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Fighting for journalism and profitable news media
Guardian supporters boost revenue | One in five Britons using AI to access news
And why ITV News reporter left channel to help launch Zeteo UK
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Good morning from the team at Press Gazette on Tuesday, 15 September.
🍾 Congratulations to The Guardian, which continues to prosper thanks to the soaring success of its unusual reader-revenue model.
The Guardian has accelerated the pace of growth under the leadership of chief supporter revenue officer Liz Wynn over the last three years. Tactics have included increasingly personalised and prominent calls to action for online readers who don’t pay, effective use of its huge email database to send out topical membership campaigns and supporter packages that look increasingly like subscriptions.
The £14-per-month “recommended” supporter tier now includes ad-free reading, unlimited use of The Guardian app, an exclusive weekly newsletter and access to the paid-for Guardian Feast app.
Overall, the business made a loss last year of £17m which, in Guardian terms, is absolutely fine because its endowment fund still rose by £100m to be worth £1.35bn.
If anything, some Guardian insiders are wondering why bosses are not spending more money (hence the fact journalists are considering strike action over a pay offer of 3.85%).
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But online intermediaries (social media, search, AI etc) now account for 37% of that total and are by far the biggest segment.
News publisher websites account for 11% of the total time spent with news each day. No wonder publishers are investing so heavily currently in video content broadcast on Youtube and social media.
The survey also reveals that one in five Britons now say they use AI to access news and the section on trust is interesting.
Those who actually use legacy media for news (broadcast, radio and print) say they find it far more trustworthy than online sources with little difference in trust and accuracy scores among the three.
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🚀 And as Mehdi Hasan’s fledgling left-wing newsbrand Zeteo launches in the UK we have an interview with one of its star hires – former ITV News political correspondent Shehab Khan.
Zeteo UK is based on Substack meaning a daily email newsletter is at the core of the title. But it also has two video strands housed on its Substack-based website: The Real Question with Shehab Khan and Sangita Meets hosted by Sangita Myska.
Myska lost her job at LBC after challenging an Israeli government spokesman in a live interview over the genocide in Gaza.
Shehab Khan told Press Gazette that being able to speak his mind about issues like Israel’s actions in Gaza was a big reason for taking the job: “If we believe someone is being racist, we will say so. If we believe someone is a fascist, we will say so. We believe there’s a genocide going on in Gaza – we will say so.”
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