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.
According to some commentators, the best thing that traditional media companies could do, would be to close the presses and go web-only. Odd then that Rupert Murdoch should have recently invested so much in the new Broxbourne plant. A big miscalculat
Redesigns need a clear purpose. Otherwise it’s best not to bother. Satisfying a clearly defined reader need is the best reason for a change; a desperate last roll of the dice is probably the worst! Alan Geere casts his eye over some recent makeovers.
In the second part of his ‘how to monetise’ article, Angus Phillipson presents five more dos and don’ts. Two themes that emerge are audience engagement and site development – both of which need to be continuous. Your site needs to be in a permanent s
The Evening Gazette in Teesside has won a clutch of national awards for its digital development, which includes a pioneering network of postcode websites supported by an army of community bloggers. Gazette editor Darren Thwaites explains Teesside’s h
Effective research relies on buy-in from editorial and marketing to ensure that the right questions are asked and that valuable findings are put to good use. Without their active involvement, there’s not much point doing it! Andrea Kirkby looks at ho
The regional press and the BBC are on a collision course over the latter’s plans to launch a local video news service. The BBC sees it as part of its public service remit and the press sees it as a misuse of license fee money. Ray Snoddy looks at the
Three years ago, Richard Withey wrote a semi-serious piece of gentle invective for us, plagiarising the thoughts and words of the metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell and encouraging newspapers to get on with the consummation of their new relationship wi
The principles of multi-channel marketing and media-neutral planning have been around for a while. Yet, it’s still quite common for businesses to develop separate channel marketing plans which simply don’t ‘join up’. Simon Blanchard explores the bene
One proven way to demonstrate your strong ties to the local community is to stage a successful event. You can usually cover your costs, and the occasion can help you to position and build your brand. Just don’t rely on the weather! Andrea Kirkby talk
After an examination of what makes online business networking sustainable, Ross Sturley finds that it’s the Good Samaritan in all of us that provides the key to success.
The online debate has moved from ‘can I make money online’ to ‘how can I make more money online’. Are publishers fulfilling their online potential or are they missing revenue opportunities? In the first of a two part series, Angus Phillipson looks at
The winner of the 2008 Newspaper Society Promotion of the Year award was the Bristol Evening Post, for its Community Makeover promotion. Here, promotions manager Siân Snow outlines the thinking behind the promotion and how it succeeded in galvanising
Over the past few years, some UK nationals have garnered a healthy and demographically-attractive overseas audience. But overseas audiences are much harder to monetise than domestic ones, and publishers have been struggling to find the right commerci
Travel into any large metropolitan area in Western Europe, and you struggle to avoid them! Free newspapers are everywhere, and, if success were measured by total circulation, then they would be doing extremely well. But, being free, it’s not and most
The latest Association of Online Publishers’ annual census offers a bullish forecast. New AOP director, Ruth Brownlee, assesses the key findings and what they tell us about the state and outlook for the online publishing sector.
