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 US B2B media sector continues to be pummelled by severe declines in print advertising — ad pages plummeted 29% and ad revenue 24% in 2009 — accompanied last year by softness in live events as well (-16%), according to American Business Media’s Bu
In 2009, K9 Magazine went digital-only; a decision publisher Ryan O’Meara has not regretted for a second. Digital-only has given him greater publishing flexibility and unleashed a wave of commercial opportunities, particularly in relation to monetisi
There is a crisis of leadership in the regional press, says Steve Dyson. How can the regional newspaper industry hope to recover unless the executives who lead it show confidence in their own products? Where are the leaders, where are the visionaries
Back in January, there were two events, organised by journalism.co.uk and the NUJ, looking at the changing role of the journalist. Martin Cloake attended both and came away with some very upbeat conclusions.
It says something about the phenomenal rise of social media that Facebook is now competing with Google in terms of site traffic. Publishers have long had Google-orientated strategies; now, says Carolyn Morgan, they need to devise social media strateg
Baltic Publishing Group (BPG) have launched an Estonian version of Haymarket’s car buying website, whatcar.com, in readiness for a predicted upturn in the local car market.
Guardian News and Media has launched Extra, “a unique and exciting” new membership scheme for readers.
Guardian News & Media (GNM) has announced that its “groundbreaking” Open Platform is officially open for business.
Publishers from all over the world are now submitting their projects for the XMA Cross Media Awards 2010 and there is still time to join them.
If anything, the pace of change is accelerating, in large part driven by customer expectations. Publishers are in a state of permanent re-evaluation of their business models. What then, asks Robin Crumby, is our value proposition in the age of social
Publishing is definitely having an “interesting” time, writes Carolyn Morgan, with technology speeding away ahead of both the consumer’s and the media owner’s ability to adapt.
It’s Google month, writes Jim Chisholm. This time last year I wrote about how Google was moving into the local search arena with Android and other local mobile tools. Recently, much to the anger of Apple’s Steve Jobs, who earlier in the year stated t
The Press Complaints Commission has published its Annual Review.
Amazon.com has announced new features for "Kindle for PC," the free application that lets readers around the world read Kindle books on their personal computers.
Datamonitor, the global business information provider, has acquired Marketworks Pty Ltd for an undisclosed sum.
