According to Deloitte report by the industry trade body, News Media Association, the news publishing industry in 2015 contributed £5.3 billion to the UK economy amongst the challenges industry has faced as of recent. Along with this it has been also been cited for supporting a large number of jobs within the country whether that be through investment in digital services or the supply chain. Interestingly the report talks about how if this contribution is to be continued in this manner, then newsbrand content 'particularly on digital platforms' has to be monetised to fund newsgathering. Continuing on the topic of the digital platform, Ashley Highfield, chairman of the NMA, said that there's now a need for 'a fair and equitable regime in which news media publishers’ investment in news is appropriately acknowledged and rewarded, without the commercial benefits being siphoned off by digital platforms and aggregators.' Digital giants such as Google and Facebook can be thought to be the main culprits he's referencing here. Additionally the job the UK media does in 'underpinning' democracy is discussed here with how investigative journalism has helped improve accountability of institutions with an example being the Guardian's Panama Papers findings.
- The news publishing industry contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015
- news media industry generated £4.8bn revenue through circulation and advertising over the course of 2015
- The sector also supported an estimated 87,500 UK jobs; invested £97m in digital services; and added value across the supply chain because the average publisher dealt with nearly 2,600 suppliers
- 90% of the total spend with suppliers by news media organisations remained within the UK, compared to the average of 77% across the economy
- publishers are by far the biggest investors in original news content, accounting for 58% of the total investment in news production
I feel that this article has a lot more of a positive outlook on the situation of the UK news industry. Displaying the benefits it continues to bring with one being its investigative journalism and another its support of jobs, it's clear that the sector isn't completely gloomy. The main part of the article which really caught my eye though, is the one that describes how this positive contribution of news publishers can continue. Monetising news online is something that can either be a hit or miss move, with it more often than not being the latter with The Sun being an example of this. Whether most publishers in the industry will choose to make this move will be something that'll have to be paid attention to over the next few years.
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