State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.
The Latest
A 200-year-old book distributor is closing. Here’s what that means for public libraries.
News npr.org ·The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says it will close. Race and politics have been tearing it apart for years.
News commentary Media Nation ·McClatchy’s Machine Mindset
News Status ·Statement from Poynter Institute President Neil Brown on the announcement that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will close
News Poynter ·Your move, Paramount
News view.newsletters.cnn.com ·Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to shut down after nearly 240 years, citing losses and labor rulings
News Poynter ·Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Announces It Will Cease Operations
News NYT > Business > Media ·Florida billionaire takes control of Lee Enterprises, easing debt and reshaping its leadership
News Poynter ·John Cusack Wants to Talk About Paywalls
News Columbia Journalism Review ·Warner Bros Discovery tells investors to reject latest $108bn hostile Paramount bid
News Media | The Guardian ·Warner Bros. Board Rebuffs Paramount’s Latest Buyout Offer
News NYT > Business > Media ·Corporation for Public Broadcasting's patriotic goodbye
News commentary Public Notice ·What the Dissolution of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Means
News Columbia Journalism Review ·The New York Times is staffing up in video
News Nieman Lab ·Right Wing Media Companies Begin Bickering At The FCC Over Who Gets To Dominate The Exploding Right Wing Propaganda Market
News commentary Techdirt ·Trump Books Aren’t Selling Anymore
News theatlantic.com ·Can Two Detroit Papers Survive a Split?
News Columbia Journalism Review ·Corporation For Public Broadcasting formally dissolves after federal funding cuts
News Media | The Guardian ·Corporation for Public Broadcasting Votes to Shut Down
News NYT > Business > Media ·in brief
CBS News gets a new leader, with an ideological agenda
If there’s nothing in Bari Weiss’s journalism resume that remotely qualifies her to be editor-in-chief of CBS News, there are plenty of clues as to what she likely plans to do with this opportunity. Weiss in July 2020 loudly left her job as a junior editor in the Times’s opinion section, decrying legacy media and claiming “constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views” in her resignation letter to Times Publisher AG Sulzberger. A letter she, naturally, released to the public.
Oct. 16, 2025
The web hurt the news business. Will AI hurt it more?
Who owns the future?
Some 30 years after the arrival of the first modern web browser — an initial, small crack in the economic foundation of the news business — the widespread availability of artificial intelligence services make urgent the question once again. The press of a different future, the question of ownership, is being felt keenly in any information business: data, news, entertainment, art. AI will create wealth, people are betting, but how will that wealth be distributed?
July 9, 2025
Editorial decisions are now business decisions, and it’s not going well
News and information have a bedrock role in supporting democracy, but that’s not the business model we’ve chosen for newsrooms.
May 30, 2024
Wanted (needed): a new model for news
What if the problem with the news business is the news itself? For all the hand-wringing and lamentations, the unavoidable truth is that many people have stopped buying news products. Half of all newspaper subscribers have vanished in the past 15 years.
Sept. 14, 2021
What if the press delivered the news people actually need?
Despite the recent election-driven revenue gains for the largest organizations, the landscape facing the news media remains perilous. Saddled with a teetering business model, a skeptical public and a hostile president, the press is groping for a clear path to the future.
Feb. 17, 2017