Revenue and tech: Five must-read news reports for your newsroom

So many interesting and valuable industry reports and so little time in a busy newsroom. Journalism.co.uk summarises the major takeaways of new and ground-breaking research into revenue and product opportunities for your newsroom.

£2.2 billion: the value of news to Google in the UK

Big tech and news publishers have long been in a shouting match over the compensation of news on platforms. Mostly because the two sides cannot agree on what value news provides to these digital environments. Well, the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) just landed on a number (and it is eye-watering). Director Jonathan Heawood and campaign manager Beckie Shuker chew over the figures. Full report here.

What's the context?

The Competition and Markets Authority has just launched its investigation into Google's strategic market status under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, kickstarting the process of regulating one of the most powerful companies in the world.

The DMCC Act means that big tech firms like Google will be forced to negotiate a fair deal with news providers, including independent and local publishers. But Google is resisting regulation, saying that only 2 per cent of searches are news queries. PINF thinks the claim is misleading and it ignores the huge value that news publishers create for Google by providing users with a wide range of trustworthy, diverse, relevant search results.

What's the top line?

The research proves that 66 per cent of users prefer Google when it includes national and local news. In other words, news providers and Google are more powerful together than they are apart. But Google is hoarding its enormous revenues rather than sharing them fairly with publishers. Google generated £16.7 billion from search advertising in the UK in 2023, of which £8.5 billion (55 per cent), comes from information searches.

Of that, £5.6 billion is generated with the help of news media. If this value were split 60:40 with Google, news providers would be entitled to £2.2 billion – for 2023 alone. Accounting for all the previous years where Google has held this dominant position, the final bill would come to many billions. 

What does this mean for my newsroom?

It is very hard for individual news organisations to stand up to big tech firms like Google, but the DMCC Act allows publishers to negotiate collectively with Google.

Publishers create and verify the content, employ journalists, investigate the stories and carry the legal risks. Without the work of news providers large and small, Google would ultimately be less valuable. PINF hopes that its research can underpin collective negotiations and give news providers confidence, leading to a new and more sustainable settlement between news publishers and Google.

World Press Trends Outlook: Digital growth and 'other' revenue streams steady the ship for publishers

WAN-IFRA has just published its latest World Press Trends report that captures key trends in digital publishing, with an emphasis on revenue and technology. Director of insights and editor-in-chief, Dean Roper, gave us the lowdown. Full report here.

What's the context?

Roper points out that many of the findings or trends cited in the report may not align with a certain news organisation's strategy, or a particular market or region. But they offer a solid benchmark for publishers and an indication of where we as an industry are heading.

What's the top line?

1. For the first time since WAN-IFRA has been conducting its publisher survey, print revenue (circulation and advertising) accounts for less than 50 per cent of publishers' total revenue. At 45 per cent, it is still quite significant and it looks much different in different regions of the world. 

Now you can look at that two ways. Glass half full: digital transformation is accelerating and the revenues are following. The same goes for other non-traditional revenue streams, with publishers becoming less reliant on print and associated high costs, and are seemingly on a more sustainable business path. Glass half empty: print revenue decline is accelerating and it is not clear whether those digital revenue gains are offsetting steeper print declines quickly enough.

2. Despite the ongoing business model challenges - waning trust from consumers, geopolitical issues, and likely website traffic declines thanks to platforms, journalism and press freedom under siege - 61 per cent of respondents (mostly CEOs) told us they are quite optimistic about how their business will develop in 2025 (and 64 per cent over the next three years).

What does this mean for my newsroom?

As for the print revenue declines, this depends so much on your particular situation.

Here in Europe, some media groups still depend heavily on print revenue, sometimes at 70-80 per cent of their total revenue. Yet, not surprisingly, they are investing and innovating more on the digital side while trying to squeeze as much as possible out of print to help bridge their path to a more digitally sustainable business model.

Much of that innovation and investment boils down to understanding their audiences and consumers. That means data, tech, product development, experimentation and, essentially, a new culture. Not just for the newsroom. That is nothing new but the urgency on the execution part of the equation seems palpable given the headwinds. 

Publishers are progressively diversifying their revenue streams. Often that is a bucket of different activities. At the same time, they are also laser-focused on being cost-efficient. And for sure, AI is increasingly playing a role there, but it looks like ROI on AI is starting to take centre stage.

Converting online news visitors to subscribers: Exploring the effectiveness of paywall strategies using behavioural data

A common source of digital revenue comes from paywalls that persuade (or force, depending on how you look at it) readers to pay for online content. Professor at LMU Munich, Neil Thurman, led a study that looks at the effectiveness of different paywall strategies, with colleagues Zhengyi Xu, Julia Berhami, Clara Strasser, and Ole Fehling. Thurman gave us the gist of the findings. Full report here.

What's the context?

Despite significant growth in online news subscribers in many developed countries, that growth has been levelling off. So, how can more visitors be encouraged to subscribe?

Previous research has primarily investigated news subscriptions from the user and product perspectives. Relatively little research has looked at the effects of paywall strategies, and intention or willingness to pay have often been used as indicators of whether people would subscribe rather than users’ actual subscription behaviours.

This study helps fill the gaps by using behavioural data from visitors at 21 regional and local news websites and investigates paywall strategies, such as:

1. Teaser elements (e.g. pictures, stand-firsts, introductory paragraphs etc.) shown on the paywall-locked article pages.
2. Offer/price information declared on the subscription pages (e.g. pricing, discounts, trial periods, free gifts etc).

The researchers investigate correlations between paywall strategies and visitors’ decisions to start and finish the subscription journey.

What's the top line?

Firstly, research shows that displaying a stand-first or an introductory paragraph on paywalled article pages significantly decreased the odds of visitors clicking the "subscribe-now"-type buttons when they hit the paywall, i.e. starting the subscription journey.

A possible explanation is that a stand-first and/or an intro can provide considerable information about the article not contained within the headline. As a result, visitors may obtain enough information from a well-formulated stand-first and/or intro to feel that they have been sufficiently informed, and therefore feel no need to read further, let alone pay to do so.

Secondly, the study found that for visitors who had already started their subscription journeys, there was a significant positive association between offering a discount and them paying for a subscription. There were no such associations between offering an ePaper, free or longer trial periods, giving away small gifts, or the costs of subscribing and whether visitors paid for a subscription.

As most news websites have quite similar prices, which are also fairly affordable, people may not consider the price to be an important factor in the subscription decision. However, offering a direct discount may give the visitors the feeling that they are receiving a tangible benefit and encourage them to subscribe.

What does this mean for my newsroom?

Reducing the information volume of these teaser elements could make sense for news websites. As many of the news websites showed both a stand-first and an intro on their paywall-locked article pages, another possible strategy would be for the publisher to remove one of them or even both.

It could also make sense to save the money earmarked for small gifts and free trials and use it to offer discounts instead.

Journalism in the AI era: A Thomson Reuters Foundation Insights survey

And on the AI front, the Thomson Reuters Foundation surveyed 200 journalists from around 70 countries in the Global South to better understand how they are using the revolutionary new technology and the challenges it has presented. The main takeaways come from report author Damian Radcliffe, also Carolyn S. Chambers, professor in journalism, the University of Oregon. Full report here.

What's the context?

AI is reshaping journalism worldwide, but the experiences of journalists in the Global South are often not as prominently researched or covered.

This research, which taps into the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s alumni network in Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, seeks to address that. It does so by elevating the experiences of journalists in these regions, often in their own words.

What's the top line?

Journalists in newsrooms across the Global South are adopting AI, but they are often doing so without clear editorial policies (79 per cent) or sufficient training (58 per cent), and they would like that to be addressed. They see the benefit - both in terms of their own workflows and in relationships with audiences - if there was greater transparency and guidelines around ethical and acceptable AI usage. This matters, because even though more than eight out of ten journalists said they use AI technology, over half of survey respondents (53 per cent) voiced serious ethical concerns about AI and its effects on the future of journalism.

What does this mean for my newsroom?

The use of AI in newsrooms needs structure. Without it, there is confusion about how to best deploy it. 

So that means investing in training, developing clear internal policies, sharing those with your audiences, addressing ethical concerns among reporters and consumers alike, and learning from one another about how AI can improve workflows and unlock creativity and innovation in what you do, not just how you do it.

The art of the nudge: perfecting push in 2025

Mobile publishing platform PugPig has published a new report into best practices for push notifications and app messaging, as mobile audiences have become a critical source of readership. App strategy and industry insights director, Kevin Anderson, told us more. Full report here.

What's the context?

During research for the State of Mobile Publishing report last year, PugPig's analysis showed publishers successfully using push notifications - those with the highest open rates - had twice as much engagement measured by sessions per user per month as publishers with the lowest open rates.

They also saw publishers increase the active users in their apps by 60 per cent in three months after they started using push. They wanted to better understand how these top performers were achieving these results and share these success stories and strategies so other publishers across the industry could benefit from them. 

What's the top line?

Building direct relationships and habits with audiences is key to engaging with them and creating a sustainable media business. From the moment a user downloads an app, in-app messaging can help communicate how to use it and how to get the most value out of it.

OneSignal found that app publishers who use onboarding messages have 56.25 per cent higher daily average user to monthly average user rates than apps that do not.

What does this mean for my newsroom?

The report has three case studies - The Boston Globe, ACCA and City AM - that are successfully using push notifications to grow engagement and increase retention in their apps.

The action point for publishers is to use content strategy, data, surveys and user preferences to ensure app messaging is as relevant and valuable to each user as possible. When The Boston Globe started targeting its push notifications, it increased open rates by up to three times. The results are that these three publishers' apps are growing and delivering highly engaged, loyal audiences critical to success in the post-traffic era.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).