Regional news ABCs and digital audience data | FT names Jon Slade as new CEO
And we have a round-up from day two of Noel Clarke's libel case against The Guardian
Good morning and welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Tuesday, 11 March.
Today we reveal the latest UK local newspaper print and digital circulation figures.
First the bad news: print circulations continue to fall fast and no regional daily now sells more than 20,000 copies per day. We have the full details here.
Now the better news. Local news brands continue to grow or consolidate their online audiences. Again we have the full breakdown, including company-by-company analysis.
And if you want to take a really glass-is-half-full approach, local print newspaper profitability is lasting far longer than many thought it would. That the Paisley Daily Express can still make money selling 1,000 copies per day is testament to an extremely streamlined production process.
But it is striking to note the contrast with local news publishers in the US, which in many cases (Boston Globe, LA Times and others) have more than cancelled out print decline with paid-for digital subscriber growth. No UK local news publisher has made the paid print to digital transition and Newsquest is the only one of the big three publishers making serious moves in that direction.
Reach-owned title Surrey Live leads the way in terms of online growth, tripling in size over the last year.
It publishes dozens of stories per day offering health and nutrition advice which have strong visibility on Google's Discover smartphone aggregation platform.
Congratulations are due to the Reach content team because advertising sold against all those stories about weight loss and how to avoid dementia are helping to fund original local news reporting. But it is traffic which is vulnerable to changes in the Google algorithm, as steep falls at rival title Birmingham Live seem to suggest (it has mined its own rich seam of traffic based around personal finance content).
Today we also report on a new chief executive at the Financial Times, where the policy from owners Nikkei appears to be "steady as she goes". Chief commercial officer Jon Slade is stepping into the shoes of John Ridding and knows the ropes, having been with the company for 20 years.
The FT Group is likely to overtake Reach this year in terms of overall revenue, which illustrates how hard it is to make money out of free online readers.
Reach is the largest commercial news publisher in the UK with a total audience of 34 million, 120 brands and more than 4,000 staff. The FT publishes its flagship global business brand to a paying audience of three million and a handful of specialist titles with a total staff of 1,600.
It is not in any way a fair comparison considering the different subject matter and remits of the two publishers. But I do wonder whether in the UK's big cities in particular there isn't room for more high-quality paid local digital news?
On Press Gazette
Picture: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock
Regional newspaper ABCs: No UK daily now has print circulation of 20,000 or more
The Irish News spent 2024 as the regional daily with both the most digital subscriptions (3,396, down 4%) and highest print circulation (18,586, down 11%).
Biggest local news sites: Surrey Live grows audience 300% in a year
Birmingham Live, which previously had the second-largest digital audience of any local title, dropped to third behind The London Standard following a 26% year-on-year audience decline.
FT chief commercial officer Jon Slade named next CEO
“There has rarely been a more consequential period for professional news media. I look forward to tackling the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in our rapidly shifting landscape.”
Noel Clarke gives evidence in Guardian libel trial: Publisher ‘smashed my life’
Day two of libel trial at London's High Court.
News in brief
A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit brought by a group of authors against Meta over alleged AI copyright violations to move forward, but dismissed part of the claim alleging the company illegally accessed their data. (TechCrunch)
Liberal digital media outlet MeidasTouch says it now has 40,000 paying subscribers paying a minimum of $80 for annual access to its Substack, which equates to annualised revenue before fees or promotions of at least $3.2m. (The New York Times)
The son of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai is calling for a meeting with Keir Starmer after a court in the territory set 28 July as the tentative date for closing arguments in what Reporters Without Borders has called Lai's "show trial" on "absurd" charges. (RSF)
The BBC has appointed Anna Foster as one of the main presenters of the Today programme on Radio 4 following the departure of Mishal Husain. Foster is a former Middle East correspondent who has presented on 5 Live Drive, Radio 1's Newsbeat and TV news bulletins. (BBC News)
Political reporter Tara Palmeri is leaving her $260,000 base salary at Puck to go independent via Youtube, which has given her a $10,000 grant for equipment and editors' services. She intends to try a scoop-heavy approach, she told the NYT, which is currently relatively rare in Youtube journalism. (The New York Times)
Washington Post associate editor and staffer of four decades Ruth Marcus has resigned from the paper, saying chief executive Will Lewis blocked her from publishing a column "respectfully dissenting" from Jeff Bezos' decision to limit the opinion section to the promotion of "liberties and free markets". (NPR)
Meanwhile the Post is dividing its national desk into one section focusing on national reporting and one on politics/government coverage. Business, tech, health, science and climate teams are also being brought together into one department. (Axios)
Betfair has signed a deal to sponsor two Sun Originals video shows, Tactics Exposed and Weekend Wager, for the rest of the football season. The deal was described as a "real validation" of The Sun's new video-focused strategy which you can read more about here.
Also on Press Gazette:
‘Don’t worry about page views’: Newsquest Scotland tops 40,000 online subscriptions
Top 50 magazines in the US: The Atlantic is fastest growing title in second half of 2024
Noel Clarke claims Guardian played ‘judge, jury and executioner’ as libel trial opens
‘AI time dividend’ fuels booming income from face-to-face events for Informa
Rebekah and Jamie Vardy secure Daily Mail correction after IPSO complaint
Mark Allen Group blames ‘troublesome’ Bonhill deal as profit falls in 2024
Financial Times CEO John Ridding to step down after 19 years
Latest Press Gazette podcast
Latest Podcast: How to lose £100m with GB News | Print decline in the USA | Green shoots at Reach
Press Gazette's editorial team share their insights into big stories from the world of news. GB News has lost nearly £100m but is growing its non-TV advertising revenue and heading in the right direction. Charlotte Tobitt talks about this and the implications of its big legal victory over Ofcom.
Bron Maher shares some highlights from Press Gazette analysis for US newspaper and magazine print circulation figures. There are only a handful of newspapers selling more than 100,000 print copies in the USA (but they can console themselves with the fact they have strong digital subscriber bases).
And Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford looks at the latest financial results from Reach which reveal growing page views and profits amid a backdrop of overall decline at the UK's biggest commercial news publisher.