Top news sites collectively received 7.5% fewer visits on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the 2024 US election than they did on those days in 2020, data from Similarweb shows.

The Associated Press, Substack and Axios were among the sites with the most growth between the two elections, while Politico, Fox News, The Guardian and The New York Times all lost substantial proportions of their traffic – according to Similarweb.

After aggregator Yahoo.com (130.6 million visits on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 November) CNN was the most-visited news site in the US, drawing 109.1 million clicks. That figure is down 19.4% on the same days in the 2020 election.

The New York Times (62.4 million) was the second most-visited publisher, but its traffic too dropped 36.3%. Fox News, the third most popular publisher on the list, saw traffic drop 46.8% when compared with the 2020 election, the fifth-largest fall among the top 50 most-visited sites.

Among the ten most-visited news sites over election night, Fox was the biggest faller, followed by The New York Times and CNN. The AP (47.6 million visits, up 247.1%) was the biggest gainer, followed by NBC News (44.3 million, up 120.2%) and USA Today (27.7 million, up 70.1%). The rest of the top ten saw single-digit percentage point changes.

The significant declines at the most-visited sites may reflect broader news avoidance trends or the relative speed with which the result of the 2024 election became clear. The 2020 election, in comparison, took days to be called.

Among the broader top 50 election night news sites the fastest grower was Axios, which saw visits grow 291.7% from 1.8 million in 2020 to 7.2 million last week.

Faster growing still was publishing platform Substack (5.1 million, up 423.1%), which hosts publications by numerous journalists and was less than three years old at the time of the last election.

Web culture site The Daily Dot (2.2m, up 287.5%), Al Jazeera (3.3 million, up 204.2%) and People magazine (11.5 million, up 115.5%) also substantially outperformed their 2020 traffic totals.

The biggest fall, on the other hand, was at Politico (8.8 million visits in 2024, down 63.7% from its 2020 total of 24.3 million), followed by Yahoo News (5.4 million, down 54.8%) and Business Insider (4.2 million, down 48.8%). The Guardian (10.6 million, down 45.2%) Google News (11.3 million, down 40.2%) and Breitbart (3.9 million, down 48.5%) were all also significantly hit.

NBC News, Associated Press and climate site The Cooldown saw largest election week traffic surges

Similarweb data also shows that, among the 100 top news sites in the US, NBC News saw the largest week-on-week increase in its web traffic over the week of the election, with visits nearly tripling compared with the week before.

Climate website The Cooldown saw a comparable increase of 209.4% and the AP received 207% more traffic than the previous week.

A handful of sites saw fewer visits the week of the election than the week before, among them Cosmopolitan (down 15.1%), Variety (down 13.2%) and Vogue (down 8%).

The post Top publishers saw less traffic on day of 2024 US election versus 2020 appeared first on Press Gazette.

Press Gazette has ranked the biggest UK and US news publishers on Instagram with four achieving follower-counts above ten million.

We looked at the news publishers from our top 50 UK and US website rankings to compile our new research.

Two publishers – BBC News (27.8 million) and CNN (20 million) – are above the 20 million mark. When Press Gazette last ranked publisher Instagram accounts (in June 2023) BBC News had 7.4m followers on the platform and CNN 4.2m.

The top two on Instagram are followed by the New York Times (18.2 million) and People (13.6 million).

In comparison, only one news publisher (Daily Mail) from the two top 50 lists has topped ten million on Tiktok, the newer platform.

Ladbible does not feature in the latest ranking because it has it has fallen out of the list of the top 50 news websites in the UK. It currently has 14.1 million followers to its biggest Instagram account. Cosmopolitan, The Daily Wire, The Verge, NME, Epoch Times and Gateway Pundit similarly have fallen out of our top 50s so do not eapp

Excluding the impact of Ladbible’s removal, the top seven remain the same – but The Guardian (5.8 million followers) in eighth place has overtaken Buzzfeed and Unilad (both 5.7 million).

The fastest-growing Instagram account over a two-year period was the New York Post, increasing by 74.7% since 2022 to 1.2 million.

It was followed by Healthline Media (up 60% since 2022 to 1.3 million) and UK tabloid the Mirror (up 57% to 441,000).

Four news publishers on our list saw their Instagram followings decline since June 2023: Buzzfeed (down 7%), sister publication Huffpost (3% to 3.2 million), Unilad (down 2%) and The Daily Beast (down 2% to 452,000).

Since June 2023 only, the Mirror was the fastest-growing (up 45%) followed by ITV News (up 34% to 512,000) and the New York Post (up 32%).

But the follower count for BBC News increased the most in absolute terms (2.1 million) since last year - almost double the next largest growth seen by Fox News (up 1.2 million to 9.4 million).

Four added at least one million followers to their counts - also including the New York Times and People.

The percentage of people saying they use Instagram for news has risen from 2% in 2014 to 15% this year in 12 key markets surveyed by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (UK, US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Ireland.

It remains behind Facebook, Youtube and Whatsapp in importance but has overtaken Twitter/X and is still ahead of Tiktok and Snapchat.

The post Two news publishers have 20m+ Instagram followers: Leading UK and US titles ranked appeared first on Press Gazette.

Dan Wakeford, the former People editor who spent much of 2023 as editor-in-chief of ill-fated news outlet The Messenger, has landed the same role at entertainment magazine Us Weekly.

A360media, which publishes Us Weekly, called Wakeford “a globally recognised and award-winning editor, and multi-platform brand builder with an outstanding track record of innovation”.

UK-born Wakeford worked at Heat before crossing the Atlantic for leadership roles at In Touch magazine and, later, Meredith Corporation-owned People.

He left the publication in 2022 and was announced in February last year as launch editor of The Messenger, a centrist, mass-market publication billed by founder Jimmy Finkelstein as a crossover of The Washington Post and the Daily Mail.

The Messenger launched in May with hundreds of staff and $50m in funding – but, hobbled by the lack of a clear target audience and a dour market for publishers in 2023, lasted less than a year before shuttering. Wakeford’s time leading the publication is not mentioned in the Us Weekly press release announcing his new appointment.

A360media chief content officer Amanda Dameron said that Wakeford’s “exceptional journalistic skills and extensive experience developing and modernising some of the biggest brands in the industry make him the perfect fit to lead Us Weekly into its next chapter of growth and success”.

[Read more: From changing journalism to chasing clicks – Why The Messenger failed]

The company said Wakeford’s role will see him “focus on embracing new technologies and platforms” and “further enhance Us Weekly’s reach across all platforms… Readers can expect exciting new developments, innovative storytelling techniques and a fresh perspective on the world of entertainment”.

Wakeford said: “I am thrilled and honored to join such a trusted and iconic brand like Us Weekly. I have always been passionate about telling compelling stories and connecting with readers on a deeper level.

“I look forward to working with the talented team at Us Weekly to deliver zeitgeist defining content that engages, entertains and resonates with audiences across multiple platforms.”

[From 2021: People magazine editor Dan Wakeford – Instagram is our ‘biggest rival’… but celebrities still clamber to be on our cover]

The post Ex-Messenger editor Dan Wakeford gets top Us Weekly job appeared first on Press Gazette.

Nepotism isn’t the biggest problem facing UK journalists – it’s class.

Press Gazette reported last year that working class representation in journalism had reached a record low, with 80% coming from professional and upper class backgrounds – double the proportion in the general workforce (42%).

The continuing use of early-career unpaid internships, low pay and low freelance rates that can take months to be paid mean the media is an easier place to join if you have family money behind you. This is especially crucial now due to the pressures of the cost of living crisis.

Nepotism is indeed a specific issue for the journalism industry though, and one that Press Gazette has been writing about decades.

“There is a long tradition of children following their parents into journalism,” the late Carol Sarler wrote in 2005. “Nothing beats networking, except perhaps nepotism,” we quoted media trainer Chris Wheal as saying in 2008. And in 2010 we wrote: “News of the World executives were guilty…of nepotism at least it seems.”

The topic has now had a rebrand – calling out those who may have been helped into the industry by family or family friends as “nepo babies”, as coined on social media and given a wide platform by New York Magazine’s Vulture piece in December on the same phenomenon in Hollywood.

Media commentator Mic Wright has since created a map containing about 50 partial family trees of well-known British journalists ranging from obvious and genuine connections – Times columnist Giles Coren for example, whose father Alan was a well-known Times columnist – to somewhat unfair conclusions – The Guardian’s Amelia Gentleman and Radio 1’s Greg James hardly got their careers because of their spouses’ families.

The map features the Queen Consort’s son, food critic Tom Parker-Bowles, but the issue of journalism being the preserve of a privileged elite is much more widespread than just the royalty (of the real and media kind) shown here.

The news industry needs to focus on how to keep the best people regardless of their backgrounds, if it is going to continue to serve a diverse audience. One way it can do this is pay transparency.

Insider has shared the minimum salaries of all editorial roles in its UK newsroom with staff (and now, via Press Gazette, with the wider public). No one there is earning less than £35,000 while senior editors earn at least £60,000.

Meanwhile a new law in New York City and California requires all employers to publish a salary range in job adverts.

[Read more: $185k for a media editor? New York and California journalist salaries charted]

Transparency like this is important because it opens the industry up. It tells people what they can expect and when. It lets people plan within their means. This could be one step towards helping working class journalists into the industry, meaning we can better tell stories from certain sectors of society and build trust with a wider demographic.

It also ensures a feeling of fairness. Much goodwill was lost, for example, within the BBC during its equal pay row a few years ago.

Pay transparency can be a useful factor in improving levels of attracting and retaining strong candidates of all backgrounds to the team, according to the Harvard Business Review.

News UK’s head of early talent Mark Hudson made the case to the NCTJ’s equality, diversity and inclusion conference in November that retention is a “massive challenge” and publishers are “haemorrhaging some of the brightest brains in this industry”.

This indicates the urgency of pursuing anything that can provide a level playing field and ensure we work in a meritocracy in which people feel both satisfied and appreciated. Pay transparency is one way to do this.

The post Why pay transparency could help with journalism’s class and nepotism problem appeared first on Press Gazette.

Press Gazette has asked 22 of our readers – news leaders from across the UK and US – to provide us with their media predictions and plans for 2022.

We asked executives and editors from Reuters, The Sun, Dow Jones, The Times, Quartz, the Telegraph, Gannett, Future, Insider and many other newsgroups to tell us how optimistic they are about the year ahead compared with this time last year. We also asked them to tell us what they think the biggest opportunity of 2022 will be and how they plan to capitalise on that opportunity.

Our respondents operate in multiple sectors, run different lines of business, and live across various time zones. But there were some overriding themes.

1. ‘Fact-based journalism is a commercial opportunity’

When Press Gazette ran a similar survey last year, we asked news leaders to identify the biggest challenges of 2021. Several then referenced the online proliferation of misinformation and unreliable news sources.

As we head into 2022, these issues remain. But some news leaders now view them as an opportunity.

“As politics and society become increasingly polarized and opinionated, there is a tremendous opportunity for publishers that offer impartial and unbiased news,” wrote Alessandra Galloni, the editor-in-chief of Reuters. “Presenting rigorously fact-checked, fact-based journalism is a commercial opportunity.”

Almar Latour, the chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, said: “During times of unprecedented complexity and disruption, people need to understand the facts. As publishers, it’s our responsibility to rise to the challenge—and that’s an opportunity as well.”

2. Newsletters and ‘thoughtful curation’

Several of our respondents specifically referenced newsletters as a tool for guiding readers through a digital world that is overrun by news sources.

Katherine Bell, the editor-in-chief of Quartz, identified “thoughtful curation” as the biggest opportunity of 2022.

“Readers are overwhelmed by the abundance and unbundling of information,” she wrote. “I absolutely love email newsletters, and I pay for a lot of them, but I only read a few of them regularly.

“Readers don’t know what to pay attention to – this has been a problem in digital media for years, and it’s only grown worse, but I think this could be the year when we’ll see some new efforts to solve it. We’ve been thinking about this a lot at Quartz.”

Alison Phillips, editor-in-chief of The Mirror, said: “It will be interesting to see what else comes from our work with newsletters. I have a weekly editor’s newsletter and in some ways, curating that balanced diet of must-read stories feels very similar to the process of putting a paper together. I think many readers will really respond to that level of care.”

3. Audience data

Several news leaders – running both editorial and commercial teams – identified their biggest opportunity as using data to better acquaint themselves with their readers.

For editors like Victoria Newton of The Sun, improved reader data puts her title in a “great position to serve our audiences better”. “A combination of old-fashioned scoops and audience data means we can own stories on all platforms, maximising traffic and revenue,” she wrote.

Kris Barton, chief product officer of US news giant Gannett, said: “As for all publishers, another big opportunity is centred on ways to develop and build first-party data platforms as we near the end of the third-party cookie.

“I believe registrations will become increasingly important for publishers. In return, audiences will have higher expectations from publishers as logged-in users, which provides an opportunity to deliver on those expectations and create more meaningful interactions.

“At USA Today Network, we will be using AI, recommendation tools, and innovating to provide even more personalized experiences for our registered audiences.”

Sean Griffey, the founder and chief executive of B2B business Industry Dive, wrote: “The continued regulatory, technological, and societal shifts towards privacy give publishers a chance to redefine their relationship with their audience and marketers.

“Successful media companies of tomorrow will recognize the value and importance of their first-party data. The biggest opportunity we have today is to not only get a handle of the data we have but put it in formats that are actionable not only for marketing partners but internal teams, too.”

4. ‘Building closer relationships with readers’

On a similar vein, Nick Mitchell, the editor of JPI Media’s National World website, believes 2022 will be a year when publishers can start “building closer relationships with readers”.

He wrote: “The days of relying on one Silicon Valley-based platform are thankfully long behind us as an industry, and now the opportunity is in deepening our links with our audience, whether that’s through more thoughtfully curated newsletters, online communities (that encourage intelligent and considerate debate), membership offerings, bespoke events (virtual or IRL), or app-based notifications.”

Nicholas Carlson, the global editor-in-chief of Insider, wrote: “The biggest opportunity for publishers in 2022 is the same as it is every year: to figure out what readers and viewers want to know and engage them about it. Tell the truth. Be independent. Be fair. Be helpful. The rest will follow.”

Scroll down to see the full 2022 media predictions from all 22 participants, or visit them by clicking the links on their name:

1. Adam Cole, Archant executive director, data, insight and marketing
2. Alison Phillips, Mirror editor-in-chief
3. Alessandra Galloni, Reuters editor-in-chief
4. Almar Latour, Dow Jones chief executive/Wall Street Journal publisher
5. Cyrus Mawewella, Global Data head of thematic research
6. Dan Wakeford, People editor-in-chief
7. Dominic Ponsford, Press Gazette editor-in-chief
8. Gary Shipton, JPI Media deputy editor-in-chief/Sussex Newspapers editorial director
9. Jeremy Clifford, Archant editor-in-chief
10. John Witherow, The Times editor
11. Katherine Bell, Quartz editor-in-chief
12. Kris Barton, Gannett chief product officer
13. Nick Hugh, Telegraph Media Group chief executive
14. Nicholas Carlson, Insider editor-in-chief
15. Nick Mitchell, National World editor
16. Peter Clifton, PA Media editor-in-chief
17. Peter Skulimma, Endava senior VP global industry acceleration
18. Rebecca Miskin, DC Thomson chief executive
19. Sean Griffey, Industry Dive chief executive
20. Tabby Elwes, CIL management consultants partner
21. Victoria Newton, The Sun editor-in-chief
22. Zillah Byng-Thorne, Future chief executive

Adam Cole, Archant

Executive director, data, insight and marketing

Zero-party data will become key to the publishing sector in 2022 as we start preparing to enter an inevitable third-party cookieless world. The strategy of collecting said information in a collaborative, transparent marathon over the year rather than an energy-wasting sprint to hoard data will be a careful balancing act for all publishers. Those that get it right will stand apart from the rest in their ability to provide a truly personalised experience whilst being able to trade on the back of robust accurate and compliant data.

It’s going to become increasingly hard to infer or buy data moving forward that we can rely on and the benefits of dealing with the compliance side of things cannot be understated. (We will absolutely know the source of it and the manner in which this data has been obtained.)

Alison Phillips, The Mirror

Editor-in-chief

Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips. Picture: Reach

I never stop being optimistic about the power of news to inform the public and change our world. A while ago there was a lot of talk about us being in a post-truth world but actually there have always been some people who lie and some people who reveal truths. When a story breaks through at the right time, when it truly shines light in dark corners, it can still be a game-changer.

I’m always excited when we find ways of engaging our readers – especially a new, younger audience who not too long ago we thought might never come our way.

It will be interesting to see what else comes from our work with newsletters. I have a weekly editor’s newsletter and in some ways, curating that balanced diet of must-read stories feels very similar to the process of putting a paper together. I think many readers will really respond to that level of care.

Alessandra Galloni, Reuters

Editor-in-chief

Alessandra Galloni, the new editor-in-chief of Reuters News, poses for a photograph in Rome, Italy, May 13, 2021. Picture: Reuters/Yara Nardi

2021 has been a difficult year in many ways, and the latest news about the new variant is worrying, but I am optimistic. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of trusted, independent news. Many news organisations, such as ours, have risen to the challenge of providing this trusted information, and helping individuals, institutions and governments make big personal and professional decisions – life or death ones, at times.

The news business is being tested by the impact of platforms, the proliferation of misinformation and the continuing challenges to press freedom around the world. However, journalists are resilient and, as an industry, we have demonstrated our ability to learn, adapt and improve. I am confident that the world is starting to recognise the real value of news – and trusted, independent journalism – as both a product and a public service. I believe we can do great things in 2022.

The past year has demonstrated the importance of trusted news and information. As politics and society become increasingly polarized and opinionated, there is a tremendous opportunity for publishers that offer impartial and unbiased news. Presenting rigorously fact-checked, fact-based journalism is a commercial opportunity. Publishers must invest in how they gather, verify and deliver news and, above all, in talent. It is important, in 2022 and beyond, to create more diversified newsrooms that reflect the world we cover. If we do, we can become immeasurably stronger.

Almar Latour, Dow Jones/ The Wall Street Journal

Chief executive/ publisher

Dow Jones chief executive Almar Latour. Picture: Dow Jones

As a society, we are witnessing profound changes in technology, media, geopolitics, health, economics, equality and much more. There has not been a moment like this in any of our lifetimes, and that means that there is a greater need for high-quality journalism, data and analysis. At Dow Jones, our mission is to provide the world’s most trusted journalism, data and analysis to help people make decisions. We exist for this moment, to help people navigate this era.

Being a source of truth for decision-makers of all kinds comes with the responsibility of earning that trust every single day. Looking ahead, as we all adapt to new ways of working and new realities, the relationships we cultivate with our audiences, members, customers, partners and employees will be paramount to our success.

During times of unprecedented complexity and disruption, people need to understand the facts. As publishers, it’s our responsibility to rise to the challenge—and that’s an opportunity as well. We need to be there for people when they need answers and facts, and we need to be there for them in the format they prefer.

At Dow Jones, our uniquely trusted content is most valuable in the hands of our audiences. To help the world’s decision-makers of all sorts, we need to be where they are—everywhere. In the year ahead, we will continue to invest in quality journalism, expand the reach of that journalism and invest in new formats and innovation. By providing top-notch journalism, data and analysis as well as state-of-the-art, engaging products and experiences, we can deliver on our mission and help people make some of the most important decisions in their lives.

Cyrus Mawewella, Global Data

Head of thematic research

I’m feeling really positive. In media the tech-enabled businesses are doing really well and those that are a bit behind are doing really badly and that’s a fantastic environment for M&A because the strong companies can buy the weak companies when their valuations are weak.

I think we will see a lot of M&A and I think we will see a lot of the wrong M&A such as two weak content companies merging with each other. If you want to do M&A focus on tech.

Dan Wakeford, People

Editor-in-chief

This has been a transformational year in many ways.  As our audience has gone through massive changes, they have turned to brands they trust most, like People. This is reflected in our unprecedented engagement with more than 100 million consumers – the largest of any magazine brand in the country. We have told captivating stories on all our platforms.  We have proved that no matter what stage individuals are at in their lives, they come to People to escape into a story and to enjoy quality “me time.” We landed big global exclusives including the Friends reunion, the first interview with Vanessa Bryant after the devastating loss of her husband Kobe and daughter Gigi, and the first joint interview with President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden after the inauguration.

Last year we produced more than 25 virtual events. Now, we are eager to return to owning the red carpet in person and to bringing that full 360 experience back to the People audience.

We have expanded our universe by creating unique new podcasts including our daily news show, People Every Day, new video series, a documentary on the children of 9/11 on Discovery+, TV specials on the royal family on the CW, plus a new quarterly publication dedicated exclusively to the royals.

We look forward to announcing more new products next year with even more impact with the digital expertise and investment of Dotdash Meredith.

People’s biggest opportunity is to continue investing in quality multiplatform content that delights and surprises; content that can’t be found anywhere else.

We made an impact with “Let’s Talk About It,” our mental health campaign, and our “Why I’m Getting Vaccinated” campaign. People won numerous accolades including a GLAAD Media Award for Best Overall Magazine Coverage for championing the LBGTQIA community. Consumers are interested in engaging with brands that are a force for good as well as a source of entertainment so we will continue to explore more areas where we can be of service to the world. We will focus on our human-interest coverage across all platforms including the premiere of Home Town Kickstart Presented by People, a new HGTV show slated for spring.

Dominic Ponsford, Press Gazette

Editor-in-chief

Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford at the British Journalism Awards 2021

I feel approximately 400% more confident this year than I did last year because that’s how much our revenue has grown in 2021. It’s been our most successful year at Press Gazette since the mid-2000s as we have pivoted our editorial proposition more towards serving a senior audience of global media decision-makers and provided an intelligent marketing solution which targets those readers better than any other title in the market.

2022 belongs to the media brands that can provide must-read quality content and then capitalise on that relationship with useful native content. Paywalls offer safety, certainty and steady growth. But advertising is the biggest opportunity if you have a quality audience. If publishers can match the tech platforms on targeting and slickness of delivery then they will win because they are the ones with future-proof legit data about their readers.

Gary Shipton, JPI Media

Deputy editor-in-chief and editorial director of its Sussex Newspapers

Of course I am optimistic for 2022. Local newspapers and their websites have never been more important. We have been able to keep our local communities comprehensively informed throughout the horrors of the pandemic.

We have celebrated local successes, shared in the pain of Covid and other tragedies, and lifted up – through photos, words, and increasingly videos – the unsung heroes of every small town and village. In the darkest days, we have told stories that have made people smile.

In Sussex, that commitment to leadership, integrity and trust has been truly appreciated by our readers – demonstrated by some of our best newspaper sales trends and audience figures in many years.

In 2022, the opportunity is to get even closer to the communities we serve, to build on the values that set us apart, and to continue to use data to inform our editorial decisions without ever undervaluing the editorial intelligence that comes from knowing our readers and understanding what matters most to them.

The hallmark of next year will be the power of being local and the determination to bang the drum for our towns and villages without ever being afraid to ask awkward questions – and no media form is better placed to make the most of this than the local newspaper and its digital platform.

Jeremy Clifford, Archant

Editor-in-chief

This time last year, we were still in the depths of a lockdown that had impacted our industry heavily.

1. Sales of printed titles were in high double-digit decline.
2. However, we knew our communities needed us more than ever – a reassuringly positive response in the depths of the misery people were faced with.
3. Our content had never been read by more people online. Readers were looking for us to bring them fact-checked, trusted and reliable news and information. We were beginning to see unprecedented rises in reader loyalty and frequency of visits to our websites.
4. So, while the economies of our industry were critical and many smaller publishers were facing the wall, with title closures, we knew the appetite for our content was there.

Which brings us to 2022. The opportunity is in plain sight for us. If we know readers want our content because it is community-based, we understand our readers, and it is reliable and trusted – take a look at the Edelman Trust Barometer statistics that reinforced this – then how do we take advantage of this and build our business for the future?

We are now seeing more publishers investing in their content. Indeed, there is a shortage of trained journalists as publishers begin to open their recruitment doors.

We are also now seeing more publishers starting to take positive action to understand more about their readers and experiment with new models.

Whether that be charging readers or maintaining a free content delivery service, the future is in driving deeper relationships with our readers, better engagement, listening to their needs and wants and responding to those reader demands. It shouldn’t surprise us that the route to success is in listening to our customers, our readers and providing the service that improved data feeds now tell us in real-time what they want.

In my view, we are entering an exciting new age where we are free to build on the content provision in our newsrooms – and publishers will do that in different ways.

At Archant, the opportunity is based around creating and growing a sustainable subscription-based model where we ask our most loyal and frequent readers to pay a fair value exchange for the content they read or consume.

To do that, we have developed an industry-leading progressive web App experience. Industry-leading in that it has been designed by Pugpig which is used by some of the biggest brands in the country.

With that user experience secured, we are now working hard with our journalists to understand how to write the quality content we need to provide that is unique, offers something new to our readers, is high quality and multi-dimensional.

Our Touchpoints strategy has just launched with the first app for our Norwich City fans. We now have a delivery programme throughout 2022.

This year is not without its challenges, of course. Not least in ensuring our journalists feel valued and we provide the training to help them to succeed. But also to ensure their well-being and mental health is looked after.

I would like to see the industry come together as one to find ways of protecting our journalists from online abuse and to see the Government take action against those platforms that continue to allow this intolerable behaviour to be published.

John Witherow, The Times

Editor

John Witherow, editor of the Times newspaper. Picture: Reuters/Andrew Winning

I believe The Times is entering a golden age of journalism after decades of uncertainty. There is a growing demand from ever-better educated people in Britain and around the world who are curious about what is happening nationally and internationally, who want reliable news, exclusive stories, well-informed analysis, a range of views in comment, lively features and great arts and consumer coverage. Thus The Times has the potential to grow well beyond our print and digital sales that already exceeds three-quarters of a million.

The biggest opportunity in 2022 remains digital while maintaining and enhancing our strengths in print.. We are conscious that next year we have to raise our game editorially and technically on our digital platforms to give subscribers even better content. The Times was a pioneer in subscriber journalism and we need to step up our performance in various aspects of digital, including audio, video and interactives. We have partnered with Apple and Google to reach a much greater audience and Times Radio has been a new and successful outlet for listeners to engage with Times journalists. Overall The Times in all its numerous formats has a very bright future both editorially and commercially.

Katherine Bell, Quartz

Editor-in-chief

Quartz editor-in-chief Katherine Bell. Picture: Quartz

It’s hard to remember this time last year accurately, but I do feel more optimistic. Journalists have been through a lot in the last year, and we’ve learned a lot as well. After nearly two years of covering Covid-19, for example, news organisations are a little better at reporting on uncertainty: being extra clear about how we frame data, explaining what we don’t know as well as what we do, and finding ways to update stories as they evolve. I think we can still improve a lot on this, but it’s a start. That will be as crucial for reporting on the climate crisis. And the fact that more publications are covering climate change with more urgency, depth, and frequency gives me hope. Remote work, rampant burnout, and the great resignation are forcing media companies to pay more attention to culture, talent development, and diversity and belonging, and that can only improve the relevance and value of our work.

Thoughtful curation [is the biggest opportunity]. Readers are overwhelmed by the abundance and unbundling of information. I absolutely love email newsletters, and I pay for a lot of them, but I only read a few of them regularly. Readers don’t know what to pay attention to—this has been a problem in digital media for years, and it’s only grown worse, but I think this could be the year when we’ll see some new efforts to solve it. We’ve been thinking about this a lot at Quartz. In 2021 we created Essentials, which extract durable bits of knowledge from the news and put information into context. And we changed the core of our membership to email, with four weekly emails that together distil the best of our analysis, acting a bit like a concise weekly magazine. We’ll build on those projects and try new experiments in distillation and curation in 2022.

Kris Barton, Gannett

Chief product officer

We’ve seen and heard about several new innovations this year, and have made some strides ourselves in immersive experiences and augmented reality, imagery and sound, and even the introduction of the metaverse. As a product leader, my team and I are looking forward to exploring with our colleagues across the news organisation how we can build upon what we’ve delivered in 2021 to make consuming our news and content more interactive, immersive, and personalised in 2022.

It’s hard to narrow this down to just one [opportunity]. We are optimistic for the year ahead because we believe there’s a tremendous opportunity for innovation and exploration as new technologies become available for publishers and consumers.

As for all publishers, another big opportunity is centred on ways to develop and build first-party data platforms as we near the end of the third-party cookie. I believe registrations will become increasingly important for publishers. In return, audiences will have higher expectations from publishers as logged-in users, which provides an opportunity to deliver on those expectations and create more meaningful interactions. At USA Today Network, we will be using AI, recommendation tools, and innovating to provide even more personalised experiences for our registered audiences.

Nick Hugh, Telegraph Media Group

Chief executive

Telegraph chief executive officer Nick Hugh. Picture: Telegraph

The last couple of years have been challenging for everyone but as a business, we are in a strong position looking ahead to next year.  We have recently passed 720k subscriptions with average revenues per subscription of more than £175. This growth is a reflection of both the quality of our journalism and the investment we’ve made in our subscription business model and wider digital transformation.

The launch of our new app this year has been a great success and we already have over 200,000 subscribers using it every day.  Readers return to brands they trust and we have found moving to a paywall format has created a much deeper connection with our engaged subscribers.  Our investments put us in a strong position as we enter the new year to build on this unique connection with our subscribers.

Financially, we expect to post very healthy double-digit growth in operating profit for 2021 which is solid ground from which to address some of the inevitable supply chain and pandemic-related challenges of 2022.

As a subscription business, we’ve been transparent with our subscription numbers for both volume and price, publishing on a monthly basis since the start of 2020.  These numbers are independently verified each quarter by PwC and published every month.

Across the industry, publishers have pursued different business models from subscriptions to advertising to one-off contributions. There is an opportunity for the industry as a whole to seek a more consistent approach to reporting figures – be that subscription growth, or other business models and ensure clarity around methodology – which helps drive sustainability for the industry.

At TMG we have set out the goal of reaching 1 million subscribers by 2023, which we continue to make good progress towards. We will continue to have our figures independently verified and make available how we define our numbers.

Nicholas Carlson, Insider

Editor-in-chief

Insider editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson. Picture: Insider

The world has enormous problems. Many of them are deadly and seemingly unsolvable. Lots of them are getting worse. For example, the planet is warming too quickly, and people are already dying because of it. And yet I remain optimistic that our species will somehow figure it out. I believe the truth told well can help each of us make life better for ourselves and each other. I was very optimistic about 2021, and I’m very optimistic about 2022.

The biggest opportunity for publishers in 2022 is the same as it is every year: to figure out what readers and viewers want to know and engage them about it. Tell the truth. Be independent. Be fair. Be helpful. The rest will follow.

Nick Mitchell, National World

Editor

I’m writing this in the midst of Omicron, so it’s hard to offer a picture of unfettered optimism right now, but nevertheless, I am optimistic about the industry, and about NationalWorld.com, and we’re looking forward to our first full year in 2022. For us, 2021 was all about launching and establishing a new national news title – never a simple task, but slightly more complex when you have a fully remote team based across the UK (we’ve spent most of our lives on Slack and Google Hangouts!)

We’ve learned so much in our first nine months of publishing – about our audience, our team and our ambitions. We’ve grown month-on-month, to a level I could not have predicted back in March, and we’ve been shortlisted for a few awards along the way (including the Press Gazette’s own British Journalism Awards recently). So I am looking forward to how we can keep growing and keep evolving, while staying true to our core principles of holding power to account, and producing quality journalism that’s relevant to people across the whole of the UK.

I know I won’t be alone in suggesting that it’s all about building closer relationships with readers. The days of relying on one Silicon Valley-based platform are thankfully long behind us as an industry, and now the opportunity is in deepening our links with our audience, whether that’s through more thoughtfully curated newsletters, online communities (that encourage intelligent and considerate debate), membership offerings, bespoke events (virtual or IRL), or app-based notifications.

For NationalWorld in particular, one of our core strengths is data journalism, and I think there’s an exciting opportunity to take this to the next level in 2022. The pandemic has shown that the audience has an appetite for clear, considered analysis of data – and I think the challenge for us as journalists is to marry this with our long-held skills in storytelling.

Peter Clifton, PA Media

Editor-in-chief

PA editor Peter Clifton. Picture: PA

It’s not exactly breaking news to say we are living through truly unprecedented times, and while the challenges around access and restrictions may well continue in to 2022, this is an immensely exciting time to be working in journalism.

The world faces unparalleled challenges with the likes of Covid-19 and climate change, while we continue to hold our governments to account both nationally and internationally. Terrorism remains an ongoing threat, and Sport will continue to thrill – whatever the restrictions – right through to the World Cup in Qatar.

Journalists are better equipped than ever to chronicle all this in words, pictures and video, which should make 2022 a really exciting time for the industry whatever the challenges.

And we’ve shown once again in 2021 what an incredible robust and flexible industry this is, so my optimism is high!

For us at PA Media, we believe our flexibility and agility is by far our biggest opportunity as we enter 2022.

As we all know, the last two years have seen unrivalled uncertainty, and the challenge of adapting quickly to changes in restrictions and access has put serious strain on publishers across the country.

Our flexibility to deliver across the wire, digital and bespoke editorial for our customers, and the agility with which our reporters, photographers and videographers can react to breaking news, trending topics and major events, is now proving more critical than ever.

We’re driven by adding value for customers, and in the constantly evolving media landscape, our ability to stay agile is helping customers deliver more content than ever.

Peter Skulimma, Endava

Senior VP global industry acceleration

I’m consulting a lot in the media space and focusing on what really works. I’m more positive than last year because it was impressive to see how the publishing industry came through this pandemic and the learning curve of the whole sector is increasing in terms of its transition to digital.

The biggest challenge is getting the right people in to get this done. Forget about attracting them because these are the people that everyone is looking for right now so M&A might be a very good way to get the right skilled people in you need, because otherwise it will be too slow. You need the game-changers who are not working like you as a publisher or media company are doing. Focus on people with skills and execution. It is the execution which is killing a lot of initiatives.

Rebecca Miskin, DC Thomson

Chief executive

DC Thomson chief executive Rebecca Miskin. Picture: DC Thomson

I’m incredibly optimistic about what we can achieve in the next year. Our word for 2022 is definitely going to be ‘focus’: a focus on growth and a focus on purpose that will ultimately lead to a focus on doing fewer things but better and more distinctive.

I’m optimistic that we’ll find the right mix of remote and in-person working. Connecting when it matters will mean the best of both worlds for all of our people.

Our media business is going through a major transformation programme and fittingly for the new year, it’s a time to take stock. What has worked and what hasn’t done so well, where can we experiment, innovate and pioneer more.

2022 will remain unpredictable, but the resilience, ingenuity and resourcefulness of our colleagues to adapt and thrive during the most challenging of circumstances gives me confidence that rather than stall our transformation process – innovating and implementing – we will continue to develop new ways of working that will accelerate change.

What has been clear over the last two years is how incredibly important community is, and as publishers, we must look hard at our place within this.

Many people’s worlds have contracted, with more time spent at or close to home and a renewed focus on spending time doing the things that really matter to us. We publish local, niche and advocacy brands so this is our opportunity to take a fresh look at what we stand for and how we serve the communities we’re in as people’s needs and priorities shift.

Homes and businesses will be under continued financial pressure this year and we can play a role in campaigning to keep money in our communities by championing local trade. We did this as we moved out of lockdown, giving £250,000 worth of free advertising in our newspapers to help boost local businesses. If you don’t support your community, you can’t really expect your community to support you.

There’s something about the ethos of DC Thomson too that is needed now, and our brands are particularly good at celebrating the spirit of the people who live, work and play in our patches. After the relentless news cycles of the past two years, this comes as blessed relief.

Sean Griffey, Industry Dive

Chief executive

While I’ve been bullish on the media industry for some time, I’m even more optimistic headed into 2022. The economy remains robust and we’ve been able to adapt to the Covid environment at this point. More importantly, audiences and marketers are increasingly recognzing the value of high-quality insights and reporting.  It’s never been a better time to be a publisher with a differentiated and valuable audience.

The continued regulatory, technological, and societal shifts towards privacy give publishers a chance to redefine their relationship with their audience and marketers. Successful media companies of tomorrow will recognize the value and importance of their first-party data. The biggest opportunity we have today is to not only get a handle of the data we have but put it in formats that are actionable not only for marketing partners but internal teams, too. Over the next year, we’ll look to continue to invest in both our underlying technology platforms and the teams who use them.

Tabby Elwes, CIL management consultants

Partner

Generally I’m feeling very optimistic about the next year. The last 18 months have been strange. There has been a slight disconnect between the level of activity which you’ve seen in business and the level of deal-doing that’s been going on while the streets are deserted and we’re all in lockdown. It has been absolutely frenetic with deal after deal. It looks as though it is going to continue to be a highly active market because private equity continue to be very interested in the media space, particularly if it’s got a digital angle or a tech angle. They also still have a lot of money which they need to invest and they want to find the right assets to do it.

The sweet spots we are seeing are content businesses that have a tech component which you can use to drive digital engagement and increase your depth of analytics, then that’s a really attractive thing for any investor.

Victoria Newton, The Sun

Editor-in-chief

Victoria Newton. Picture: News UK

I’m feeling optimistic for the year ahead. Despite a hard year for everyone again in 2021, we were still able to begin to lead the newsroom into a digitally focused operation with terrific results. Our audience team was brought to the centre of the newsroom with all teams educated about best practice for online distribution of content. Digital became a big part of our conferences with numbers from online stories being shared, along with the search trends of the day, helping us make sure we’re delivering stories that matter to our audience.

The latest Pamco results show we are still the number one newsbrand in GB for daily, weekly and monthly in digital and print reach.

Piers Morgan will also join The Sun in January, with a huge audience driving debate and traffic.

We’ve led some award-winning campaigns and had the scoop of the year with Matt Hancock’s affair with his aide. The phenomenal online success of Hancock proves world-beating scoops are world-beating scoops whatever platform they are delivered on, this one had everything – a big uplift in print sales, and record traffic online.

Our US operation is also growing at a real pace and proving hugely successful. We’ve also increased our use of video in our story-telling and will look to continue this in the new year. With the continuation of all of the above, I think we’re in a great place to start the new year. In 2022, The Sun plans to continue to break great stories, produce quality journalism, and aim to remain the biggest news operation in Britain.

A combination of old-fashioned scoops and audience data means we can own stories on all platforms, maximising traffic and revenue.

Traditional print journalism skills are absolutely essential if we are going to be successful digitally, but we are going to think a bit differently about how and when we publish.

Exclusive stories will always be our life blood and in an age when there is more and more aggregation, original content has never been more important. The Sun is still the best at breaking stories – with both print and digital appeal – and setting the news agenda. Breaking revelatory stories that run and run can transform an average week of traffic into a good one and we are the best in the business at doing that.

We want our journalists to understand our audience even more than they do already, and with more data now readily available we’re in a great position to serve our audiences better.

We also have a clear focus on quality of digital content, not just quantity. By that we mean certain types of stories where the revenue opportunity is greater.

Zillah Byng-Thorne, Future

Chief executive

Future chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne. Picture: Future

I’m optimistic about the year ahead. Whilst there is of course uncertainty with regards to the pandemic, the key is to be in a position to respond to – and ideally pre-empt – how your audience wants to consume content, which is why having a diverse range of revenue streams is so important. Very little is permanent in the media industry and this is why we’ve worked hard at Future over many years to create a model which is flexible and able to adapt to the needs of our audience.

In terms of the biggest opportunity for publishers, increasingly what you’ve seen over the last 12 or 18 months, is that people don’t want to be associated with organisations that don’t take pride in the content they produce or the impact they have on society. Customers and consumers want to identify with a brand or type of content, and so it’s about creating the content that our audience wants and thinking about how we scale that across the wider group.

I’m a passionate supporter of expert, trusted content and I think that in today’s society there’s a genuine value in original content, expertly produced, and as we, Future, have become a much bigger publisher and reach a much bigger audience – reaching one in two people in the UK and one in three people in the US online – we have a real moral responsibility to make sure we produce the best content we can for our audience.

The post The future’s bright: 22 news industry leaders share their tips for success in 2022 appeared first on Press Gazette.

Several US magazines have doubled their reach on Apple News+ this year, new figures obtained by Press Gazette show.

Weekly showbiz magazine People recorded an average AN+ circulation of 165,000 in the first half of 2021 – up 148% from the second half of 2020 – making it the platform’s biggest title.

According to Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) figures, the top 25 most popular US magazine titles on AN+ had a total average circulation of 1.25m in the first six months of the year.

The average AN+ circulation across the top 25 was 50,000 in the first half of this year – up 86% from 27,000 in the last six months of 2020.

After People, the next biggest AN+ magazine titles were Vanity Fair (with an average circulation of 90,000, up 83%), Popular Mechanics (71,000, up 194%) and National Geographic (71,000, up 78%).

Scientific American recorded the largest increase, albeit from a low base in 2020. Its circulation leapt more than 700% from 4,000 to 32,000.

The other titles that more than doubled their AN+ circulations between the two periods were Men’s Health, In Style, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Women’s Health, Travel+Leisure and Prevention.

Launched in 2019, AN+ is a paid-for version of Apple’s news app, available in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

Nearly 200 publications make their content available on AN+ and are paid by Apple according to their readership levels – issue opens and ‘dwell time’ – on the app. 

Apple has not reported any AN+ figures and the popularity of the platform remains something of a mystery.

The AAM’s figures are not enough to discern how many AN+ subscribers Apple has built up. But the top 25 ranking – which excludes newspapers and non-US magazines on the platform – does provide an insight into the scale of the product. It also suggests AN+ is growing fast.

AN+ figures are likely to have been boosted by the launch last October of Apple One, a subscription that bundles together several services. Apple’s ‘premier’ package includes access to Apple Music, TV+, Arcade, iCloud, Fitness+ and News+.

The AAM circulation figures reflect the average number of unique user opens per magazine issue. This means that the numbers do not show total readership because they directly compare weekly magazines, like People, with monthly titles, Vanity Fair, and bi-monthlies, Popular Mechanics.

The post Apple News+ adds 1.25m to US magazine circulations: Full breakdown appeared first on Press Gazette.

Circulations of celebrity magazines like Heat have plummeted in the UK in recent years in the face of digital competition – but US entertainment weekly People tells a very different circulation story.

In 2000 it had 2.1m subscribers. By the end of last year, that figure had risen to 2.7m.

Although the title’s overall circulation has dipped over the same period – from 3.55m to 3.46m – its sales figures are impressive, and buck wider industry trends.

So who, in the age of breaking news gossip websites and social media, still pays to read a weekly showbiz magazine?

“Everyone,” says Dan Wakeford, the UK-born editor-in-chief of People, over a video call interview. “We reach so many American women. We’re a demography breaker.”

Clearly, “everyone” is a slight exaggeration. But People – across print, its (market-leading) Apple News+ edition, its website, its daily podcast and its digital channel, PeopleTV – does reach many millions of people across the United States and beyond. According to Comscore data, People.com has a print and digital audience of 88m adults a month. 

“They are predominantly women,” Wakeford adds, when asked to narrow down his audience. “They’re very busy women. Many of them are mothers. They’re looking for escapism that makes you smarter.”

Low-key? ‘I sometimes take the subway’

People magazine has been published weekly in the US since 1974. Its founding editor, Richard “Dick” Stolley – who recently died aged 92 – set out with a mission to “tell stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and extraordinary people doing ordinary things”.

In an obituary of Stolley, the New York Times said that People magazine had “changed the course of American publishing with its personality-driven approach to journalism”.

Wakeford, who previously edited In Touch and Life & Style magazines, joined People as deputy editor in 2015.

In April 2019, just over a year after People’s publisher, Time Inc, was sold to media giant Meredith, Wakeford stepped up to replace Jess Cagle as editor-in-chief.

At the time, the New York Post claimed Cagle’s exit was “proof the age of the celebrity magazine editor is over”. The Post suggested that Cagle had chosen to leave at the end of his contract because he was feeling “crimped” by Meredith, “a Midwestern company known for penny-pinching”. Meredith dismissed the suggestion at the time.

The Post went on to describe Wakeford as “low-key”. The newspaper quoted an anonymous “Wakeford friend” describing him as “the kind of guy who will take a subway to a restaurant… he’s not flying across the country and sending a limo to get you”.

Wakeford laughs when asked about this story. “That article was amusing,” he says. “And I kind of liked it because it made me seem very down-home and relatable.

“But it wasn’t really true, and it wasn’t a friend who said that. I sometimes take the subway – I haven’t for a very long time – but I also take cars.”

Wakeford adds that, while the “glamour of entertainment journalism has certainly been lost over the last year-and-a-half because we’re all at home”, working at People is “still a lot of fun” for its more than 200 employees. 

Celebrity journalism must ‘deliver what you can’t get on the internet’

So how has People been able to retain a 3m-plus circulation in an era when there is an abundance of celebrity-based information available on the internet for free?

“We are the experts in celebrity, human interest and entertainment stories,” says Wakeford. “We’ve proved that over many, many years.

“And now, at a time when there’s so much distrust in the media, our journalistic rigour and our brand equity [bring] a sense of authority to the content that we produce.

“When you talk to people about People, they always say to us… ‘Oh, I know it’s true when I know it’s in People.’”

Wakeford suggests that many other celebrity-focused magazines “haven’t adapted” to the digital world.

“They don’t provide anything you can’t get anywhere else,” he says. “The internet provides rumours, speculation and fun. You have to invest in journalism and magazine craft and reporting [to] deliver what you can’t get on the internet.”

Supermarket tabloid magazines have struggled in recent years. National Enquirer, for example, has seen its circulation plummet from 2.1m in 2000 to 150,000 at the end of last year, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. Globe has fallen from 740,000 to just over 80,000 in the same period.

“I’m not going to talk about specific magazines,” says Wakeford. “What many of those entertainment magazines have done is not provide something that is distinct from what you could get for free anywhere else.”

‘I have empathy for Meghan and Harry’

Before moving to the US in the early 2000s, Wakeford trained as a journalist in the UK and worked for Heat magazine in London.

Asked to identify the differences between UK and US celebrity journalism, he says: “The American audience is a lot more puritanical.

“The British press is much more monitored by [the Independent Press Standards Authority regulator]. The American press is monitored by the appetites of the audience.

“We have the freedom of the press and the constitution, so we’re not restricted by any governing body in that way. But we’re possibly more restricted by what our audience wants.”

Earlier this year, British journalism was heavily criticised by Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry described the UK press as “bigoted, specifically the tabloids”.

Although Winfrey’s production company was accused of misrepresenting the UK press coverage of the royals, a majority of Press Gazette’s readers (including many UK journalists) agreed with Prince Harry.

Wakeford appears to be among those concerned. “I think, after watching it, and being here and being involved in both, I can totally understand and have empathy for them [Harry and Meghan].”

Is this a view shared by others in the US? “I don’t think the US has that strong a perspective on what the British press are doing,” says Wakeford.

“They’re aware we should be fact-checking a lot of the stuff that comes out of Britain, and that’s what we do every day. That’s really my perspective. I have empathy for Meghan and Harry.”

‘Instagram is our biggest competitor in the whole world’

In 2021, when a celebrity wants to make an announcement to their fans, they can do so on any number of social media platforms, bypassing the traditional media. This creates a major challenge for any publication that writes about famous people.

“Certainly,” Wakeford agrees. “Instagram is our biggest competitor in the whole world.” But he believes People has an edge.

“We talk to a bigger audience,” says Wakeford. “So a celebrity can talk to their own audience on their social channels. But they’re already preaching to the choir. These are the people who follow them, their fans.

“We reach a larger audience of people who aren’t necessarily engaging with that celebrity. And the celebrities also recognise our expert storytelling. We are the people who are the best in the business at telling these stories.”

The cover of People magazine, Wakeford says, “dictates what the whole of America is talking about for the next week. We set the cultural conversation.

“That’s why celebrities are desperate to be on the cover of People. That’s why they clamber to get there.”

The post People magazine editor Dan Wakeford: Instagram is our ‘biggest rival’… but celebrities still clamber to be on our cover appeared first on Press Gazette.

US celebrity magazine People is the most-read magazine brand on Apple News+, figures obtained by Press Gazette show.

In the second half of 2020, the average weekly edition of People had an AN+ circulation of 66,370. In an interview with Press Gazette (see below), People revealed that it expects this figure to top 160,000 in the first half of 2021.

People ranked ahead of other well-known titles including Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, Wired, National Geographic and Time (see full table below).

The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) figures provide a rare insight into the size of AN+. Apple launched its paid-for version of Apple News in 2019. It has yet to reveal how many customers have bought access to the premium news app.

For $9.99 a month, Apple News+ subscribers get access to hundreds of magazine editions across the US, Canada, UK and Australia. AN+ also features a handful of newspapers (not included in our AAM ranking), including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, the Times and the Sunday Times.

In April, according to Apple Insider, an analyst at investment bank Cowen estimated that AN+ had about 11m paid subscribers in 2020. Press Gazette’s AAM figures suggest this is unlikely. Apple did not respond to request for comment.

[This interview first featured in Press Gazette’s ‘Future of News – US’ newsletter. Click here to sign up and receive this content first.]

Monday 21 June update: A note about the table/ranking

Above is the AAM’s ranking of the top US and Canadian publications on Apple News+. This table was amended after publication to highlight Canadian titles because their AN+ circulation figures are not directly comparable with those of their US peers.

For US magazines, AAM circulations are based on ‘unique opens’ by AN+ subscribers. For Canadian titles, circulation is measured by the number of AN+ subscribers who ‘follow’ the publication on the app.

If the four Canadian titles in this table were measured by ‘unique opens’, like the US magazines, they would each see their AN+ circulation fall significantly. For example, Canadian House & Home’s 54,241 circulation would drop to 13,079.

In future articles on Apple News+, Press Gazette will seek to make a clear distinction between US and Canadian circulations to reflect this difference.

The table was changed further on 21 June after the AAM made amendments to its ranking. This led to a slight change to the AN+ circulations of New York magazine and Men’s Journal, which fell out of the top 25 and was replaced by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 

[Platform profile: A guide to Apple News+ for publishers]

How People is thriving on Apple News+

At the end of 2020, People stood as the runaway leader of AN+ in North America. Its circulation on the app, 66,370, is more than 15,000 greater than its nearest US rival, Vanity Fair.

And, according to the magazine’s GM for consumer marketing, David Roberson, it is growing fast.

In an interview with Press Gazette to discuss the app, Roberson said that he expects People’s AN+ circulation figure for the first half of this year to be around 2.5 times greater than 66,000. This would take its AN+ circulation to above 160,000.

People, one of the largest magazines in America, recorded a total average circulation of more than 3.4m in the second half of 2020, including digital sales of 257,000 per issue, according to the AAM.

Roberson said that AN+ is “very important” for People, despite the fact it currently only accounts for a small proportion (around 2% in the second half of 2020) of its total circulation.

“It’s exciting for us because it’s a place where a somewhat younger consumer comes to find us,” he said. “They appear to be a younger, a little bit more educated, slightly more diverse audience.”

Roberson added that he is not concerned about losing large numbers of People subscribers to AN+ packages.

“We’ve been very careful, and do analytical work with the support of Apple, to make sure that we’re not driving cannibalisation,” he said. “Because we have a robust and quite profitable subscriber relationship with millions of women.

“So, is there cannibalisation? Absolutely. But it is infinitesimally small.

“We actually are going through that analysis semi-annually with Apple to make sure that we’re highlighting extremely small fractions of percentages.”

The amount that magazines like People are paid by Apple depends on engagement with content and reading time.

Roberson said: “We have been told that our content, relative certainly to the competitive set of other celebrity products, has not just more unique issue opens, but also has longer reader time, or the term they use is ‘dwell time’.”

[This interview first featured in Press Gazette's 'Future of News – US' newsletter. Click here to sign up and receive this content first.]

Photo credit: Hadrian/ Shutterstock

The post Exclusive ranking: The top 25 most popular US/Canada magazines on Apple News+ appeared first on Press Gazette.

A charity for whistleblowers has called for the protection of sources to be made a statutory right after 32 were convicted under Operation Elveden.

The call comes after Press Gazette today names for the first time all the sources convicted after News Corp and Trinity Mirror shared emails with police detailing payments made by their companies to public officials.

Some 34 journalists were arrested and/or charged on suspicion of making payments to public officials. But no convictions of journalists were secured by police at trial after courts ruled that none of the disclosures harmed the public interest.

Of the sources convicted under Operation Elveden, there were 12 police officers, nine prison workers, four hospital workers, two press officers and one MoD pharmacy assistant. The remaining four were relatives of the public officials.

Most of the sources lost their jobs and served time in prison. Many faced crippling legal costs.

Last month Daily Mirror source and former Belmarsh Prison officer Robert Norman lost his appeal against conviction.

The legal judgment detailed how the publishers of The Sun and Mirror conducted their own searches of email databases and then handed to the police material which incriminated journalists and their sources. In both cases, cooperation was apparently intended to stave off possible corporate prosecutions.

Lawyers for the publishers, who have declined to comment, may also have felt that co-operation would stave off forced disclosure orders being made by police.

Some 30 of the convicted sources provided information to journalists working for The Sun or News of the World. Ten of the sources also provided information to journalists working for papers owned by Trinity Mirror.

Cathy James, chief executive of the whistleblowing charity Public Concern at Work, said: “Operation Elveden marked a low point in the protection of journalists sources in the UK.

“While the practice of selling public interest information is not something we would condone, the culture in so many newsrooms in the past was such that this was entirely acceptable.

“Those invited to trade information for cash were in all likelihood also told that they would be a protected source and that their identity would remain confidential.

“This promise was broken without reference to the impact this would have on the trust we all place on journalists and the media.  When so much of the work done by journalists is based on trust, we must ensure that something like this never happens again – this is why we have always supported the Press Gazette’s Save our Sources campaign.

“It’s high time the Government put this high on the agenda and made protection of journalist sources a statutory right.”

Executive director of the Society of Editors Bob Satchwell said: “There needs to be greater protection in the law for all journalistic activity.

“There needs to be a public interest defence in law and authorities such as the police and Crown Prosecution Service need to think twice whenever impinging on the work of journalists in exposing wrongdoing.”

The convicted sources:

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn was jailed for 15 months in February 2013. Casburn called up the News of the World newsdesk in 2010 with information about Met Police investigations into phone-hacking, concerned about the resources being used. Casburn claimed she did not ask for money – and was not paid – but a reporter on the newspaper wrote a note that she “wanted to sell inside information”.

PC Alan Tierney was jailed for 10 months in March 2013. The former Surrey Police PC was paid £1,250 for details about the arrests of Sue Terry and Sue Poole – the mother and mother-in-law of footballer John Terry – and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood to The Sun in 2009. He admitted the offences, the BBC reported.

PC Paul Flattley was jailed for two years in March 2013. Described as a police officer who “developed an eye for celebrity stories”, Flattley passed on information held by the Met on 39 occasions – resulting in 19 stories – to The Sun, The Independent reported. He pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between 2008 and 2011, over payments totalling £8,000.

Richard Trunkfield was jailed for 16 months in March 2013. Trunkfield, a Woodhill prison worker, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between 2 March and 30 April 2010, according to the BBC. He sold details about one of James Bulger’s killers, Jon Venables, to The Sun.

Sgt James Bowes was jailed for 10 months in May 2013. The Sussex Police sergeant contacted The Sun and News of the World on three occasions to sell stories, according to the BBC. He was paid £500 for a story sold to Sun reporter Vince Soodin about a fox attack in June 2010.

Tracy Bell was given a nine-month sentence suspended for two years in November 2013. Bell, a pharmacy assistant from Sandhurst, admitted to selling five stories to The Sun for £1,250 between 2005 and 2006.

Alan Ostler was given a seven-month sentence and was suspended for 18 months in January 2014. The Broadmoor employee pleaded guilty to releasing information about a patient who wanted gender reassignment surgery from the NHS while in custody. He provided information to The Sun and Daily Mirror between June and July 2008, according to the CPS.

PC Timothy Edwards was jailed for two years in June 2014. Part of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, Edwards was paid more than £22,000 by The Sun for 38 stories. He was jailed for two years, rather than three, because he pleaded guilty.

DC Sam Azeouelous was jailed for 14 months in July 2014. The former Met Police detective constable pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between 2006 and 2010. According to the Met, he acted as a “paid for informant” for The Sun after establishing “close links” with journalists on a football team he played for.

Darren Jennings was sentenced to 18 months in July 2014. According to the website Crime & Justice, the former Wiltshire Police officer was found guilty of passing on information to The Sun about a colleague facing criminal proceedings in 2010. The trial heard that he asked the newspaper for £10,000, but there was no evidence of a payment being made.

PC Thomas Ridgeway was jailed for 12 months in August 2014. According to the BBC, Ridgeway sold two stories to The Sun through his mother, Sandra Ridgeway. The first story, about the attempted suicide of an actor, resulted in a £1,600 payment, split between the pair. The second, which earned £1,000, was about the alleged sexual activity of off-duty police officers.

Sandra Ridgeway was given an 18-week sentence, suspended for 26 weeks, in August 2014.

PCSO Paul Randall was given a five-month sentence, suspended for two years, in September 2014. The former Met officer admitted to being paid £150 after he informed The Sun that model Naomi Campbell had attended a police station in Westminster in 2006.

Lee Brockhouse, an officer at HMP Swaleside prison Kent, was jailed for 18 months in December 2014. Between 23 April 2007 and 27 October 2009, The Sun paid £1,750 to Brockhouse for the unauthorised disclosure of information to reporter Nick Parker. Brockhouse also provided stories for the People newspaper, who paid him £900.

Bettina Jordan-Barber was sentenced to 12 months in January 2015. The Ministry of Defence press officer was paid £100,000 for stories sold to The Sun. The “number one military contact” of chief reporter John Kay, she admitted conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office between January 2004 and January 2012.

David Hobbs was given an four-month sentence, suspended for two years, in February 2015. According to the BBC, Prison officer Hobbs admitted to selling information to The Sun for £750 about James Bulger killer Jon Venables. The information did not result in a story.

Jonathan Hall was given an eight-month suspended sentence in February 2015. Hall, an HMRC press officer, made £17,475 from selling stories, including details of the 2010 Budget, to The Sun. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office between 2008 and 2011

PC Simon Quinn was jailed for 18 months in April 2015. The BBC reported that Quinn, who resigned from Surrey Police in 2011, was paid at least £7,000 for stories by The Sun over a ten-year period. Quinn pleaded guilty to misconduct between 2000 and 2011, including leaking details of the investigation into the disappearance of Milly Dowler.

Kenneth Hall was jailed for two years in June 2015. The Broadmoor nurse admitted selling stories to the News of the World and Mirror newspapers between 2002 and 2004. He also admitted to forging documents to beef up his stories.

Karen Hall, the wife of Kenneth Hall, was given a five-month jail sentence, suspended for one year, in April 2015. She pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the offence by allowing money she knew her husband was getting by selling stories to go into her account..

Reggie Nunkoo was jailed for 10 months in May 2015. The former Pentonville prison employee admitted being paid £1,650 for stories – including one about singer George Michael – by The Sun and Daily Mirror, according to the BBC.

PC Rosemary Collier was given a four-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, in May 2015. The former Met Police call handler admitted to being paid £700 for details of a confidential briefing note about potential terrorist attacks, the BBC reported.

Robert Norman was sentenced to 20 months in June 2015. Norman, a union rep at Belmarsh prison, was paid £10,000 for 40 story tips to reporter Stephen Moyes between 2006 and 2011, when Moyes worked at the News of the World and the Daily Mirror.

Alan Hagan was jailed for 20 months in June 2015. According to the Met Police, Hagan was an employee at Ashworth Hospital, a high security facility, who sold information about a patient to the News of the World in January 2008. Hagan was paid £1,000 by the newspaper. The Met said Hagan took a covert camera into the hospital and was “in negotiations with the newspaper regarding a £50k payment for the images”.

Robert Neave, a former healthcare assistant at Broadmoor Hospital, was jailed for eight months in November 2015. Neave was paid £7,125 for 14 tips to the sun.

Former prison officer Scott Chapman was paid £40,000 for providing information for 46 stories to The Sun, News Of The World, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday. He admitted to misconduct in public office between 1 March 2010 and June 2011. Chapman sold details about James Bulger’s killer, Jon Venables. He was sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment in December 2014.

Lynn Gaffney was accused of allowing her partner, Scott Chapman, to use her bank account to receive payments from tabloid newspapers. Her conviction was subsequently quashed.

Grant Pizzey, a former prison officer from top security HMP Belmarsh was found guilty of leaking stories about celebrity inmates to the Daily Mirror over six years. He was paid almost £20,000. He was jailed for two years in November 2015.

Desra Reilly, wife of Grant Pizzey, was accused of aiding and abetting him. She was jailed for 12 months.

Prison guard Mark Alexander was sentenced to 10 months behind bars in November 2015 after selling tips to Daily Mirror reporter Greig Box Turnbull 11 times and on one occasion receiving £400 from the Sun for a story about the mother of Baby P in HMP Holloway.

Amanda Watts, handed over five pieces of information to Sun reporters which resulted in five stories for which she was paid £2,100 by News International. She was jailed for 12 months in November 2015.

Mark Blake, 42, detention custody officer, was paid nearly £8,000 for tips about the Colnbrook secure immigration removal centre. He pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between January 2008 and December 2010. He was given  a 15 month suspended sentence.

The post New law needed to protect journalists’ sources after conviction of 32 under Operation Elveden appeared first on Press Gazette.

Trinity Mirror’s new chief executive Simon Fox has confirmed the company’s lawyers have launched an internal investigation into four allegations of phone-hacking.

The inquiry comes days after it emerged that four people are taking action against Mirror Group Newspapers – publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People – at the High Court, including former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Fox emailed staff yesterday afternoon saying the company had still not received the claims from Mark Lewis, the lawyer representing the claimants, it would be “irresponsible of me not to ask our lawyers to look into the four claims that have attracted this recent attention”.

“My clear observations over my first few weeks at Trinity Mirror are that the company operates to the appropriate ethical standards and our editorial procedures and processes are robust," he added.

“As we have consistently said, all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of practice."

But the former-HMV chief also expressed alarm at the level of coverage over the allegations this week, saying he was “deeply concerned” that the “four unsubstantiated claims can attract publicity of such magnitude”.

Press Gazette understands that Trinity has still not received any of the claims from Lewis.

The three other claimants in the case are Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, Abbie Gibson, a former nanny for the Beckham family, and Garry Flitcroft, the former captain of Blackburn Rovers football team.

They allege breach of confidence and misuse of private information relating to the interception and/or misuse of mobile phone voicemail messages and/or the interception of telephone accounts.

It is the first time that civil actions over alleged phone hacking have been launched against newspapers outside Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Lewis first revealed plans to pursue the four civil claims back in August 2011 but it was another 14 months until the claims were lodged at the High Court.

Trinity’s shares fell by 12 percent in early trading on Tuesday morning when the allegations first emerged.

The company released this statement following the initial allegations earlier this week: "We note the allegations made against us by Mark Lewis in today's papers.

"We have not yet received any claims nor have we been provided with any substantiation for those claims.

"As we have previously stated, all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission Code of Conduct."

In July 2011, Trinity Mirror launched a review of its editorial controls and procedures in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that triggered the closure of the News of the World.

The post Mirror lawyers launch internal investigation into four phone-hacking claims appeared first on Press Gazette.