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.
In a decision published today, IPSO upheld a complaint that the Rod Liddle column published by The Sun on Dec 11th 2014 in relation to Emily Brothers was in breach of the Editors’ Code.
The National Readership Survey Ltd (NRS) yesterday announced that the next release of NRS PADD will be the first to incorporate comScore’s new mobile and tablet estimates, following changes to the way comScore measure mobile audiences.
Trust is a fragile thing. It is Fleet Street’s greatest asset, but is being put in jeopardy by the increasingly frantic chase for advertising revenue. Liz Gerard looks at the mounting commercial pressure on editorial teams.
How free is the British press? Ask the man on the Clapham omnibus, and he’d probably say ‘very’. But, according to Bob Satchwell, the press is not nearly as free as it should be and the situation is going from bad to worse.
The blurb at the top of your front page has one purpose – SELL MORE PAPERS. Yet, writes Peter Sands, many publishers appear to have lost sight of this simple objective.
Matt Kelly was an online pioneer for the Daily Mirror, and later helped create digital newsrooms in Latin America. Now he’s driving Local World’s website development. Steve Dyson reports.
Every department has its own set of jargon; meaningful to those in the know, but gobbledygook to everyone else. Luke Bilton interprets events-speak…
Two clear themes emerge from this year’s AOP Census: the rise of programmatic and the migration to mobile. These trends look likely to underpin many publishers’ investment and staffing decisions in 2015. Tim Cain looks at these and other trends throw
At the end of May, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is stepping down after twenty years in the job. He interrupted his packing to talk to Ray Snoddy about the highs and lows, the Guardian’s digital trajectory and his abiding passion for journalism.
Annabelle Dickson, political editor of Archant daily newspapers the Eastern Daily Press and East Anglian Daily Times, has been given a prestigious Gold Award alongside journalists from ITV, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
Deloitte, the business advisory firm and the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) today revealed that mobile digital advertising revenues from UK publishers grew by 80% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the same quarter in 2014.
This week, ABC issued video ad technology company Unruly with a certificate of their compliance with the Social Video Code.
Former EADT and Evening Star editor Ken Rice has died at the age of 73.
Johnston Press has today unveiled a new, fully-responsive website to support its refreshed online entertainments platform WOW247.
Newsquest Media Group, one of the leading regional media groups in the UK, announced today that it has acquired Romanes Media Group, for an undisclosed sum.
