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.
IPC Media has launched two further mobile advertising products - Premium Content Suite and Gallery Breakout – two “compelling new ways” that advertisers can engage with their audiences through IPC’s brands.
Music legend Peter Hook told of his love for his local paper as he helped launch M.E.N Media's second "who's who" guide.
Puzzler Media launches eight puzzle titles on May 22, to coincide with a major modernisation of its ranges of Puzzler and Puzzler Q titles.
RBI's leading science and technology publication New Scientist has entered a major multimedia content partnership - Business from The Cloud Up - with The Economist and sponsor Microsoft.
The Sun Sunday launched in February 2012, plugging a gap left by the closure of the News of the World. A year and a bit on, Jon Slattery looks at its impact on the Sunday tabloid market.
Twitter has become an indispensable part of the lives of most journalists, yet, asks John Meehan, are they using this incredibly powerful medium to best effect?
It has become fashionable to write off print as being in terminal decline, but, writes Peter Preston, the reality is infinitely more complex. There are signs, particularly in the US, that traditional newspapers are beginning to settle on a workable m
2013 sees an expectation of growth in digital revenues in line with the trend of the last two to three years, amongst the UK’s leading digital publishers, according to the results of the latest AOP Organisation Census. Tim Cain looks at the main find
Traditionally, the regional press hasn’t felt comfortable doing humour. Yet recently, Peter Sands has detected a new found spirit of levity at some local publishers.
One of the many interesting findings of a Women in Journalism report last year was that 78% of all front page bylines were male. Have newspapers failed female journalists, asks Cathy Galvin, or have female journalists failed newspapers?
In April, Newsworks held its first ever conference, entitled Shift 2013. The purpose of the event was to highlight how newspapers are effective and influential platforms in the multiplatform age. Ray Snoddy was in the audience.
Some of the biggest names in journalism, including, Channel 4, Sky, New York Times, USA Today, CNN, MSN, The Guardian, Times, BBC, al–Jazeera and Huffington Post, have been announced among the finalists for this year's Online Media Awards.
The Made In Chelsea crew recently descended upon Company HQ to guest-edit the Company Weekly Edit app.
Bed Trick, a short film directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins inspired by his recent sold-out production of The Changeling at the Young Vic launched online this week on the Guardian and Young Vic websites.
The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte have revealed that UK digital publisher advertising revenues were up 16.2% in Q1 2013, versus the same period of the previous year.
