So many interesting and valuable industry reports and so little time in a busy newsroom. Journalism.co.uk summarises the major takeaways of new and ground-breaking research into revenue and product opportunities for your newsroom.

Big tech and news publishers have long been in a shouting match over the compensation of news on platforms. Mostly because the two sides cannot agree on what value news provides to these digital environments. Well, the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) just landed on a number (and it is eye-watering). Director Jonathan Heawood and campaign manager Beckie Shuker chew over the figures. Full report here.

What's the context?

The Competition and Markets Authority has just launched its investigation into Google's strategic market status under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, kickstarting the process of regulating one of the most powerful companies in the world.

The DMCC Act means that big tech firms like Google will be forced to negotiate a fair deal with news providers, including independent and local publishers. But Google is resisting regulation, saying that only 2 per cent of searches are news queries. PINF thinks the claim is misleading and it ignores the huge value that news publishers create for Google by providing users with a wide range of trustworthy, diverse, relevant search results.

What's the top line?

The research proves that 66 per cent of users prefer Google when it includes national and local news. In other words, news providers and Google are more powerful together than they are apart. But Google is hoarding its enormous revenues rather than sharing them fairly with publishers. Google generated £16.7 billion from search advertising in the UK in 2023, of which £8.5 billion (55 per cent), comes from information searches.

Of that, £5.6 billion is generated with the help of news media. If this value were split 60:40 with Google, news providers would be entitled to £2.2 billion – for 2023 alone. Accounting for all the previous years where Google has held this dominant position, the final bill would come to many billions.

What does this mean for my newsroom?

It is very hard for individual news organisations to stand up to big tech firms like Google, but the DMCC Act allows publishers to negotiate collectively with Google.

Publishers create and verify the content, employ journalists, investigate the stories and carry the legal risks. Without the work of news providers large and small, Google would ultimately be less valuable. PINF hopes that its research can underpin collective negotiations and give news providers confidence, leading to a new and more sustainable settlement between news publishers and Google.

WAN-IFRA has just published its latest World Press Trends report that captures key trends in digital publishing, with an emphasis on revenue and technology. Director of insights and editor-in-chief, Dean Roper, gave us the lowdown. Full report here.

What's the context?

Roper points........

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