NDM Story #29 - News publishers contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015

News publishers contributed £5.3bn to the UK economy in 2015

Summary:

According to a report commissioned by the News Media Association, the news industry's trading body, newsbrands generated £4.8bn revenue, supported 87,500 jobs and invested £97m in digital services.

Their £4.8bn revenue was achieved via circulation of these papers as well as advertisement revenue.

However, in order for continued success in this sector, they do need to maintain their monetisation of newsbrand content. As always, reference to possible threats of social media sites such as Facebook and Google have been made, almost serving as a warning for this industry to still be aware of the circumstances yet persevere in their work.

Statistics:

• 90% of revenue stayed within the UK in comparison to 77% of the general revenue remaining in the UK economy by all industries in total.
• Publishers account for 58% of the total investment in news production.

My opinion:

I think this article is interesting and am pleasantly surprised to see this type of data being presented, particularly given that the majority of news throughout this year, regarding the possible successes of brands within newspaper industry have been largely negative and suggestive of a major decline in this sector. Therefore, to read an article that is more positive with regards to newspapers' achievements both within the industry and on wider scale, contributing to the economy in general, is good to see. I'm also glad to have read that there are other benefits of the UK journalism industry which don't seem to have been previously mentioned - such as its effect on increased literacy rates across the country.