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.
Changing practices in investigative journalism, the erosion of source protection, the rise of automated reporting, and the "gamification" of news are a few of the developments included in Trends in Newsrooms 2015, the annual report just published by
The Independent yesterday announced a dramatic improvement in its financial position following strong investment in both print and digital.
Air ambulance fuel, a performing arts programme for sick children and financial advice seminars for palliative care patients are some of the benefits that News Corp’s UK-based News Corp Giving philanthropic initiative is bringing to local communities
Almost half of online display ads in 2014 – worth just under £1 billion – were bought through ‘programmatic’ technologies, according to the second annual industry study quantifying how UK digital display advertising is traded.
The Liverpool Echo has relaunched with a new design and approach to content, in what the publishers describe as the biggest shake-up of its 136 year history.
WoodWing Software has announced the launch of WoodWing Inception, a cloud-based tool to create responsive mobile content.
CN Group, the local independent media business based in Carlisle, has announced the appointment of Miller Hogg as Chief Executive of the Group. He will succeed Robin Burgess when he retires in January 2016.
Trinity Mirror plc is today issuing a pre close trading update ahead of its 2015 interim results announcement on 3 August 2015.
Due to on-going expansion PageSuite are relocating their London office from Euston to a larger premises in Islington on July 1st.
The inaugural Local Media Works Awards, the local media industry’s new competition for media planners, launched this week.
Archant flagship website EDP24 recorded a record 5.2 million page views in May, helped by Norwich City’s Wembley appearance, the Radio 1 Big Weekend and local eccentric Marigold.
The UK’s Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) is updating its recommended guidelines for products that aim to measure the viewability of online ads.
Financial Times editor Lionel Barber hosted the FT’s annual summer party in London last night.
The spirit of the evening edition newspaper is being reborn in ten new apps that were launched on Friday by Local World, the regional news publisher in partnership with Google.
In a decision published today, IPSO upheld a complaint about an article headlined “Labour’s £1,000 tax on families” published by the Times on 24 April 2015, and required the newspaper to republish its correction with a reference on the front page.
