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.
Dozens of delegates at the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) gender council conference - from Asia to the Americas and Europe to the Middle East – have issued a global call for action to address the violence, poverty and discrimination fa
News UK & Ireland yesterday announced that Richard Bogie will take on the new and joint role of Managing Director at News Ireland and News Scotland.
James Evelegh's editorial from this week's edition of InPubWeekly.
Propercorn has exclusively partnered with ESI Media for a nationwide campaign that will be its largest media activation to date.
Katie Hopkins complained to IPSO that Mirror.co.uk breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined “Katie Hopkins detained in South Africa for ‘spreading racial hatred’ after taking ketamine while collapsed in th
Daily Mail and General Trust has today published its half yearly financial report for the six months ended 31 March 2018.
James Evelegh's editorial from this week's edition of InPubWeekly.
In what the publishers describe as a milestone moment, The Sun Online has overtaken the Mail Online to become the UK’s number one digital newsbrand, according to the latest release of comScore industry data.
James Evelegh’s roundup of some of the news stories that caught his eye over the last couple of months.
Is 2018 the year when the publisher / platform relationship is turned on its head? Is this the moment, asks Charlie Beckett, when policy-makers change the balance of power between the tech giants and the content creators?
When looking for new inspiration for your own digital transformation journey, it pays to cast the net as wide as possible, looking outside your own industry and beyond your own borders. Carolyn Morgan moderated a number of sessions at the Digital Inn
With the right skills, seemingly impenetrable datasets can be turned into a treasure trove of great stories. Trinity Mirror has a particularly active data unit, that produces hundreds of stories for papers across the group. Nick Turner talks to its h
While the regional media sector continues to struggle with falling revenues, Aasma Day proudly leads a team of investigative journalists for Johnston Press. Steve Dyson reports.
There’s a revolution going on in publishing, writes Peter Houston: we’re making readers pay for content again.
Newspaper publishing is special. It’s not like widget-making. An independent and inquisitive press is often the difference between a free society and an autocratic one. Miami Herald publisher Alexandra Villoch talks to Ray Snoddy about her deep sense
