Guardian returns to revenue growth with 1.3m paying online readers (exclusive)
And how Tindle Newspapers has finally become a digital-first publisher (whilst also embracing a bricks and mortar town centre presence)
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 27 May, in association with Avid Collective.
Discover here how publishers can unlock the true potential of branded content by improving accessibility. Streamlining the discovery, buying, execution, and measurement of branded content can turn it into a scalable, high-impact revenue engine.
The Guardian is back into revenue growth helped by annual reader payments which now total more than £100m per year.
The news (exclusively reported by Press Gazette) follows a challenging year for the title which began with editorial redundancies and ended with the sale of The Observer (and more than 20 associated redundancies). The publisher now claims to have more than 1.3m paying online readers.
With £1.3bn in the bank, The Guardian can afford to lose money at the current rate of £25m a year pretty much indefinitely.
But I wonder if owners The Scott Trust may decide the time is right to put more of that cash to use in the service of liberal journalism with a big investment in the future of the title?
Today we also catch up with the managing director of Tindle Newspapers, a privately owned local newspaper group with 23 weekly titles mainly based in picturesque market towns.
Founder Sir Ray Tindle started a local news empire with his army demob payout after World War Two.
He believed local journalism had to be intensely focused on a town or village because, as he once told me, you won't travel far to buy a hammer.
It's encouraging to know that under the ownership of son Owen, Tindle remains committed to that local ethos.
In my view, the revival of local media has to begin at grassroots by giving communities a service which is good enough they will support it (by paying for content and investing in advertising).
And we have your news diary for the week head which includes another court appearance for Russell Brand and a state visit to Canada for the King and Queen of England.
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On Press Gazette
Guardian grows revenue and reduces losses for year to March 2025
Title reports boom in reader revenue, which has been helped by its opposition in the US to President Trump.
Online subs and town centre shopfronts: Tindle plan to safeguard local news
Tindle Newspapers MD Scott Wood reveals the "ambition" driving the publisher's next steps.
News diary 26 May – 1 June: Russell Brand in court, disposable vape ban comes in
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
Future of Media Awards 2025 are open for entries
Awards celebrate great journalism-based apps, podcasts, websites, newsletters and more.
How advertisers and publishers can unlock branded content growth (promoted)
Five key barriers are stopping publishers from scaling branded content. Here’s how they can overcome them.
News in brief
Politico journalists claim the introduction of AI tools - live news summaries during big news events and the subscriber-only Policy Intelligence Assistance - goes against their union contract amid fears of there not always being enough human oversight. (Wired)
Tortoise Media has again lost its claim for judicial review against the Conservative Party at the Court of Appeal. The news organisation brought the claim after the Party refused to share information about the leadership election won by Liz Truss. (Judiciary)
Pocket, which lets people bookmark articles and webpages to read later, is being closed by internet not-for-profit and Firefox owner Mozilla on 8 July because "the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved". (The Verge)
The BBC World Service is launching a website in Polish next month using AI translation. Translated BBC News content (with human oversight and labelled) will sit alongside original regional content from Polish-speaking journalists. (BBC)
After leaving Sky News where he spent 11 years, Ian King has joined CNBC to write a weekly UK business and finance newsletter. (CNBC)
A BBC News article: "Yahya Sinwar: Who was the Hamas leader?" was found to be in breach of the BBC's guidelines because it said Sinwar had been arrested aged 19 for "Islamic activities" and, although this was corrected, no note was added to the article. (BBC)
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Latest podcast: Death of the website, the never-ending pivot to video and why Dom loves Substack
'The death of the website' was the name of one panel session at a recent publishing industry conference. Press Gazette editor in chief Dominic Ponsford and UK editor Charlotte Tobitt discuss why this statement is nonsense, but also the tech and behaviour changes which are prompting people to say it.
They also analyse the latest publisher pivot to video (more a never-ending pirouette) and Dominic explains why he has become an unpaid brand ambassador for Substack.