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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
What’s the outlook for national news media in 2024? Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent, looks ahead.
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.
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.
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.
News UK has launched The Motor Awards, a major nationwide awards event for the motoring industry which brings together the expertise and audiences of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and talkSPORT.
James Evelegh's editorial from this week's edition of InPubWeekly.
Guardian Media Group yesterday announced its financial results for the 12 months to 1 April 2018.
James Evelegh’s roundup of some of the news stories that caught his eye over the last couple of months.
The rush to be first and the demise of the sub-editor mean that grammatical errors are increasingly creeping into our copy. As Peter Sands points out, error-strewn text damages our credibility because readers do notice. Best to try to get it right fi
In this age of algorithms, it’s heartening to see that there’s no substitute for intelligent and persistent journalistic endeavour. Some classic old-school digging from the likes of the Observer, Guardian and Times has exposed a dark underside to the
Having talented and dedicated staff is one prerequisite for publishing success. Another, as Rich Cheary, CEO of the Publisher’s Toolbox, tells James Evelegh, is making sure they have the right tools to do the job.
The pivot to paid-content is undoubtedly a positive move for publishers, but what exactly should we be asking our audiences to buy? Peter Houston reports.
A lot of editors take every opportunity to splash with the Royals. But does it still make circulation sense? Liz Gerard reports.
As the Sunday Post approached its centenary year in 2014, its circulation was in trouble. It had an ageing readership and the newspaper was simply not registering with many Scots. Part of the answer, as Richard Prest tells Ray Snoddy, was to make the
The Society of Editors has expressed its concern over the possible impact on press freedom and public’s right to know after Sir Cliff Richard won his privacy case against the BBC last week.
June figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) reveal dmg media’s Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday newspapers both continue to grow market share of UK retail sales, outperforming competitors, says dmg.
On Monday 2nd July, the Shine School Media Awards 2018 took place at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London.
The European Court of Human Rights released a judgement on 17 July, stating that the investigation of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya‘s murder “failed to look properly into who commissioned the crime”.
With circulation and display advertising revenues largely in decline, and digital subscription models in their infancy, many publishers are banking on branded content to fill the coffers. What’s the best way to go about it? Graham Hayday, director of
