Reach's reader revenue trials | Anti-SLAPP taskforce
Plus: FT Strategies on how gender-balanced copy can make for more revenue
There is a vast untapped audience for many news websites. Given this group's rising influence, spending power and sheer numbers it's a surprise that online publishers don't do more to attract them.
Now the FT's Strategies consulting division has launched a new product called FT Diversify which aims to help publishers make their news websites more welcoming for the 51% of the UK population most are struggling to reach: women.
We have a report on the FT Strategies presentation to last week's Future of Media Technology conference which reveals how hundreds of tiny changes could lead to more female readers and ultimately provide a boost to publishers’ revenue.
Today, we also have an exclusive on major reader revenue experiments at Reach, which is trialling paid-for newsletters, paid-for apps and a premium ad-free subscription to the Daily Express website. If successful, this could signal a big shift away from fully relying on the free online models which have supported tabloid news publishers thus far in the UK.
And we also have news of a government task force which has been set up to tackle SLAPPs. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer writes exclusively for Press Gazette about why, she says, Rishi Sunak's government is serious about protecting journalists from intimidatory legal tactics.
New from Press Gazette:
Reach reader revenue trials: Premium apps, paid-for newsletters and ad-free Express
“Ultimately, we provide free content, that’s a business strategy and we fund that through advertising predominantly. But this is about giving our readers a different way to consume our sites.”
FT offers lessons for news publishers on how to reach more women
During a focus group in 2015, a target FT female reader was asked to describe the title as if it was a person. She said: “He’s a man and he’s in a bowler hat, he’s turning away from me and he’s not listening to me.”
Government-led task force launched to protect journalism from SLAPPs
"Individuals and organisations who file them typically do not expect to win. Their goal is to harass and intimidate, saddling journalists with prohibitively expensive, time-consuming and morale-sapping legal processes."
News diary 11-17 September: Google and Apple lawsuits heard as iPhone 15 launched
A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda this week, from the team at Foresight News.
News in brief:
Engagement on posts linking to The New York Times on X/Twitter has plummeted since late July in a way that doesn't appear to be replicated at other news organisations. (Semafor)News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has warned AI will create a "tsunami" of job losses at publishers and hand over more power to big tech companies like Google. News Corp is engaged in "various negotiations" with AI companies but is not currently planning to sue. (The Times)The BBC has reportedly spent more than £100,000 over two years battling to not release 3,200 emails relating to its handling of the Martin Bashir/Princess Diana scandal in 2000. The BBC has allowed the documentary maker who made the request to see 477 of them. (Daily Mail)Broadcaster Alastair Stewart has revealed the reason he left GB News full-time in March was that he has early-onset dementia that left him feeling "discombobulated". GB News is naming its new Westminster studio the Alastair Stewart Studio in his honour. (GB News)Traffic from Facebook to Australian publishers has fallen by more than 50% since the start of 2023, in a trend similar to news outlets elsewhere in the world. One editor said Facebook once supplied 50% of their traffic, now down to 20%. (Financial Review)Previously on Press Gazette:
Ten major trends in news consumption publishers need to be thinking about
Audience growth: What publishers can learn from Tiktok and why social still matters
Future of Media Awards 2023 winners: Best digital journalism products of past year revealed
Ex-Sun editor David Yelland on PR: Lying is ‘far less common than you’d think’
Meta to wind down Facebook News tab and stop funding Community News Project
NationalWorld.com staff say morale at ‘rock bottom’ in letter to HR