From Press Gazette: Daily Mail publisher says digital advertising growth is now cancelling out print ads decline

Press Gazette 23 May 2013

Mail Online has reported revenue for the first half of this year (to the end of March) up 61 per cent to £20m.

But despite the huge revenue growth from the world’s most popular newspaper website, its contribution to the bottom line is still tiny compared to that made by its sister print titles.

And the increase in digital revenue does not offset the overall declines in print revenue for the Mail titles (down 6 per cent to £287m) and Metro (down 8 per cent to £40m). Total half-year revenue was down 6 per cent year on year to £406m for the DMG Media division of Daily Mail and General Trust.

Just looking at advertising, DMGT said that digital advertising growth across DMG Media now exceeds print advertising decline: “This is a significant inflection point for the business”, the company said.

to read full article

(Posted by PL)

The Sun joins Telegraph in charging website users

News International says offering free content is ‘just untenable’, while Telegraph announces erection of metered paywall

Lisa O’Carroll and Roy Greenslade
The Guardian, Tuesday 26 March 2013 20.22 GMT

Britain’s biggest selling daily newspaper, The Sun, is to start charging for its online content in the second half of 2013 as part of a radical shift in thinking about readers getting its journalism for free.

Mike Darcey, the chief executive of News International, said the parent company’s current position – which allowed millions of readers to get the Sun’s content for free – was “untenable”.

The Sun online is read by about 30 million users every month – more than 10 times its 2.4m daily print circulation.

At an informal press event on Tuesday night, Darcey said “the second half of 2013 is a fairly safe bet” for the erection of a paywall. That would coincide with the launch of the publisher’s new Premier League deal, allowing it to show clips of goals and match highlights .

The Daily Telegraph is also to charge for access to its website, becoming the first UK general interest national newspaper to use a metered paywall system.

to read full article

(posted by PL)

From Lyra McKee blog: Want a career in investigative journalism? Become an entrepreneur

Want a career in investigative journalism? Become an entrepreneur

Recently, a young journalist asked me how he could become an investigative reporter.

The news industry has changed so much in the last 10 years that there is no longer a single answer to that question. If you asked me “How do I become a lawyer?”, I’d tell you to go to law school. With muckraking, it’s not as simple as that. To answer that question, we need to consider the industry and what it looks like right now.

toread the blog piece

(posted by PL)

From Press Gazette: How to turn your blog into a business

Zoe Griffin 06 March 2013

If you have a laptop and access to the internet you could be on your way to making millions.

In my new book Get Rich Blogging, I use the example of Arianna Huffington who set up the blog The Huffington Post and became a multi-millionaire when she sold it to AOL for £160 million.

Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert, Nikke Finke from Deadline Hollywood and Michael Arrington from Tech Crunch also set up blogs by themselves, built them up and sold them for more than £10 million.

These super bloggers share several common traits. There is a reason why they were successful and managed to stand out in a crowded blogosphere.

My top five tips for anyone wanting to turn their blog from a hobby to a cash-generating business are:

to read the five tips

(posted by PL)