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.
Atex has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with PPF Media, a Prague-based division of PPF Group, to provide advisory and consulting support services in print and multimedia training for Central and Eastern Europe.
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publisher of the Guardian and the Observer has become the first media organisation to offer advertisers Vio's next generation ad management and delivery service, AdSEND.
The World Association of Newspapers has protested to the leaders of five countries yesterday, World Press Freedom Day, against the jailings and widespread attacks on journalists in their countries.
KM Group’s freely circulated “Extra” series has unveiled an “eye-catching” new look.
Like most publishers, you may have been watching the growth of the blogosphere for some time, wondering when to jump in, or whether indeed it is all too late. With your editorial experts and breadth of content, says Carolyn Morgan, you are in a perfe
Many publishers were taken by surprise by Web 1.0 and then struggled to come to terms with Web 2.0. What on earth are they going to make of 3 and 4? William Buist looks into his crystal ball to see where social media is heading.
Links make the online world go round, facilitating the finding of related and relevant information. The problem is that adding links to articles can be a time consuming manual process. Wouldn’t it be nice, says Michael Upshall, if the whole thing cou
After hours of searching recent industry news in hopes of finding some upbeat data titbits about the US print media scenario to offer here (if only for novelty’s sake), Karlene Lukovitz is forced to admit that this mission was largely a bust...
Sara Howers has worked in international marketing for a variety of major publishers over the years, but she never ceases to be amazed at the inconsistencies, missed opportunities, anomalies and downright absurdities that international marketers face
President Sarkozy recently announced a series of seemingly radical initiatives to revive the ailing French press. Will they work? Peter Preston places the measures in the context of France’s post war press settlement and concludes that they are extre
On 14th December 2008, on a Saturday, Econsultancy.com’s new site finally went live. This after around £350,000 of investment and almost a year and a half’s hard work. Chief executive Ashley Friedlein looks at some of the key learnings and results of
There are few people in the media with a genuinely global perspective. Rupert Murdoch is clearly one. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, is another. Ray Snoddy managed to catch up with Sir Martin, an achievement in itself, to get his views o
For a back room role, the sub-editor has enjoyed a great deal of exposure of late – admittedly much of it focussing on its imminent demise. Yet Peter Sands still sees a need for a second pair of eyes, even if they might not be as numerous as before,
Why do people buy newspapers? Some still do, apparently. If we can just work out what makes people part with their cash, then we can put together product development and marketing plans to encourage more to do the same. It’s as simple as that, isn’t
The Government’s Local Media Summit, hosted by Andy Burnham at the House of Commons on Tuesday 28 April, and the Opposition’s Save Our Local Papers Event, hosted by Jeremy Hunt at St Bride’s Hall on 30 April, were agreed on the need for urgent action
