Journalism moving to subscription model, with AI, metaverse at play

More subscribers and subscription revenue, more from online advertising, a deeper involvement with AI (artificial intelligence), the metaverse and more money on short video. Those are among the key takeaways from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s (RISJ’s) annual report, “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022”, released last week.

Where is news journalism headed? What is the future of the news business? The Digital News Project of the Oxford-based RISJ looks into these questions, among others, every year. Nic Newman, the lead author, is a senior research associate at RISJ and has been anchoring the report since 2012. This time the report, available on the RISJ website, is based on a closed survey with 246 senior (editorial, commercial and product) people from 52 countries. That explains the mixed bag of conclusions.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents said their revenue had increased over the last year, despite the fact that more than half reported static or falling page views. Three-fourths of the sample of editors, CEOs and digital leaders said they are confident about their company’s prospects for 2022. “A key part of publisher confidence has been the continued growth of subscription and membership models through the Covid-19 pandemic.

The New York Times now has 8.4 million subscriptions, of which 7.6 million are digital. For many of these early-movers, digital revenue now outstrips print and many upmarket titles can see a path to a sustainable future. But so too can a number of smaller digital-born publishers with significant reader revenues, such as Dennik N in Slovakia, El Diario in Spain, Malaysiakini in Malaysia, Zetland in Denmark, and the Daily Maverick in South Africa,” says Newman in the report.

This is in line with what India is seeing. Much of the business and product efforts are driven towards subscription revenues. But this raises a valid concern that the report voices — “that subscription models may be pushing journalism towards super-serving richer and more educated audiences and leaving others behind.” That explains why funded, not-for-profit initiatives for open access journalism are important.

One of the trends the report highlights is that news on TikTok or short video will be a battleground. That is because to get to younger audiences, publishers plan to spend more on short-video platforms like TikTok or any format that gets to the point quickly and can address “non-traditional subjects”. There is also the rise of the influencer, subscribe-to-me-directly journalists on platforms such as Substack. The big area of concern — rising polarisation and the rising attacks on journalists across the world.