The future of journalism is niche
Learnings from this week's newsrewired conference in London
Hello
Thanks so much for all your feedback on last week’s issue around younger audiences - I loved hearing from you. This week I was delighted to be asked to host a panel at newsrewired in London and have shared what I learned from a series of brilliant discussions there. Each week I talk about journalism sustainability in an AI era, through a lens of people, planet and purpose. If you like the newsletter, please do share with a friend, using the button below. If you’re here because someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’re not yet subscribed, please do click the button at the end to sign up for free.
“The internet rewards specialists, not generalists.” Douglas McCabe, Enders Analysis
I wrote a few weeks back on the decline of local news and the rise of independent start-ups filling the gaps left in some communities by legacy media. At the time, I was advocating for more collaboration between journalists and news organisations big and small in pursuit of brilliant, sustainable journalism to serve their communities.
A lot has happened in local news since then. Most notably, the announcement of another round of redundancies at Reach, coupled with the closure of several of its regional Live sites, has left hundreds of journalists without a job and has dealt the already battered local news industry yet another uppercut. Google’s latest Core Update has continued to challenge many regional news sites (it’s worth checking out Lily Ray for the Google’s latest announcement on ‘follow’, ‘hidden gems’ and ‘notes’ and how they might impact further). Meanwhile, Mill Media has launched the Birmingham Dispatch to add to its portfolio of Substack titles in Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield.
It was against this backdrop that I hosted a panel at journalism.co.uk’s newsrewired’s London conference this week and realised that although we are all dealing with huge global transformational challenges - AI, war and climate among them - it’s niche content where journalism is succeeding and appears to have the greatest opportunity. And I was reminded of something Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis had said months ago and reiterated in his Signs of Local Life report on local news media earlier this year - the internet rewards specialists, not generalists.
Lucy Küng addresses journalists at newsrewired. Credit: Mark Hakansson, Mousetrap Media.
The day started with a keynote from media leadership and strategy expert Lucy Küng who described how it was time for the ‘redefinition’ of mass media. She described how new forms of competition, from tech giants, social networks and content entrepreneurs meant legacy media was ‘structurally outgunned’ and needed to move away from ‘something for everyone’ and instead identify priority audience segments and laser focus on user needs.
She said the biggest asset that legacy media companies have is their people, with brands as their asset number 2. And in order to keep those people, and retain those brands, we need brilliant leadership (a ‘force multiplier’ in achieving a business’s goals). She also advocated collaboration between publishers as key to future success.
Speaking on a panel about nailing your subscription pitch, Joshi Herrmann, founder of Mill Media, said what compelled readers to pay for content was that they felt part of an insitution that would be good for their city. Herrmann, alongside Charles Minty, director of digital reader revenue at the Guardian, both described how they used data and communication to really understand the motivations of their readers and create specific appeals for contributions based on the stories that were having the biggest impact at the time. That specificity was what worked with readers.
The experience that readers feel from being part of a network of like-minded people was something that came through even more strongly in the workshop from the Telegraph’s head and deputy head of community, Philippa Law and Tara Thorpe, in their workshop session on building engaged communities. They articulated the power in identifying niche groups of people with common interests. And once you’ve identified them, they key is to understand the value of that community to your business; engage them by offering value to them; and make them feel special for participating in - or even acting as ambassadors for - your space.
Lisa McLeod, director of FT Strategies, talked in a special FT panel focused on broadening their portfolio about the levels of innovation in smaller newsrooms. And while she accepted that not every media organisation could, like the FT, deliver their own newsroom consultancy business, she advocated identifying your strengths and developing new revenue streams based around them - citing a newsroom in Rwanda that had set up a photography training scheme.
My panel focused on how local publishers are leading newsroom innovation, with Matt Abbott from Ping! (Public Interest News Gateway) talking about their newswire that helps independent news operators monetise their journalism while Daniel Ionescu from MyLocal described the tech solution he’s created for local communities that bundles social networking, news and information into a single space. Both products were supporting journalism on a hyperlocal level making that content super relevant for the communities they served.
The big global issues of the day were also tackled in several brilliant sessions. Jane Barrett, from hosts Thomson Reuters, opened the day with her challenge for 2024 - how can journalists lean into AI to do things we’ve never thought about doing before? Barrett, global editor for media news strategy at Reuters, said the technology was moving so fast we were in danger of being left behind. Kevin Donnellan, director of Explainable, ran a workshop on practical uses for AI in newsrooms and articulated the need for all media organisations to have an AI policy in place. “It’s not enough to just think that there’s going to be a time in the future where we’re going to understand what AI means. It’s important for companies to begin implementing policies now.”
Hannah Storm and John Crowley, founders of Headlines Network, ran a workshop on improving mental health in newsrooms, which I know was particularly valued by media organisations currently dealing with conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.
And Inga Thordar, chief impact officer at Skating Panda, ran a fascinating panel on climate reporting challenging the media to move beyond reporting on the symptoms of climate change and instead find ways to articulate the systemic problems behind it. Matthew Pye, founder of the Climate Academy, talked about the woeful levels of climate literacy in schools that was mirrored in society and the role that media could play in addressing that.
These are the big challenges shaping not just journalism but global society. But in the face of these, is journalism’s big opportunity to get closer than ever to the people it serves by becoming more niche?
Reading this week
People
🫶 I’ve written in the past about DC Thompson’s focus on communities and this piece from WAN-IFRA ‘New focus on communities brings big gains in paying subscribers’ highlights how their strategy is paying off.
Planet
🌍 AdNetZero released their first annual report this week. What I like about it is the clarity of its recommendations - five steps to help commercial organisations map out their path to net zero.
Purpose
📰 I love this controversial piece from Alan Hunter - ‘it’s content, get over it’. He argues that if journalism organisations recognised themselves as content providers they would be putting themselves in a better position to survive and maybe even thrive.
AI
🤖 After meeting the super smart Kevin Donnellan this week at newsrewired I checked out his Substack - expl.AI.nable - and you should too. It’s an excellent read pulling out some of the most interesting developments and experiments in AI - and giving a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into his conversations at this week’s conference.
AI experiment of the week
Tool:
https://elevenlabs.io/
Experiment: This is a great tool for text to audio voice generation. It’s free to use for the first 10,000 words and there’s a huge range of voices to choose from, plus the ability to customise your own AI-generated voice. I asked for an audio version of this newsletter from Dorothy (British, pleasant) and here’s what it produced:
Dorothy dissects newsrewired
Please do get in touch - I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you like it, please share with friends. And remember to hit subscribe if you’re not already signed up.
Until next time.
Jacqui