How is News Business Changing and Its Impact on Marketing?

The state of the news business is more dire than ever. The Los Angeles Times laid off 20 percent of its workforce earlier this year. Time magazine had to let go of 15 percent of its unionized editorial employees.

Politico recently wrote about this story and mentioned that newsroom employment has decreased more than 26 percent since 2008. Back in India, the situation is the same. Zee recently laid off 15 percent of its workforce; others barely hang by the threads.

So what's happening? We already know the answers, but as I started writing this piece, I was reminded of what Reed Hastings said to Andrew Ross Sorkin at NYT's DealBook conference.

"Twenty years ago, you could build a business by selling yesterday's news, and that was a significant model. Now, it's not a viable business model; you have to sell today's news." - Reed Hastings, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Netflix

Enough has been written about everything wrong with the business, including freedom of speech and how journalism worldwide is changing.

So, let's focus on how the news business is changing and what marketers learn from the evolving landscape.

Remember, the news business is about grabbing people's attention and improving public discourse, so we can take little breadcrumbs from it to enhance our marketing chops.

How is New Business Changing?

It's becoming increasingly difficult to get people to read the news; if you ask the younger audience whether they consume news, the answer is likely a "no."

News avoidance and fatigue are sources of concern for media companies.

If you are a media company, how do you sustain interest in news from Gaza and Ukraine? Journalists grapple with this challenge daily.

However, the decline in organic and referral traffic has been a significant concern over the last year. While several publishers recovered from the decline in organic traffic, others are struggling to crawl back on their feet.

Video-based news networks are becoming increasingly popular worldwide, especially among younger audiences who prefer to access their news through this medium.

Dylan Page, a young news creator from the UK, regularly has more video views and followers than the combined followers of the BBC and the New York Times, even on essential stories such as Gaza.

As a result, publishers are shifting to direct channels; most publishers covered in the Reuters survey mentioned they will focus on WhatsApp this year.

You will find that many publishers have already set up their broadcast channels on the platform.

77% of publishers surveyed by Reuters said they would focus more on building direct links with consumers through channels like websites, apps, newsletters, and podcasts — channels that they control.

Even brands have lost significant traffic from searches after the Helpful Content Update (HCU), and referral traffic has declined over time.

Most of my former colleagues have taken a similar stance, which has increased marketing spending on direct channels.

However, this year's most significant change is the shift from text-based articles, which have been the center of news flow for the last few decades.

Some publishers are calling this the second phase of digital evolution. The focus has shifted to creating videos, podcasts, and newsletters. You see a similar trend with brands as well.

Unacademy is building awareness for its new product, NextLevel , with a podcast hosted by Tanmay Bhat and Sonia Shenoy. Nikhil Kamath is building WTF and has already seen reasonable success.

WTF is unusual in many ways, considering the podcast lasts a few hours.

They had episodes that were as long as four hours, but surprisingly, the views have already increased, considering that the content offers tremendous value.

Similarly, publishers realize that if the content is of incredible value, viewers might pay a small fee to listen.

The Economist has recently introduced an audio subscription service for ￡4.90 per month or ￡49 per year.

The majority of its shows are now available only for subscribers. The only exception is its daily news podcast, The Intelligence, which is free.

However, as mentioned earlier, the more significant concern for publishers is new avoidance and fatigue.

We also see a similar trend with brands, where prospects avoid reading long-form content, especially reports, whitepapers, and guides.

If your brand is facing a similar dilemma, the Reuters report offers some insights into how to handle it.

Publishers are working on offering a better explanation of complex stories. Suppose you were to reverse-engineer this approach for your brand.

You can build a knowledge base around your business's most complicated problem or pressing question.

How you approach content is equally important; being constructive, positive, and inspiring can help build relationships with prospects.

AI-based tools that modify news language to enhance relevance and comprehension for specific audiences will become increasingly common in the news industry this year.

Artifact is a social news-reading application that summarizes news in various formats. For instance, it can take a Guardian article's text and rewrite it in a simplified manner, adapt it to appeal to Gen Z or convert it into a series of emojis. For the record, Artifact was acquired by 雅虎 earlier this year.

Bots, applications, and browser extensions with similar capabilities will become standard by 2024. Similarly, brands are also considering leveraging AI to reform content. Marketers leverage tools like Copy.ai and Jasper to repurpose content across different formats.

Forward-thinking news organizations will seek to build unique content and experiences that AI cannot easily replicate. These include curating live news, deep analysis, human experiences that create connection, and longer audio and video formats that are more defensible than text.

But they'll also be focused on using AI technologies to make their businesses more efficient in an increasingly challenging economic climate. If you are serious about your content as a brand, keep an eye on the news to understand how the market is evolving and learn from the best in the business.

Message for the reader: If you liked this article, please leave a thumbs-up or a comment. The report from which the insights have been extracted is here.