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Key findings include: 

• Publishers see themselves as having more social impact than last year. Asked ‘to what extent does your organisation make a contribution to society?’ on a scale of 0-100 the average publisher scored itself at 68pts. 

• Social media follower numbers – and email newsletters – are booming across the sector. And across nearly all platforms. 

• Average revenues are up nearly 20%, but there’s a big difference between for-profits and non-profits. 

• Advertising revenue is a greater proportion of revenue than last year, with grant revenue down.  

• Within advertising revenue, publishers are doing more direct selling to clients, relying less on programmatic ads and much less on government advertising. 

• Revenue is strongly correlated to website user numbers and social media followers, especially Twitter followers. 

• Inflation is biting and publishers say ‘there is nothing left to cut’. Several report a risk of having to abandon print editions. 

• Staffing is changing: there is less reliance on volunteers and publishers employ fewer people overall but more full-time equivalents (i.e. existing staff are paid for more hours). 

• Publishers are optimistic: they perceive little competition, especially in high-quality local news. They’d like fair access to government advertising to help boost their sustainability. 

• In-person events are back after the pandemic – publishers hope to run local focus groups, community newsrooms, local training and workshops.