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 World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), together with the World Editors Forum, have welcomed the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration, which states that access to information is a fundamental human right.
After writing to the Guardian Media Group, calling for a reconsideration of their Monday to Friday margin cut whilst both organisation’s teams work on joint commercial initiatives, GM’s Chief Executive, Andrew Miller, has replied rejecting the propos
Future, the special-interest media group, today reveals a monthly iPad edition of Tap! The iPhone and iPad magazine – built from the ground up using the iPad, exclusively for the iPad.
An innovative new website which enables users to turn digital photographs into high quality printed albums has been launched by Archant KOS Media.
Just announced: Facebook, the network with a higher population than that of the European Union, is to feature at eCommerce Expo as a leading keynote, Tuesday 11th – Wednesday 12th October, Olympia 2, London.
18-year-old Tom Hale has been crowned winner of Column Idol 2011, a writing competition run by charity Media Trust and The Sun to find undiscovered talent.
Mail Connected has teamed up with the sleek Suzuki SX4 for a series of unique advertorials which will run cross platform in Weekend magazine over the coming four weeks and on Mail Online.
The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that a May 2011 article in the Financial Times about the EasyJet founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, raised a breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors' Code of Practice.
Last week at f8, Facebook's developer conference, the Guardian unveiled its first Facebook app, a new social news experience that makes it easy for Facebook users to discover the most relevant Guardian content through their friends.
Guardian News & Media (GNM) has announced that Tanya Cordrey has been appointed Director of Digital Development.
Future has revealed the exciting new online home of T3, its flagship technology lifestyle brand.
Dennis Publishing has announced its partnership with Toura, that will see the large-scale distribution of its premium content across smartphone and tablet devices around the world.
Future, the special-interest media group, has revealed a world-first ‘covermount’ on a digital edition – for the new issue of PC Gamer, the global PC gaming authority.
Catalysts Ltd, a specialist publishing systems integrator, has announced its appointment by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting in England and Wales.
The NFRN has written to 27 of the Guardian’s advertisers advising them that the NFRN’s membership and the Guardian are now in dispute.
