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 International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) last week published a list of 93 journalists and media staff who were killed in 2016 in work-related incidents. A further 29 died in two plane crashes.
The Post, which will be distributed to 10,000 homes, will be a weekly sister newspaper to the daily Lancashire Telegraph, which covers Blackburn and the wider East Lancashire community.
The Financial Times and Nikkei yesterday launched the FT-Nikkei Fellowship, one of the first major editorial initiatives of their global media alliance.
The Sunday Post published for the first time on a Saturday since 1917 when it launched a Christmas Special that went on sale on December 24th.
Sun Bets has been announced as the new sponsor of the Grade One Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on the third day of The Festival, St Patrick’s Thursday, March 16, 2017.
The publisher of the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star has delivered an early Christmas present to retailers who offer a home news delivery service, says the NFRN, by confirming that it has enhanced the rates they receive for handling thir
A new guide to the Editors' Code of Practice, under which the majority of Britain's newspaper, magazine and news website journalists work, has been published by the committee responsible for creating the Code.
On Friday, Trinity Mirror plc release a trading update.
Guardian News & Media has appointed Tania Harwood, Andrew Goldsmith and Tom Crichton to the new commercial roles of Business Partners - leading the recently formed agency hubs.
Johnston Press has announced the proposed disposal of 13 publishing titles and associated websites in East Anglia and East Midlands to Iliffe Media, for £17 million.
B2B publishers have experienced a 2.3% growth in revenue relative to the same quarter last year, according to the latest figures from the Digital Publishers Revenue Index (DPRI), a quarterly report of UK publishers from AOP and Deloitte.
More people are reading news media content than ever before, according to the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers’ just-published World Press Trends 2016 report.
At the end of November, Cxense chief product officer Tom Wilde presented his second ‘Top Tips’ webinar for us, in which he discussed how you can put your data to work and convert fly-by visitors into loyal subscribers with personalisation. Here are a
The Guardian is launching a brand new platform for advertiser created content - ‘Hosted by the Guardian’ which forms part of theguardian.com.
Following Mike Gilson’s departure as editor and the announcement that the role will be shared between existing staff, the NUJ chapel have issued a statement.
