Signal 01.06: 5 takeouts about the future of the news business from the WAN-IFRA global congress

I am writing this on a Saturday morning, slightly jetlagged after a 24 hour commute back from Copenhagen after a very rewarding and thought provoking week at the WAN-IFRA World News Congress in Denmark.

WAN-IFRA is the World Association of News Publishers established in 1948, and its mission "is to protect the rights of journalists and publishers around the world to operate independent media." Each year it holds its annual news media congress where various news media organisations get together over a week for a series of panels, discussions and even study tours.

I attended 30 sessions over the week and found the event a very worthwhile investment. Here are the five biggest takeaways

1. In the face of disruption from trillion dollar businesses, there is great opportunity for news media businesses to collaborate and bargain together

Christophe Le Clercq, founder of Euroactiv and Chairman of Stars 4 Media talked about the news media business globally being an "army of dwarves" that individually were reasonably powerless in the face of tech giant disruption, but when working together on common challenges could be a formidable team. But do this these businesses need to succeed together rather than fail individually - and find ways to work meaningfully together on shared issues (technology, fact checking, tools, lobbying).

Le Clercq identified that for many news businesses there is a move towards a more fixed cost model, rather than a variable one. This means that a higher proportion of opex and capex is in costs that remain fixed regardless of scale/revenue, and when that happens businesses are faced with 3 options - death, collaboration or consolidation. He urged collaboration as a means of enduring diversity of voices.

AFP CEO Fabrice Fries echoed a similar sentiment. He felt the news media participants are often 'self-interested' and can sacrifice a better outcome if there's collective co-operation for a sub optimal short term individual one.

2. Relevance to audiences under 40 is perhaps the news businesses largest existential challenge and opportunity

For all the discussion of the threat of A.I, as well as technology more broadly, the biggest issue discussed out loud at the congress was around the issues facing traditional news consumption by those under 40. For many European publishers their average subscriber age is 60-70 years of age, and publishers all over the world at the event were open and candid around the importance of finding a way to engage younger audiences.

A big issue according to many is the lack of younger people working within news organisations, as well as a lack of coverage of the issues facing younger people within these publications. A lack of younger voices and younger issues is contributing to either a mistrust in the media, or general indifference from these audiences. Another key area explored was a reluctance for younger audiences to engage in the sort of negativity/partisan/outrage/blame pedalled by a lot of media outlets, especially when younger audiences are looking for more constructive discussion and direction.

Another theme was around the experience expected by younger audiences, and the difference in how more technologically advanced platforms (think Instagram, Netflix, Google etc) are constantly refining their UX and customer experience (almost daily) whilst news organisations may refine theirs every few years. This was an example of how in some ways the news media expect users to adapt to how they want to work rather than adapting to the user.

3. Only two sessions I attended didn't take audience questions throughout the entire event, and both involved big tech

One part of the Congress I enjoyed was the discussion and questions at the end of sessions. Senior leaders from large media organisations answered audience questions on stage with honest and candour. Except two.

Google News leader Jaffer Zaidi was interviewed on the Tuesday and didn't take questions. And on the Wednesday Open AI's Tom Rubin did the same. It was interesting to see both get amazingly softball questioning from their moderator, especially given the discussions on stages throughout the event demonstrating huge fear and uncertainty around Google's AI generative search responses and summaries, and Open AI's recent challenges around consensual usage of IP.

Maybe this was just a coincidence, but for a conference with constant discussions around holding power to account, it was unusual to see two of the most powerful influences on the news business not even being subject to any sort of questions.

4. Relevance and customer centricity is key to sustainability and future growth, and there is a path to significant improvement here

The reader pays model for news is the dominant funding model globally and provides high upside for those who can make it work. But the reader pays model in an increasingly globalised news world only works for publishers if they can be relevant and essential to their readers every day.

It is difficult to maintain a subscriber paying ~$10-20 a month if they visit 3-4 times a month, or there's 1 or 2 pieces that really move them. The aim needs to be much more frequent visitation and in depth engagement with meaningful journalism that helps them better navigate the world they live in. Leaders from news organisations across the world agreed with the amount of data and analysis available to managers and journalists there is no reason why news organisations shouldn't be able to adapt at speed to what readers want, as well as use this data and analysis to make the important issues more relevant to readers.

A FT Strategies session showed that across news organisations they had worked with, 20% of content drives 80% of engagement, but most news organisations continue to treat the 80% of content that is thinly engaged with with the same resource, investment and time as the elements that really land with audiences. Their advice was that with scarce resources and such significant upside from increased engagement, news businesses needed to be more comfortable with cutting elements that don't have audience engagement.

5. Disintermediation is a fundamental risk that can and must be solved

John Ridding the CEO of the FT spoke about the focus the FT is putting into making sure the brand has a direct relationship with its readers and a steady flow of 'front door' traffic.

Ridding's concern was that 'side door' traffic (i.e. that comes via Google, Meta etc) has the potential to seperate their users from their brand, and this threat is even more dangerous with platforms like Google moving towards more summarised answers on search results that appear to remove the need to click for more.

News organisations had rushed to side door traffic, and invested large sums in resource dedicated to pursuing this, but this had created a separation of readers from publishers. His advice was that publishers need to give users a reason to visit them directly, and often ... a reason for them to walk through that front door. Without this, publishers who can't find a way to be relevant and maintain that direct relationship simply wouldn't survive.

Overall, a great event. Thankyou to WAN-IFRA and the city of Copenhagen for putting it on. Bring on WMC 2025.