As digital media took off in the 2010s, few believed magazines could survive. While the industry isn’t what is once was, magazines are still very much alive, but why?
With digital subscriptions barely registering on the revenue front, media companies are staking their hopes on alternative revenue sources.
The New York Times launched its paywall in 2011 and in the most recent quarter claimed US$37.7 million in digital subscription revenue.
Andre-Pierre/Flickr
Media companies are failing to deliver transparency about their digital subscriptions, as my recent study about paywalls found. The research of paywalls in eight countries found paid online content presents…
Whenever more than two journalists gather together to discuss the future of their business, the dialogue is usually depressing. This prevailing pessimism must change: we need a new conversation about what’s…
Reports of the decision made by some Swiss towns to ban asylum seekers from public spaces are depressingly familiar here in the UK. So too were the recent comments from Roman Staub, mayor of the town of…
Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspapers have already come out swinging against the current government in the early stages of the election campaign.
AAP/Paul Miller
In 2007, journalist Ken Auletta spent a great deal of time with Rupert Murdoch while writing a magazine profile of him. Auletta observed that Murdoch was frequently on the phone to his editors and this…
Like them or loathe them, advertorials are now a recognised part of the mainstream press, and a key source of revenue for struggling media organisations.
AAP/Dean Lewins
RMIT professor Sinclair Davidson has recently defended the actions of journalist Paddy Manning, who was dismissed from Fairfax after writing an article in Crikey critical of what he called “advertorial…
The Age has gone tabloid, but missed an opportunity to be brave.
AAP/Julian Smith
The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald today managed the long-anticipated shrink to a tabloid format without any major loss of dignity. No shrill DIRTY ROTTEN CHEATS headlines or the like (100 drug probes…
Will reading habits change with paper size?
AAP/Fairfax Media
After 159 and 172 years respectively, the broadsheet tradition has ended for the weekday editions of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). Today, both these Fairfax Media mastheads became tabloid-sized…
It’s easy to find the human angle in heatwave stories, but climate change has them too.
Jocelyn Durston
As Australia stares at “a once-in-20 or 30-year heatwave”, with temperatures over 40 degrees, it is likely that more extreme weather events similar to this are in store for us. The probability of this…
Printed journalism may be struggling, but there’s cause for optimism for investigative journalism.
Newspaper image, www.shutterstock.com/Claudio Divizia
When print journalists fill Parliament House tonight to learn who among them has won a Walkley award, the list of finalists already tells an untold truth: newspaper investigative journalism is still strong…
Gina Rinehart’s involvement in Fairfax is unlikely to alleviate an already polarised and fragmented media discourse in Australia.
AAP
There are numerous indications that mining magnate Gina Rinehart seeks to take control of the Fairfax media group. What are the likely implications of that move, and how would it affect Australian society…
Fairfax Media’s Melbourne’s printing operations in Tullamarine will be closed down under a radical restructure of the company.
AAP
It was less than ten years ago that Fairfax Media’s The Age opened its shiny, new printing presses at Tullamarine. Billed at the time as “state-of-the-art”, the then Premier Steve Bracks opened the $220…