INTERVIEW
Members only
The new City AM Club offers readers of the financial daily a host of lifestyle perks and discounts. Ciar Byrne talks to COO Harry Owen about why they launched the club and what they hope to achieve.
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
MEDIA FUTURES
The Tech Challenge: media’s biggest obstacle to innovation
Technical competence is central to modern publishing, yet it remains an Achilles' heel for many publishers. Jim Bilton looks at the research.
NEWS
Press freedom campaigners call for action on 'vexatious lawsuits’
In an open letter to Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Jeremy Wright, the culture secretary, the Observer’s editor, charities and campaigners urge new legislation to stop the abuse of defamation law.
NEWS
NFRN hits out at latest Smiths News carriage charge rise
Just 24 hours after announcing its ground-breaking automatic compensation scheme for late deliveries, Smiths News has upset the NFRN by advising of an average 2 per cent increase in its carriage charge.
NEWS
NUJ reacts to potential sale of JPI Media
Following Reach plc’s announcement on the potential deal to buy parts of JPI Media, the NUJ called the move “alarming” and warned of the potential impact on journalists and media plurality.
NEWS
Evening Standard announces new editor of The Londoner
Ayesha Hazarika has been announced as the new editor of The Londoner, the Evening Standard's daily diary section.
NEWS
Quality Journalism Eclipses Industry Benchmarks for Attention
Analysis by the World Media Group confirms that advertising campaigns viewed within a trusted editorial environment are yielding much better results for attention and viewability than the industry standard.
NEWS
HuffPost partners with Birmingham City University
The HuffPost Centre for Journalism, within the University’s School of Media, aims to pioneer innovative ways to teach the next generation of journalists.
NEWS
NFRN welcomes new compensation scheme
A new automatic payment scheme to Smiths News customers when papers are “materially late” has been described as a major game-changer by the NFRN.
NEWS
UK marketing budgets flat-line – IPA
Q2 2019 IPA Bellwether Report shows zero overall growth following slight recovery in Q1.
NEWS
FT appoints Jo Ellison
The Financial Times has appointed Jo Ellison as editor of luxury magazine, How To Spend It, from September.
NEWS
Scotland Yard's attack on press freedom unacceptable
Scotland Yard’s warning to the media not to publish leaked government documents shows a lack of understanding of how a free press works, says SoE.
NEWS
Telegraph appoints new CFO
The Telegraph has announced the appointment of Claire Pape as Chief Financial Officer.
NEWS
"Convicted of journalism" claim is dangerous distortion of truth
The claim by Tommy Robinson that his jailing for contempt of court is an attack on journalism is a dangerous distortion of the truth, says the Society of Editors.
FEATURE
7 reasons to obsess about your subscriber retention rate
Does your CEO know what your subscriber retention rate is? The chances are, probably not. But, according to Julian Thorne, author of our Guide to Retention Strategies for Publishers, this number should never be far from his or her (or your) mind.
