"At the very time that society recognizes the worth of trusted news, the sector's ability to deliver it has never been more challenged"

I tuned into this week’s excellent FT Future of News conference. You can watch some of the highlights here. Here are some themes and insights that stood out that I wanted to share:

1.This is the just the start of a great upheaval in news media

The last six months might have been tough, but hold on to your hats. Ad revenues are crippled, companies are going out of business or looking for buyers. Areas of the world are becoming a no-go zone for quality media. It’s becoming harder to tell truth to power. But there is hope…

2. The growing importance of Asia’s voice to the world

Media in Asia are navigating an extremely difficult environment and press freedom is at an all-time low. In China and Hong Kong, the redline is left purposely vague so that media have to police themselves and naturally lean to being more careful and conservative. As tensions between the US and China build, journalists are being used as pawns in the debate. But citizen journalists are playing an important role and traditional news organisations will survive – they know how to get to the truth and the voice of Asia will become increasingly important and relevant to the world.

3. The way we consume media and the way media thinks about us is changing

The FT works on two tracks - covering big stories daily with authority and as a forum for ideas to help guide readers that have questions about where we and the global economy are going. It has noticed that the way readers are consuming media is changing – the FT used to publish at 5am to match the start of commutes, but readers are now waking up more gently and later. They want a break midday from home working so the FT now offers popular live Q&As and covers cooking at lunchtime. The Economist has found that subscribers are more interested in how the paper thinks and how the news media process works (see the Cover Story Newsletter).

4. Challenges to the economics of news may finally ensure that news is delivered in the way people want it

Trusted news has never been more important or appreciated – we are in a crisis of misinformation that fuels problems across society. People will make better decisions if they know what really goes on in power centres, which are in turn held to account.

Yet, at the very time that society recognises the worth of trusted news, Will Lewis argued that its ability to deliver it has never been more challenged. Traditional news is unprofitable, with covid acceleration structural shifts, so the model is unlikely to attract new capital. You can count on your hand the number of news orgs that are breaking even. Journos are so busy smashing out eight stories a day, so the stories do not stand out.

But media is acting to escape a death spiral. They are backing growth engines and fully embracing digital. Young people appreciate quality news more but will not listen to radio, watch news at 10 or buy a newspaper. They want it delivered in a form that works for them, on a channel of their choice, and personally tailored. News media has resisted this to some extent but can’t anymore.

5. A hothouse for user first format changes

This is a nice video summary of the sessions on this topic from Garrett Goodman. There are clear lessons from the last 8 months and what this means for direction of travel. The media have a new empathy for their readers having been through a mass shared experience.

These developments include the importance of service journalism (content that offers practical help and advice to readers) and business news as a utility rather than something they have to go and seek out – i.e. making sure customized news comes to readers in the way they want it throughout their day, made useful for specific sectors and roles.

VICE, with claims to be the world’s biggest youth media news organisation, is seeing growth in two very different ends of the spectrum. They are placing a focus on vertical video (Snap, Instagram, upcoming Google web stories with vertical video search functions) and has seen great success with reporters’ Instagram Live reporting in real-time. But also documentaries - viewers are also craving for deeper understanding and knowledge.

More real-time information is now delivered by live streams and blogs (Dataminr and Bloomberg quick takes) and media are becoming more comfortable engaging real-time with readers creating a healthy two-way conversation.

6. Young people are engaged and demanding change

77% of young people said that brands should support journalism that in turn supports social issues. 42% said they ranked news as the second category they consumer after music. Only 20% said they trust social media. They want the news platforms to clean up all the fake news. They are clearly engaged, demanding change, and looking at whether brands are really aligning with the way they see the world.