Newsletter makes $4m with most content free | Local news pays for non-profit publisher

Fighting for journalism and profitable news media

Newsletter makes $4m with most content free | Local news pays for non-profit publisherAnd the latest top 50 global ranking of news websites by traffic
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Fighting for journalism and profitable news media
Newsletter makes $4m with most content free | Local news pays for non-profit publisher
And the latest top 50 global ranking of news websites by traffic 
Dominic Ponsford
Mar 11 

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Good morning from the team at Press Gazette on Wednesday, 11 March.
📧 The founder of non-partisan politics newsletter Tangle Isaac Saul has explained how the brand has built nearly $4m in reader revenue despite giving most of its content away for free. 
This one is essential reading for anyone who struggles with the challenge of keeping news free whilst also keeping the lights on.
Tangle’s executive editor and founder Isaac Saul. Picture: Tangle
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📢 Today we also report on a not-for-profit local news publisher that has found a way to make journalism bloom in some of London’s most arid news deserts.
Social Spider CIC runs a network of seven London local newsbrands, including four monthly newspapers. Print is essential to the commercial success of these titles, which also rely on reader donations.
This business is tiny compared to the mighty journalism brands that once covered every London borough with eager reporters. 
But with turnover approaching £400,000 it is making enough money to pay a few proper journalists a decent wage and provide some big London boroughs with oversight and a media voice.
February 2026 editions of Social Spider newspapers Waltham Forest Echo, Enfield Dispatch, Barnet Post and Newham Voices. Picture: Press Gazette
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📉 And the latest global top 50 ranking of news websites shows most lost at least 10% of their traffic year on year in February.
The beleaguered Washington Post was among the biggest fallers, down 34% year on year.
Sites in India also fared particularly badly - showing that changing patterns of referral traffic from Google are a global issue.
Al Jazeera was the fastest growing news site globally, benefitting from superb coverage of growing tensions on its Qatar doorstep.
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🤏News In Brief
Piers Morgan has hired former MSNBC president Rashida Jones to be CEO of his company Uncensored - which also announced it has raised fresh capital to expand into a multi-vertical network. (The Hollywood Reporter)
The NCTJ says it has reached its target of having women make up 25% of students enrolled on NCTJ-accredited sports journalism courses. This is up from 6% in 2021/22, 14% in 2022/23 and 20% in 2023/24. 
Youtube is expanding its likeness detection tech to journalists, Government officials and political candidates, allowing them to identify AI deepfakes of themselves and request removal if privacy rules are violated. (Youtube Official Blog)
The London Review of Books has appointed Hearst