There is no denying media companies are in business. At the end of the day, they need to count profits. But there is also a need to balance between public duty of informing the public and commercial interest.

Reading The Economist’s 2024 annual report offers a prescription on how the media business has changed, and, to some extent, how agility on adapting to news trends helps in sustaining the media business.

“We’ve changed. We’re still a proud newspaper, with proud traditions — but we do things differently now,” according to the report. “High-quality digital journalism is what is driving our growth, and our growth is driving more excellent digital journalism — which is engaging our audiences more deeply and more often than ever before. Our audiences are changing too. Our new subscribers are younger and more diverse than they used to be — and there are a lot more of them.”

Clearly, The Economist has transformed into values-based digital journalism, hence it is attracting subscribers.

The lesson for us is that we need to constantly evaluate our products, because, in most cases, it’s past glory that is still magnified. However, if you ask the audience, media products are no longer in their best form and quality; either they do not resonate with what the audience wants, or they are just irrelevant.

Another point to note about the report is the company acknowledges the long road to transforming into a digital-first business. Yet, it has also invested in technology, products, and people who knowledgeable and have a transformative mind. Naturally, very few journalists are product or strategy people, but training can compensate for this because the media business needs journalists to lead.

Coming closer home, we hardly invest in technology customised for journalism, but the demand for digital revenues is high.

The most comforting aspect is how The Economist brags about its “excellent journalism.” This ultimately means only journalism will serve journalism — but under the conditions that it speaks to audience needs and the products are actually quality products with compelling reasons for people to purchase.

Yet, there is hope.

According to The Economist, its success is because “outstanding journalism and content produced by colleagues throughout the Group are the driving forces behind our performance.”

This means journalism is a business. However, there is a need to attach value to it, both in terms of operations and generating compelling content that is audience-centric.

If media houses orient people in the organisation to understand that news is the core business, and the rest of the business units are pillars of support, problems will not exist even in resource allocation and employing the best journalists.

But when there is confusion, conflicts remain visible between business units, specifically from marketing and sales, which may be misled to think newsroom business is advertising or marketing. This has resulted in conflicts, such as marketing teams blaming editorial teams for taking an editorial stance pointing to certain news stories that bruise potential clients.

Yes, there is a need to balance between editorial and commercial interests, but this must not mean journalism will bow down. This is mainly caused by lack of orientation on the mandate and mission of journalism.

People are the most important resource in any business. But what makes organisations strong is respecting expertise.

The first step to digital transformation is a skills audit: Are the people qualified? Do they have the experience?

But the biggest dilemma is that digital is a novel area and not many understand it — even business owners and some executives. The danger here is individuals who are seemingly confident and talk a lot but with limited knowledge may actually convince the organisation to adopt certain decisions that may not make sense. And, it’s difficult to make an audit on the proposals because they are not structured.

It is important to have a clearly defined role and clear KPIs that are relevant and within global standards, since media houses have gone global due to technology allowing for a wider reach.

The other pressing element is investment in digital tools and infrastructure as well as capacity building. There is high demand for more revenue, but it does not match investment.

Training and development are critical, and new skills are emerging. These can only be resourced through training. The mismatch in organisations is that expectations are high, but even the people involved in the processes do not have the right skills.

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