What the editors of The solar and The Guardian believe about the future of newspapers

Shift 2016Katharine Viner on stage at the Shift 2016 convention in London on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

the united kingdom information business is becoming basically perplexing.

As one UK newspaper — the independent — announced it'll end its print edition, another newspaper — Trinity mirror's the new Day — turned into born weeks later. while simply months after The solar tore down its online paywall to gain a larger audience, the Guardian admitted that, in spite of its own huge on-line following of 158 million browsers, it needs to reduce expenses by using 20%.

Amid the uncertainty, there are few figures in an improved place to explain the developments in UK media than The solar's editor, Tony Gallagher, and Katharine Viner, editor of the Guardian. The solar is the most accepted newspaper in the UK, with a standard day by day circulation of more than 1.78 million, according to its latest ABC record, while The Guardian posted 266 million global friends in January, according to SimilarWeb.

each journalists were talking at newspaper marketing agency Newsworks' Shift 2016 convention in London on Tuesday and shared their views on the way forward for newspapers.

here's what we learned:

how to make cash online

Neither Viner nor Gallagher agree with that their publications can also be sustained via promoting revenue alone. Viner defined that the Guardian hopes to re-energize its membership scheme to generate more salary from its most loyal readers. Guardian membership at present gives entry to exclusive, live events that includes journalists and cultural figures. The can charge ranges from £5 ($6.ninety six) to £60 ($eighty three.52) a month.

but the Guardian isn't an internet paywall. She stated (emphasis ours):

"What we're is the best way to get ... readers to become extra loyal and turn them from being loyal readers into members. certainly one of issues i've found, above all since I've obtained the job, is that people say to me all of the time 'How can i give you money? I suppose responsible that I examine you so a whole lot, i take advantage of you so a good deal, I watch your video clips all day, however I don't pay you any funds.' So we want to support them out with that need ... We should not introducing a paywall, no. So it's a couple of deeper relationship and getting them to pay …"

Shift 2016The sun editor Tony Gallagher being interviewed at Shift 2016.

recently free-to-access-on-line, The solar is looking in opposition t other cash making ventures that healthy with its brand. It already makes make the most of Dream crew, a delusion football game, and soon The sun will develop into a bookmaker, with sun Bets anticipated to launch this 12 months. Gallagher mentioned:

"one of the most greatest things we'll be doing this year, the business has excessive hopes for launching solar Bets, which is hoping to move reside across the time of the launch of the brand new Premier League season in August. There are 14 million people that bet in the UK — about 55% of them are regular sun readers — we suppose that's very decent for us, it's some of the areas we're keen to expand in. appear, I suppose the longer term for news brands is going to be loads of revenue streams and it's no longer simply going to be cowl fee any further than it's going to be advertising and … as Katherine Viner highlighted, we all should seem to our strengths to peer that there are areas that we will play in to be successful for a very long time in a sustainable future."

Print vs on-line

or not it's a question people have been asking ever on account that the information superhighway grew to be mainstream, however's on the other hand still being asked: Is print media dying for respectable?

"Hmm, I have no idea," replied Viner when she became requested that question on stage. "I suggest, I believe that, you recognize, anything else we put out with The Guardian's identify on it can be really respectable. I think we should still be producing truly respectable newspapers. You be aware of The Guardian and The Observer should still be nearly as good as we could make them. I suppose the long run is digital and definitely we should still be investing in innovation and digital. however they're still differing types of readers."

She later delivered: "remaining yr, the revenue we got from print readers definitely went up." The Guardian Media neighborhood's total revenues rose three% to £214.6m ($298 million) in the year to March 29, 2015, with the enterprise announcing in its annual document "increases in digital and new product income greater than offsetting declines in print income."

Gallagher, whose print business is the key to The solar newspaper's success, turned into extra assured when discussing the relative merits of print journalism in comparison to on-line journalism:

"I'm now not certain that I see it as a binary choice: how plenty time do I spend considering print journalism, or how a lot time do I spend considering digital journalism. The mannequin I think for many newsrooms must be to suppose about each instinctively ... however we've all these new brands arriving, the reliance on usual media is as important as ever. and that i believe it's beyond dispute that newspapers continue to drive the national dialog."

Social media

The GuardianThe Guardian editor Katharine Viner.

both Viner and Gallagher agreed that the business has moved some distance past the query of no matter if social media might ever substitute traditional media. Viner described social media as main us to a "dark ages of false information," with "every thing flying." She introduced:

"I suppose that there has been a circulate lower back against manufacturers that americans have confidence to verify and sort of separate in the course of the speculation and the rumor and the falsity."

Gallagher talked about the altering relationships with dependent social media websites like facebook and Twitter. He referred to facebook become evidently essentially the most vital in terms of riding site visitors to The sun web page, but seen changes within the uses of Twitter. He stated:

"Most reporters are on Twitter in some structure or different. despite the fact I've observed myself over the ultimate couple of years that it's likely changed from being a driver of traffic, to well-nigh a keen competitor for the likes of the [news wire service] Press association. americans now use it as a news supply, however I'm not certain it's a massive site visitors driver unless you're the likes of Jeremy Clarkson or Piers Morgan. And, if anything else, I suppose there's a tendency for some social media types, above all Twitter greater than others, to turn into slightly of an echo-chamber, with a bunch-think gadget of all and sundry determining anything's horrific or something's striking and it's resulted in a loss of notion amongst journalists."

Innovation: From branded apps to Snapchat

as well as speakme about finding new tips on how to power site visitors to their websites, the two editors have been keen to focus on different company building improvements. Viner explained a new product:

"We launched this new product, which I'd love every person to signal for. It's called 'The Minute' and you may sign in for it within the Guardian app and it takes you one minute to examine. It's very visible. It's built for smart phones and it tells you what came about within the election crusade nowadays in one minute. It's reasonably jokey, quite fun, as I say, very visible. So we're kind of pushing on all fronts. It's been very pleasing and newsy and you comprehend, we're making an attempt to be ingenious at the equal time."

Later, Gallagher talked excitedly in regards to the solar's launch on Snapchat discover: "We think that the irreverence that we bring to the birthday party could be superb for Snapchat find."

however, as with The sun's paywall, Gallagher diagnosed that new projects can fail and if that happens once again with other projects, it is vital to abandon them, before losing too a whole lot time and substances on them.

He mentioned of the assignment into Snapchat discover: "If it's now not working i'd propose binning it in a couple of years, no longer persisting with whatever thing. We suppose it's going to work, but if any of these issues don't work, don't persist with them for years."

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