About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Opinion

The survival of online journalism

Digital advertising can make visiting some online publications an incredibly frustrating experience. You often get bombarded by different advertisements, including pop-ups that cover the article you’re trying to read, distracting flashing banner ads, autoplay videos…the list goes on! There’s nothing more annoying than being unable to find the well-disguised x button to get rid of them, or even worse, accidentally clicking on the wrong part of the screen and being redirected away from your read.

While this can create an exasperating user experience, it’s a difficult dilemma for publishers. Digital advertising provides a critical source of revenue and is key to their survival. If readers have to put up with a few ads every time they want to read an article for free, is that a fair trade-off?

Before widespread use of the internet, we paid for our news by buying newspapers, yet when it moved online, it was made free for all to access. Journalist, David Barnett, likened this to a high street cake shop selling cakes to customers over the counter, but then setting up a website to give away cakes for free! He also points out that, “Once people get used to having something for nothing, it’s an uphill struggle to get them to accept it has any value.”

However, subscriptions and paywall models are proving successful for many national news sites as a way of generating revenue to support their journalism. But for now this alone isn’t enough. Worldwide blog comment hosting service, Disqus, conducted research to find out if and why people pay for news. Only 30.45% of respondents said that they had paid for online news content in the last year. When asked why, the top reasons were, ‘I want to read high quality content on topics I care about from a publication I like’, to ‘fund journalism’s role in society’ and to ‘support a publication’s mission.”

While the majority of readers don’t currently pay to access their news online, the annual Digital News Report from Reuters Institute and Oxford University this year showed that the rise of fake news could soon change that. The online survey of 75,000 people across 38 countries found that 55% said they were concerned about misinformation; a growing trend in many places despite the efforts of governments and social media firms to counter it. In the UK specifically, 70% of respondents agreed with the statement, ‘I am concerned about what is real and what is fake on the internet’, up 12% on the previous year. With this in mind, is it going to become more likely that readers will pay to access their news from a trusted source?

The subscription model has certainly paid off for The Guardian. Guardian Media Group (GMG) recently reported that it has achieved its key financial goal for its core news business, Guardian News & Media (GNM), breaking even at an EBITDA operating level, with profits of £0.8 million. This is in stark contrast to its losses of £19m in 2017/18, and £57m in 2015/16, demonstrating the success of its three-year turnaround strategy. This is thanks, in part, to its paying readers; The Guardian now has over 655,000 monthly paying supporters, across subscribers, recurring contributors and members, and an additional 300,000 one-off contributors in the last year.

But do news sites that stick solely to digital advertising to fund their operations need to address their user experiences? While the advertising revenue helps the publication survive, if visitors aren’t sticking around to read its content because of a frustrating user experience, what is it really offering? And for any publications considering implementing a subscription model alongside their advertising, readers are unlikely to invest if their experience is being disrupted by flashing ads and pop-ups every two seconds.

As businesses, we spend a huge amount of time tweaking and perfecting our websites to improve the user experience we offer, from page load speed to navigation. Anything that could put a visitor off, disrupt their journey, or potentially impact conversion rates is treated as a big red flag. So, do online news sites need to pay more attention to the user experience they provide? In order to maintain solid commercial relationships, retain loyal readers, and perhaps even persuade them to support their journalism with a financial contribution, it’s certainly looking that way.

About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Opinion

Sangria, sunglasses and self-evaluation

TikTok Advertising: Is It Worth the Investment for B2B Companies? (written by a Gen Z) 

Browse more blog posts

Posted on
byClaire Lamb
A few weeks ago, the entire Skout team visited the beautiful and historic city of Palma, Majorca for our annual kick off event. It’s been a long time in the planning (pre-pandemic to be precise) and the first time we’ve been abroad for a kick off to the new financial year. We’ve always found kick off meetings a great way...
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
TikTok is increasingly being used as a platform for B2B companies to implement their marketing strategy, aiding in brand exposure, lead generation and profile building. But, where does paid TikTok advertising come into play? Is it an effective tool to engage with B2B audiences, or is the ROI just not worth it?  If you’re the least bit social media savvy,...
Posted on
byClaire James
In May I was fortunate to be able to attend the recent UK Construction Week at Excel in London and see the strides forward an industry, that has become recognised as one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, is making in tackling the thorny issue of achieving Net Zero. In his keynote on day one, Lord Callanan, Under Secretary...
Posted on
byJames Weaver
In the world of B2B marketing, it is essential that you have a solid B2B marketing strategy in place to effectively connect with your target audience.
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
Why was PR your chosen career?  PR is all about storytelling, with so much opportunity for creativity and content creation. Since I’ve always loved writing and always had a big imagination, I thought that PR would be the ideal career to channel my creativity. I’m all about communication, and PR really allows you to foster meaningful relationships. I’m already learning...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
As a smaller business, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to sustainability. Sure, we all do our best to use the right recycling bin at home, and bring our re-usable coffee cups to work. But with serious pressures now mounting from the government – which pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 –...
Posted on
byLee Simpson
Another week, another round of mass layoffs in the tech sector. With Amazon (AWS) and Meta cutting thousands of jobs, and further layoffs at Salesforce and of course Twitter, it has felt a bit like the tech world has been imploding of late. This is of course concerning for us working in B2B tech PR, but more importantly for the...
Posted on
byJack Doyle
2023 is off to a strong start here at Skout.  Our business has continued to grow with the addition of some exciting new clients. With new clients, has come new hires, who we’ve also been excited to welcome on board the team. And if our recent win for Best Marketing and PR Consultancy at the PR Brilliance Awards is anything...
Posted on
bySkout team
Part time office administrator We’re looking for a bright, self-starting individual who likes job variety and has a mixture of strong organisational skills, basic financial experience and is an excellent communicator. If this is you, you could be just the right person to join our team. We’re a dedicated B2B marketing communications agency. We deliver brilliant PR for clients across...
Posted on
byClaire James
It’s estimated that over 100 billion WhatsApp messages are sent each day. Yet, with many people using the platform to communicate with colleagues, friends, and even clients, it’s easy to imagine how the lines between personal and professional can be blurred. Take the recent leaking of WhatsApp messages from Matt Hancock as an example. Private texts from the former health...

Send us a message

Download The B2B business relationship report

The B2B relationship renaissance – did digital kill it? The importance of relationships throughout the customer buying journey. Please complete the form below and receive a download link via email.