#13 - A Perfect Paper Storm

Newspapers all over the world are experiencing an extreme paper crunch. The war in Ukraine & bottlenecks in the global supply chain have driven prices of paper up to unprecedented heights. According to European print and digital communication federation Intergraf paper prices have risen by 45 per cent – and newsprint by as much as 80 per cent – in the past six months. Already publishers are forced to revise their paper editions: reducing pages, downsizing print to weekend-only editions or making a hard switch to digital. Combined with uncertainty about advertising expenditure and subscription growth, 2022 could turn out to be yet another perfect storm for news media.

This and more in this week's Wayfinder

IN FOCUS

There was apparently only one story in the tech and media world this week. Elon Musk buying Twitter. The avalanche of articles was a bit embarassing actually. For all the noise that surrounds it, Twitter is actually in the first place a town square for journalists and opinion makers. The rest of the world is downloading other apps.

Peter Bale from INMA moves beyond the headlines and looks at the ways Musk might actually change the company and what the implications are for publishers.

Meanwhile big tech had a big week of earning results. Here’s what we've learned:

• YouTube advertising revenue of $6.87 billion trailed the $7.51 billion Wall Street expected
• Apple reported one of the strongest three-month periods in its history.
• Facebook did better than expected but the Metaverse doesn't come cheap. It lost nearly $20 Billion to VR Since 2020.
• Twitter remains far behind other tech companies.
• Snapchat is growing faster than Facebook & Twitter.
• Spotify announced it will take a 5% cut of all podcast subscriptions.
• And Amazon sees first loss since 2015.

NEWS & PRODUCT

The New York Times has doubled its opinion staff to over 150 people since 2017, adding new departments for audio and graphics and beefing up its copy-editing and fact-checking resources. Why it matters: Opinion and its focus on multimedia projects are among the best retention vehicles for the Times' subscription, said Kathleen Kingsbury, opinion editor of the Times.

The Telegraph has been investing in audio journalism over the last two years, to bolster its subscription offering and find a younger audience. Today it has five team members working on audio plus freelancers and production companies it works with on specific projects.

REVENUE

Last week we saw that Netflix is stalling out. They are not alone. Lots of publishers are struggling to maintain their early subscriber growth numbers. Simon Owens takes a deeper look at what's happening.

Meanwhile some big-name publishers are moving away from subscriptions and toward memberships and donations. Digiday puts some data and use case together. 

Programmatic advertising is becoming one of the easiest ways to monetize a newsletter, but it might not be the best way: Should newsletter creators embrace programmatic advertising?

OPPORTUNITIES

Twipe takes a look at some of the latest newsroom innovations from the WAN-IFRA Summit and beyond to see how newsrooms are driving change. Innovation projects with external partners are becoming more editorial team led as opposed IT department led.

The Stars4Media NEWS programme has launched its third edition. The programme's focuses on long term business and newsroom transformation through cross border collaboration, providing funding, guidance and tailored coaching to selected media innovation projects.

• Benefits: up to €100,000 per project
• Application deadline: 30 June 2022.

SHORT

• Amazon is (apparently) working on its own AR product.
• Quartz got sold.
• Snapchat unveils Pixy selfie drone as latest photo-taking gadget.
• Tik Tok is the most downloaded app in Q1 2022.
• 8 publishers selected for the next Google News Initiative.
• And researchers have developed a technology that lets users control smartphone apps with their eyes.

READ

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the Director at the Reuters Institute has co-authored a book about the relationship between publishers and platforms and how these relationships have evolved over time and what they mean for news specifically and our societies more broadly. Here's an excerpt.

More book tips: Newsgames by Ian Bogost, Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer proposes a new way of doing good journalism: videogames. The authors invite us to think differently about how current events can be turned into systems of scenarios and variables, instead of mere stories.

And the latest volume of Daedalus (a publication by the American Academy of Arts & Science) explores the many facets of artificial intelligence: its technology, its potential futures and its effect on labor and the economy. Is the biggest advantage automating tasks and freeing up resources for more creative work or should we dream bigger and find out where we can add and augment our work with new capabilities?

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Wayfinder is back next week. Like it? Share it! All ideas and stories for the next edition are welcome.

Ezra Eeman, Change Director News - Mediahuis