week announced the continued expansion of its digital network of regional news brands, committing to a further three launches in June.
News Media
The newspaper business was built for a world where one product served everyone and advertising paid for most of it. That model has gone. What replaces it is still being worked out title by title, from national groups to weeklies covering a single town.
Reader revenue is the clearest shift. Even Reach, which argued for free access for years, now puts some of its journalism behind a paywall, and the regional titles doing best changed their newsrooms before they asked anyone to pay. Ownership keeps changing too. National World rebuilt local editorships after years of centralisation, and the Observer is being reinvented as a premium print and digital title under new owners.
The strongest publishers understand the difference because they are not trying to be everything to everyone. They are trying to be essential to someone.
Chris Sherrard News media
Local news is where the pressure shows most. Millions of people now live without a dedicated local title, and new reader-funded and membership startups are moving into the gaps. Platforms are pulling back from news at the same time, which leaves trust and a direct relationship with readers as the assets that matter most.
Print hasn't disappeared either. Well-run weeklies still hold on to their readers, with circulation falling slowly while digital audiences grow.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on news media, from reader revenue and newsroom change to ownership, local news and trust, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
Essential Resources
FEATURE
Returning to growth
Where is the growth opportunity for today’s publishers? Douglas McCabe tracks how the commercial model has evolved over the past fifty years and examines whether a better understanding of what online audiences want, will help drive future growth.
Best Practice in Publishing
News media
We asked Chris Sherrard, editor-in-chief of The Irish News, what does best practice publishing look like in news media? This is what he said…
INTERVIEW
Stand and deliver!
After years of resisting paywalls, Reach is now launching them across its titles. But David Higgerson, Reach’s chief content officer, carefully avoided the word ‘U-turn’ when interviewed by Steve Dyson.
INTERVIEW
Change before charge
It’s one thing to think that readers should pay for your journalism, but the reality is that unless you improve your offering, then you will struggle to start charging for it, as DC Thomson Editor-in-Chief Frank O’Donnell tells Ciar Byrne.
INTERVIEW
Ditching the generic
How can you edit a regional newspaper when you never visit the area you’re writing about? By filling it with generic content, an approach that National World’s David Montgomery, the new owner of JPI Media, is rapidly doing away with.
INTERVIEW
The Observer’s premium future
Ray Snoddy talks to Co-CEO Rich Furness about the thinking behind Tortoise Media’s acquisition of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper and about their plans for its future.
FEATURE
Opportunities & Threats: National News Media
What’s the outlook for national news media in 2024? Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent, looks ahead.
FEATURE
Breathing new life into local media
There is a new generation of entrepreneurs launching local media businesses, bringing with them new ideas on business models and funding. Phil Clark looks at some of the stand-out examples.
OPINION
We Need Trusted News Brands Now More Than Ever
With Meta backing away from ‘news’ and AI accelerating the growth of disinformation, we need to redouble our efforts to safeguard access to quality journalism, says News Media Association Chief Executive Owen Meredith.
OUT & ABOUT WITH ALAN GEERE
Weekly does it
East Lothian is not just the best place to live – it has the best newsbrand too. Alan Geere heads over the border to find out what’s happening in the world of Scottish weeklies.
All Articles
News
Evening Standard and Independent join Readly
Digital newsstand Readly has expanded its portfolio to include UK daily newspapers on its platform for the first time.
News
SoE calls on PM to press Trump on arrests of journalists in US
The Society of Editors has welcomed a statement from Number 10 that it condemns the arrest of journalists covering the riots in the United States.
News
News UK announces Times Radio launch date
News UK has announced that Times Radio will launch at 6am on Monday 29 June, and has revealed the rest of the presenter line-up.
News
PT SportSuite launch modular streaming platform
PT SportSuite, sister brand to tech firm Publisher’s Toolbox, announces the launch of its latest platform offering – a modular video OTT solution for sports organisations.
News
Racing Post returns to print
The Racing Post sent a copy of yesterday’s newspaper to The Queen, a racing fan, at Windsor Castle on the day horseracing started again.
News
SoE condemns attacks on journalists by US rioters and police
The Society of Editors has condemned the way journalists are being targeted by both rioters and the police while attempting to cover the current rioting in the United States.
INTERVIEW
Back at the sharp end
After nearly 50 years in journalism, from the Nuneaton Observer to the Daily Sport, Cyprus to Spain and many newsroom adventures, Nick Hudson is back on home territory doing the job he loves. The Atherstone Nub News editor talks to Jon Griffin.
FEATURE
How well are women represented in digital journalism?
With Janine Gibson’s recent promotion to a senior digital position at the Financial Times and the AOP Digital Publishing Awards coming up in October, Jack Wynn investigates female representation in digital journalism.
COMMENT
The election in the media: against evasion and lies, good journalism is all we have
Political manipulators in the UK proved they have learnt from the US how to blur truth, but one local paper points to the antidote, says former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.
FEATURE
When should fake news make it into the real news?
Fake news is nothing new. What is new is the modern communications network that allows crackpot ideas to spread like wildfire. To what extent should serious media cover this nonsense, asks Dickon Ross.
FEATURE
Welcome to our world, BBC… perhaps
As the year began, Neil Fowler believed the nation’s licence-funded broadcaster, under pressure from the new government to justify its role, was making the same mistakes that the regional and local press made in the early 2000s.
VIEW FROM THE STATES
What Doesn’t Kill Us…
Whatever else one might think about Nietzsche, writes Karlene Lukovitz, whose husband once wrote a college paper titled ‘Nietzsche Was Nuts’, there’s no more apt cliché for these times than his observation that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
News
City A.M. to mark 15th birthday with return to print
City A.M., a daily business newspaper for London, will be back on the streets on Monday 7 September, just days after marking its 15th birthday on Saturday 5 September.
News
Google announces 100 grants for UK local media
Google has announced it has agreed to provide grants to more than 100 UK newsrooms as the first stage of its fund created to support the media during the Covid-19 crisis.
