Will the news boom prevent more media outlets going bust?

theguardian.com:

From the pandemic and the war in Ukraine to the Westminster partygate saga, newspapers are benefiting from a financially lucrative news boom. However, is the news industry enjoying a one-off blip in the battle for survival against big tech, or is this proof that publishers have finally forged commercial models fit for the new media age?

In a sign of the shifting fortunes amid unprecedented news events, Rupert Murdoch’s Times and Sunday Times last week reported a doubling of operating profits to their highest level since 1990 and the Sun, a one-time cash cow turned high-profile casualty of the digital age, is within £1m of returning to operating profit for the first time in a decade.

The papers’ parent company, News Corporation, where executives have seen the market value double to $13bn (£9.9bn) since 2019, is the latest to reveal the significant financial boost thanks to news-hungry readers seeking trusted media outlets during uncertain times in record numbers. Other major news organisations are also enjoying a revival in fortunes.

The New York Times hit its target of 10m subscriptions three years early, albeit in part thanks to spending $550m buying the sports news subscription service the Athletic, and its chief executive, Meredith Kopit Levien, said 2021 was its most profitable for many years.

The news rush has helped the Financial Times and the Guardian to pass 1 million digital subscribers each, while the Telegraph has reached 750,000 print and digital combined, at an average spend per subscriber of £172. And last year Reach, the publisher of the Mirror and Express titles, as well as hundreds of regional brands including the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News, managed its first like-for-like revenue growth