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 London Evening Standard’s Dispossessed campaign and ‘Calling London’ book, chronicling journalist David Cohen’s investigative series on poverty in London, is being studied by Ferial Haffajee, the editor of City Press, one of South Africa's bigges
Technical training company Highlander has recently added a number of new courses to its curriculum, to accomodate the rapidly growing demand for HTML5 skills.
The Express & Echo in Exeter has published its first audited sale figure since converting to a weekly title 3 months ago.
Tindle Newspapers is buying the old-established monthly free newspaper, the Chew Valley Gazette, from the Northcliffe subsidiary Bristol News & Media.
This Christmas, more than £6.8 billion will be spent online which is why handbag.com has teamed up with Give as you Live to support Women’s Aid, the charity dedicated to helping end domestic violence against women and children in the UK.
Dean Barber, currently acting Circulation Director at the Nottingham Post, has been appointed to the new role of Northcliffe Media Sales Development Director for Newspaper Sales.
Following its purchase in November of offers business Keynoir, Time Out Group, a leading source of information and ticketing for arts and entertainment has acquired the Kelkoo Select daily offers business.
Entries are now open for The 2012 Newspaper Awards, the industry awards dedicated to news media production.
Global software solutions provider, Atex, and EDB ErgoGroup, a leading Nordic IT-vendor and system integrator, have announced a new multi-million dollar strategic partnership.
Elsevier, a leading provider of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, has announced the acquisition of the business assets of Ariadne Genomics, a provider of pathway analysis tools and semantic technologies for life sc
The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against MailOnline after it published an article which reported the incorrect verdict in the Amanda Knox appeal case.
The global chemical, energy and fertilizer market intelligence division of Reed Business Information, ICIS, has acquired the global data products and research services of Parpinelli TECNON.
Guardian US and New York University’s Studio 20 have announced a new partnership to pursue a "Citizens Agenda" approach to coverage of the 2012 campaign.
AP journalist Muneeza Naqvi has won third prize for the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize for her story, 'India-No Country For Little Girls'.
The Printing Charity, a national UK charity for the printing and publishing industries, has announced that Murdoch MacLennan, Chief Executive Officer of the Telegraph Media Group Limited, has accepted the charity’s invitation to be its President for
