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.
Media consumption habits are changing. With the proliferation of content on the Internet and the growing capability of mobile devices to allow people to consume content on the move, publishers face a new challenge to retaining readers, but also a wea
IPC Ignite claims to be the first magazine publisher to report detailed ABCe audited website figures over a six monthly period.
Nstein Technologies has announced that it has been positioned as a Niche Player in Gartner, Inc’s 2009 “Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management” report co-authored by Mick MacComascaigh, Toby Bell, Mark R. Gilbert and published August 5, 2009.
Northcliffe Media has relaunched a series of sports websites in time for the start of the new football season.
Marieclaire.co.uk, the website from upmarket fashion glossy Marie Claire, is sporting a fresh new look to reflect a redesign and new vision for the magazine, which is revealed in the current September issue.
Nuts, the PPA Awards Consumer Media Brand of the Year 2009, has announced a major new partnership with Soccer Millionaire to launch Nuts Cash Football, an exclusive online pay-to-play football prediction service.
Long before the Amazon Kindle became a household name, the Hearst Corp helped finance the research that made such e-readers possible. Hearst is now emerging as a rival to Amazon, and will share its experiences at the 2nd European E-reading Conference
According to recent research, few UK consumers would be willing to pay for content they can currently access for free.
Zero Hora of Brazil and Express & Echo of the United Kingdom have been named World Young Reader Newspapers of the Year for two vital kinds of excellence in the annual competition organized by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishing (W
Dawson News, the trading name of Surridge Dawson and the division of Dawson which delivers newspapers and magazines to the newsagents of England and Wales, went into administration on August 3rd, 2009, following the well-publicised recent loss of pub
The Financial Times has announced the launch of a new online clipping service, where registered users can save, store and share articles and webpages through FT.com. The clippings service is available at www.clippings.ft.com/
In a very difficult period of trading for the consumer media industry as a whole, Archant has announced falls in both revenue and profits for the first six months of 2009, alongside positive progress in its digital performance.
The European Newspaper Publishers Association and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers have called on European governments to help ensure that Lithuania respects freedom of expression and freedom of the press following approval of
NME Radio has launched a dedicated iPhone / iPod application via the iTunes store.
Royal Opera House 2009/10 Season begins with two special Paul Hamlyn First Nights for new audiences, supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust in association with The Sun.
