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.
A year-long research project involving Unilever, Nestlé, i2c, Nielsen, Nectar and the IAB UK has revealed the degree to which online display ads drive sales of popular household brands both in-store and online.
LBC presenter Nick Ferrari has become the first radio industry winner of the Journalist of the Year prize at this week’s British Journalism Awards.
Miles 33 has announced that both the Record-Journal and the Westerly Sun have gone live on the new GN4 Editorial CMS. The project was completed in less than 90 days, and all print and digital channels have made the transition to Miles 33.
Grants totalling nearly £300,000 have been made to UK charities by Newsquest Media Group, one of the UK's leading regional news publishers.
According to the NUJ, BuzzFeed is to cut 45 of its 140 staff in London, including 24 journalists who face redundancy.
In a special edition of The Scottish Sun today, every copy sold will raise money for Mary’s Meals, the Scottish charity which is part of a global movement to provide meals to some of the world’s poorest children in a place of learning every school da
WoodWing Software, specialists in content creation, introduces Aurora, the latest update to Enterprise, its multichannel publishing solution.
The BBC’s Local News Partnerships have taken a key step towards the creation of a pool of local democracy reporters to cover council and public meetings across the UK.
One of the last newspapers in the UK still printing in black and white will relaunch in full colour in January next year to celebrate its 90th anniversary.
Following the success of its four Summer Weekly newspapers, Monocle is returning to the presses to deliver a winter expedition into crisp white paper, say the publishers.
James Evelegh's editorial from today's edition of InPubWeekly.
This week, Guardian US launched a fundraising initiative to support The Mother Load, a new editorial project exploring what makes motherhood in America more challenging than in any other developed country – and what we can do about it.
Mail Newspapers yesterday announced that, from 23rd December 2017, the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday will stop all multiple copy (bulks) sales activity.
The Guardian has announced the appointment of Grace Dent as its new restaurant critic.
On Friday, The Sun launched its annual Smiles at Christmas campaign, this year supporting a charity helping families with kids battling cancer.
