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.
The official ABC figures for May 2017 show that the UK national newspaper market enjoyed a 33% year on year uplift across digital platforms, adding up to 157 million unique browsers daily, according to analysis by Newsworks.
PCS has delivered a hubbing workflow for independent local media business CN Group.
Verto Analytics, a consumer-centric measurement company, yesterday announced a new media measurement product targeted for US and Europe-based publishers.
Miles 33 has announced that Alpha Newspapers Group, the weekly newspaper publisher based in Northern Ireland, has signed an order for the delivery of a new generation publishing system.
Guardian Media Group (GMG) yesterday announced that the Guardian and The Observer print titles will move to tabloid formats in early 2018 as part of three-year transformation programme announced last year.
During the 69th WAN-IFRA’s annual congress in Durban, South Africa, Michael Golden, Vice Chairman of the Board of New York Times, was elected President of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
Al Jazeera’s English edition swept the board at The Drum Online Media Awards, held on 1 June, winning both the Grand Prix and the Chairman’s Award for its coverage of the attempted coup in Turkey.
The Financial Times yesterday announced the appointment of Laura Milsted, who joins the FT’s advertising team as B2B client director for EMEA and global director of insight.
The results of WAN-IFRA’s annual survey depict an industry that is increasingly building loyal audiences around its high-quality journalism, as the shift to reader-based revenue continues.
The Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom award of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has been awarded to Turkish journalist and former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, Can Dündar.
The commercial division of The London Evening Standard and The Independent, deploys Lineup Systems’ AdPoint solution to support multi-channel sales growth and increase operational efficiencies.
DC Thomson has selected MPP Global as it enhances its digital services with a new metering, subscription and eCommerce platform.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Egyptian authorities for blocking access to at least 21 news websites including Al-Jazeera after accusing them of “spreading lies” and “supporting terrorism.”
The Financial Times and Lloyds Bank are teaming up to give free FT.com access to all UK secondary schools, colleges and academies from the start of the new academic term in September.
The Bridge, News UK’s commercial division, yesterday announced the creation of v-Studio, a full-service digital creative team specialising in creating, editing and publishing vertical mobile formats.
