Changing Media?
by Robert Nisbet & Christian May
In 2024, the impact of technology will continue to be felt across the media, both in terms of how people consume their news, but also the impact artificial intelligence could play in creating and checking content.
These advances will allow news brands to ensure accuracy (or at least claim accuracy) in their sources, accelerate basic research and transform newsgathering as editors cope with the competing demands of shrinking budgets and increased demand for online content. The digitalisation of news production also continues to chip away at the concept of a ‘deadline’ creating new risks and opportunities for companies.
Focusing first on broadcast media, the BBC is pinning hope on its rapidly expanding BBC Verify product. It’s been the one area that has seen an increase in funding, while resources from traditional ‘legacy’ sequence programmes, such as Newsnight, have been stripped away.
Senior managers at BBC News have told 5654 & Company that establishing trust in their news gathering by verifying so-called ‘user generated content’ (mostly footage shot by the public on their mobile phones) in the face of digital manipulation and distrust of journalism more generally, is a way to insulate them from more damaging cuts. Auntie’s news leadership are scrambling to protect their budgets, following the lower than expected 6.7% increase in 2024’s licence fee.
An increasing focus on financial constraints within ‘legacy’ broadcast media means clients may well be sensible to look beyond traditional broadcast outlets to secure coverage. For example, while the number of podcasts has been dwindling, this is more of a natural thinning after the lockdown podcast explosion, rather than a sign of reduced interest in the format. They focus less on combative and ‘gotcha’ interviews and can deal in subject matters in greater depth, allowing businesses more opportunities to expand and explain their thinking.
Other broadcasters are scrambling to catch up on technological innovation, with Sky News building artificial intelligence into its planned general election coverage. One senior editor told us that while Sky became the first broadcaster to use live feeds from every constituency count, this election it hopes to steal a march on its rivals by using AI to predict the likely make-up of the next Parliament as Keir Starmer’s Labour takes on the monumental task of attempting to overturn the Conservative’s majority.
2024 will also see more attention in news provision on streaming services, as ITN builds up the news content on the ITV X platform. This will see more resources taken from traditional ‘linear’ news programmes for a more ‘on demand’ and bespoke provision, as all the broadcasters try to stem a fall in audience numbers for their flagship bulletins, facing a switch-off among younger viewers. The biggest threat to news services around the world has come not from long form and text-heavy websites like Facebook, but from picture and video-led apps such as Tik Tok and Instagram, which are increasingly cited as the main source of news for their users.
For the private sector, the digital and streaming shift presents opportunities and risks. It means that the weight of the traditional soundbite in a conventional news ‘package’ may be starting to diminish, with slightly longer interviews more likely to get views ‘on demand’. And it means that deadlines are becoming less important and ‘newsjacking’ is an easier way for clients to inject their key messages into coverage of the big stories of the day. One emerging risk is that it is becoming harder to predict when stories may emerge, with media monitoring still focused on morning editions during weekdays. Stories can bubble up when you least expect them.
Many of these issues affect newspapers too. It’s probably more accurate to now call them digital media companies, some of which continue to print some of their content on paper. As Lord Rothermere, executive chairman of DMGT, put it recently: “When I took over in 1998 the Daily Mail sold 2.3 million copies and was the second largest newspaper in the UK. It now sells 800,000 and is the largest newspaper in the UK. The whole industry now sells just under three million a day. We’re all now digital businesses.”
The economics of print continue to weigh on the established media brands, and yet print endures. Why? Because most proprietors and editors retain a deep attachment to the idea of a physical product, even if their CFOs do not. However, it’s also because digital operations - particularly subscriptions - are coming of age, offsetting some of the losses incurred through the print presses. The digital-first approach of almost every newsroom is not just a commercial imperative; it’s an editorial necessity in order to break stories, lure readers and sweat the editorial assets. There was a time when the Times and the Sunday Times were wholly distinct operations. That is no longer the case, with the titles now sharing a number of editorial desks including travel and property. The Editor of the Sunday Times takes control of the Times website and app on a Friday evening, and retains it through to Monday morning.
One thing all the ‘quality dailies’ have in common is that they view the US as a major growth opportunity. This is particularly true for the Telegraph, however its future ownership looks. Any such move would be more about covering US news for US readers rather than winning US readers of UK news, but these ambitions could lead to expanded opportunities for international coverage. One title that has been digital from inception is Bloomberg, and it’s undergoing something of a quiet transformation in the UK. Their ambition is to take a larger slice of the UK’s online subscriber base when it comes to business and political news, and the strategy seems to be paying off.
Lachlan Murdoch will continue to get comfortable as chair of Fox and News Corp., after his father’s surprise abdication in September. This also puts him in charge of News UK, which publishes The Times, Sunday Times and runs Piers Morgan’s current berth Talk TV. The companies face a difficult year with more legal challenges in the States over claims the 2020 election was rigged. The spectre of phone hacking also continues to hang over the empire with Prince Harry’s action against News Group Newspapers expected to go to trial in 2024.
City A.M. is under new ownership, with increased investment already visible through new hires and a renewed commitment to digital innovation. Other digital-only operations such as Unherd and Tortoise are also maturing. The advantage of these more nimble news ‘outlets’ for businesses is that they are often iterative, with stories being changed throughout the day as new quotes and viewpoints are added. This increasingly provides an opportunity for companies to join the conversation on big issues and events, rather than missing a print deadline. All in all, in 2024, the UK's print and digital media landscape looks to be in rude health, offering a plurality of perspectives and multiple avenues to reach a range of readers.
Robert Nisbet is a Partner at 5654 & Company, formerly an award-winning correspondent at the BBC and Sky News. Christian May is a senior adviser at 5654 & Company, and the former Editor of CityAM.