New growth strategies by the world’s leading newspapers
Three of the world’s leading newspapers have announced interesting strategies. The Guardian will start charging for an app but remain for free on the web; French Le Monde is going for the English speaking markets; Washington Post is emphasizing coverage expected to attract, among others, young readers.
The Guardian’s idea with the new models is to keep the content for free on the newspaper’s website but ask a subscription fee for its news app. Markets will be interested in following how this new mix of free/pay will turn out.
During the animated discussions about how to finance quality news media, the Guardian has been a rebel saying no to paywalls that successfully have been introduced by other quality news brands. The newspaper has insisted that its journalism should be for free but asked readers to support the journalism by voluntarily paying at least a minimum sum per month – but paying is not mandatory. The newspaper has made an impressive turn-around after having struggled with deficits. According to the Financial Times, the Guardian today has 60% of its revenue from readers paying.
Le Monde says it has since long discussed going for the English speaking markets but has so far instead focused on trying to enlarge the market for its French speaking content. The company has now decided to go also English like for instance also German giant publisher Springer that over the last few years has invested heavy in English speaking titles like Insider (earlier called Business Insider) and Politico.
According to the newspaper, the English language digital edition is part of a strategy to double its reach to one million subscribers by 2025. The new edition will comprise articles from the French version translated by using artificial intelligence and agencies but edited by English speaking journalists.
“The challenge is an ambitious one: to carve out a place for Le Monde in an English-speaking world where there is no shortage of quality media,” the paper said in a statement.
Non-French speakers interested in Le Monde have so far been limited to the monthly Le Monde Diplomatique that comprises articles from Le Monde and translated into 26 languages incl English.
Washington Post has under new editorial management created a special team with a mission to attract younger readers. The team’s head, Neema Roshania Patel, has in Poynter Institute’s website written that reader research shows that the key to reach young readers is diverse sourcing giving a more multi-approach to the content and not just only interview specialists etc.
The newspaper under its new executive editor, Sally Buzbee, has announced plans significantly expand coverage of health and wellness, climate and technology, saying this is part of of a strategy to reach younger readers and grow its digital audience.
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