Analysis: A deeper look at people’s willingness to pay for news

In this executive report, we are going to dive deep into the data and the graphs to see what impacts how and why people pay for news.

Strategy outlook: Why publishers should block AI search

AI search is becoming increasingly problematic for publishers. It takes away our traffic, and the overall outlook is such that publishers will never set a net positive from it.

Nobody subscribes when they first see a paywall, but that’s not a problem

Building a successful paywall has very little to with the paywall itself, but is much more about how it's implemented.

What newspapers can do instead of a ‘free weekend’

A list of all the problems facing publishers (for reference)

How to do a journalistic relevance audit (2025 edition)

What should publishers focus on in 2025?

Should publishers focus on monthly or annual subscribers?

How to build a membership-based publication

Analyzing the duration of use of news

A guide to publisher registration walls

A media analyst's look at the future for subscriptions

Guide: What newsrooms can and cannot do with AI

Everyone is talking about AI (obviously), but there are a number of mistakes that publishers make again and again.

Why hype fatigue is making readers tune out

A deeper look at the effects of trust for publishers

Why personalization keeps failing for news publishers

Where is the subscription ceiling?

Why publishers should not focus on social media

We need to talk about Politiken’s latest advertising campaign

What is the news? And should I be worried about AI doing it?

What is your news topic abandonment rate?

Newspapers and sandwich shops

Things to consider when reading The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025

Soft churn, hard churn, and permanent churn

A new year, a new challenge for publishers

Future focus for executives, AI becoming pointless, fake images credited real media companies, and more

A new site for 2026-2040

I have launched a new site for baekdal.com, and is upselling subscriptions to memberships a good idea?

15 years of professional media analysis

In this article, I look back at the media industry to see what has changed and what hasn't over the past 15 years.

Gen Z, future revenue, and our path ahead

Gen-Z are very skeptical of traditional journalism, and a big reason for that how we report the news. They are used to getting a different level of information.

Should we block the Googlebot?

Most publishers are now blocking AI bots, except for Google's bot. The reason is simple, the Googlebot is used not just for AI overviews, but also for search. But should we block it?

Why should the press be exempt?

EU wants to simplify their rules around GDPR and privary by moving concent dialogs into the browsers, making the press excempt. But that's a really bad idea for us.

Publishers must block AI search

The data is now clear. AI search is fundamentally destructive for publishers to the point where not even if we are paid for it will it benefit us.

What are the overriding trends for magazines? And let’s try Claude as a journalistic tool

Hype fatigue, bot attacks, and what is your day-to-day metric?

Is the sale of Zetland a good thing? A media analysts’ perspective

Newsletter analytics is completely broken, and what we can do about it

Reach PLC strategy is in conflict with itself