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 Malay Mail, a leading daily English-language newspaper in Malaysia, selected both WoodWing’s multi-channel publishing system Enterprise and the company’s digital asset management solution Elvis DAM.
Outbrain, the content discovery platform, yesterday announced the launch of Native In-Feed, a product that allows publishers for the first time to use the Outbrain platform to serve native (in-stream) advertising.
Ideas, sponsorship and strategic partnerships specialist, David Vokes joins Metro as Partnerships Director.
A major piece of research from News UK Commercial, Project Footprint, reveals the correlation between what people read and their subsequent online behaviour, conversations and purchases.
For the past three months, NewstrAid and NFRN Assist have worked together to produce a scheme to help newsagents who are in serious financial difficulty.
dmg media announce last week that its printing operations in Thurrock and Didcot have received ISO 14001 accreditation, the widely recognised environmental standard.
Quirker.co.uk, a new website aimed at a young social audience celebrating the best of real life eccentric content, was last week unveiled by Local World.
DailyMail.com has announced that it is investing $3m in discovery platform Taboola to develop next generation native advertising and content marketing offerings for its clients.
On Thursday, June 4, the Financial Times gathered 165 guests for a reception to meet the FT’s Washington, DC bureau.
The Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail outsold the Sun on Sunday and Saturday’s Sun respectively, throughout the month of May, according to the latest ABC figures released on Friday.
News UK Commercial has today announced the appointment of Jane Putley as Head of News and Donia Dacey as Head of Solutions.
ESI Media has appointed Scott Deutrom to the newly created role of Chief Digital Revenue Officer.
John Whittingdale has praised British journalism for uncovering the Fifa scandal, saying that without The Sunday Times investigation the allegations about the world football governing body would never have come to light.
Trinity Mirror has confirmed that its subsidiary, MGN Limited will be seeking permission to appeal the judgment handed down by Mr Justice Mann on 21 May 2015.
The financial statements for the Telegraph Media Group for the year ended 28th December 2014 were filed at Companies House, on 29 May.
