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.
Premium gaming site Metro Play, sister brand to Metro, launched this week, with a £1.9 million advertising campaign planned for the start of June including cover wraps, a website takeover and interstitials on the Tablet Edition.
Johnston Press, one of the leading community media groups in the UK and Ireland, has announced that Stephen van Rooyen will join the Board as a Non-Executive Director of the Company with effect from 1 June 2013.
The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulation (IFABC) has elected Magnus Paulsson as the new IFABC Europe President at its annual European meeting in Vienna last week.
The Financial Times is launching a new service in Latin America providing top FT news and analysis translated into Spanish.
Stylist celebrates the fashion industry’s 50 most powerful and influential people, products and innovations of the past 12 months with their first Fashion Power List 2013.
Future plc, the international specialist media group and leading digital publisher, announce Generate, the first conference from the newly established events division, headed up by Jonny Sullens.
Abacus e-Media recently completed the successful launch of two new websites – Laboratory Talk and Building Talk – based on new technology developed in conjunction with Centaur Media, called Source.
Woman’s Weekly, the magazine which celebrates the home, family and lives of UK women, has agreed a deal with Pedigree Books that will see it publish two yearbooks, its most recent foray into book publishing.
WAN-IFRA and the World Editors Forum have protested to US Attorney General Eric Holder against the seizure of thousands of Associated Press phone records, saying the action damages US news reporting and provides encouragement to repressive regimes ar
Advertising sales agency Cabbell has launched a new website to increase its online presence and also expanded its service offering by creating an in-house new-media consultancy.
Future is the Official Cycling Media Partner for Prudential RideLondon, which takes place on 3rd and 4th August in central London and Surrey.
The Media Society Award for 2013 will honour Sir Harold Evans for a lifetime of ‘going after the story’, ‘demanding open debate’, ‘ploughing his own furrow’ and both defending and enhancing the freedom of the press.
Centaur Media’s CEO Geoff Wilmot is to step down in a board reshuffle after reporting a fall in print revenue.
A video promoting the importance of shorthand for professional journalists has been unveiled at the NCTJ’s shorthand seminar.
The Liverpool Echo’s decades-long Hillsborough campaign was at the heart of the paper’s triumph in the Regional Press Awards for 2012 last week.
