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 upcoming Venezuelan presidential election poses risks for the press and will likely lead to increases in violent attacks and heightened self-censorship, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has found.
Rhapsody has expanded its digital department with the permanent appointment of Emma Jones as Interactive Project Consultant.
Being unveiled at Marketing Week Live 2012 is a new feature within Adestra’s MessageFocus email marketing platform - Conversion Capture.
MagazineCloner has announced that it will now be producing Apps and Digital editions for Unity Media and the company’s automotive magazine portfolio.
Three of the world’s leading press bodies have written to the three presidential candidates in the forthcoming Mexican election about violence against journalists.
The NFRN has described Express Newspapers’ move to raise the price of its weekend papers with pro rata terms as a small step in the right direction, but warns that there is still a long way to go before newsagents are properly rewarded for selling th
Microsoft has unveiled Surface, its own-brand tablet based on Windows 8 with the touchscreen-friendly Metro user interface.
After 25 years service at Associated Newspapers, 14 of which have been in the role of Advertisement Director, John Teal will be leaving the company at the end of September 2012.
NewspaperDirect Inc, a world leader in multichannel newspaper and magazine content distribution, is set to provide current-date issues of local, national and international newspapers and magazines for the International Newsstand at the 2012 Summer Ga
The Financial Times has announced several changes in its senior editorial management.
Following the announcement that Time Inc will be launching all of its US titles on the Apple Newsstand, IPC Media has announced the global digital expansion of 30 of its brands.
Worldwide multimedia content producer Imagine Publishing has announced a major new partnership with prominent eBook retailer, Kobo.
“Catch them young – or not at all!” is the theme of the first WAN-IFRA Young Reader Asia-Pacific Summit, to be held in Bangkok on 10-11 July.
Following the launch of Google+ in November 2011, the Financial Times has built up a loyal base of followers and has recently reached the 1m milestone, making it the fastest growing newspaper on this platform.
The global, cross-media project, the Linked Content Coalition (LCC), launched back in April to address challenges of managing Intellectual Property in the digital age, holds its first plenary meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, 20 June.
