Next chapter of journalism

Dark clouds linger on the sky of journalism, many of them being the shadows cast by the internet giants. With their ability to target highly specific audiences, Google and Facebook have hoarded the advertising revenues, while newspapers struggle to find new business models in this digital era. Publishers’ digital revenues are growing, too, but not fast enough to compensate for the declining print.

Although doomsday tones dominate the discussion, some signs of a change are already in the air. The annual World Press Trends report follows the global newspaper revenues in more than 70 countries. The report shows that publishers are increasingly moving from an advertising based economy towards a reader-centred one. Global audience revenues are growing — slowly, but growing — and exceeded the sinking advertising revenues already in 2014. Last year, publishers gathered $87 billion as audience revenues, compared to $63 billion from advertising.

This shift means that publishers must increasingly focus on delivering quality content that people are willing to pay for. That being said, the task is far from easy. As consumers, we are growing used to an idea that information is both abundant and free. The idea might be delusional, yet we love it. With Wikipedia just two clicks away and thousands of youtubers and podcasters competing for our attention, journalism is not only competing against other journalistic products, but against new forms of getting information.

However, while quantity of available content skyrockets, the average quality is falling. This is the spot where the traditional publishers should strike. According to the 2018 World Press Trends report, people’s trust in media could be at an all-time low, but “trust in journalists and quality journalism is on the rise, particularly compared to platforms”. There is still a demand for curated, high quality content from parties that the audience can trust.

For publishers, trust and credibility might therefore become more important than ever. After all, products exist to answer to a customer need, and one of people’s needs is making sense of the complicated world. While anyone can today broadcast their ideas, people look for credible sources to make sense of this abundance of information. Thus, publishers should both leverage their institutional status and make sure they have their product in shape.

Talking at the International Television Festival in 2009, James Murdoch claimed that “The only reliable durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit.” [1] While the logic of his statement can’t be denied, it might be that the guarantor of future’s profit will be high quality journalism.