Rising mortgage rates and the news media

Amidst the cost of living crisis, there's been a significant wave of subscription cancellations among borrowers, and news subscriptions have not been immune to this. It's pretty clear from the myriad retention strategies that news organisations are using to persuade their subscribers to stick around. While I stand by the idea that you generally receive value commensurate to what you invest, the reality is that if free media can deliver similar content, then there's a pressing need for the paid subscription model to adapt. Furthermore, this shift carries the implication that stories not locked behind a paywall could have a broader influence on public perception and shape the prevailing narrative.

For people to afford a mortgage within their disposable incomes, and also to maximise lender affordability calculations for what they can borrow, many have been poring through their bank statements looking for monthly savings, and critiquing the perceived value and importance of every direct debit. We have seen many TV subscriptions scaled back, some gym memberships cancelled and, of course, news subscriptions are also being regarded as more of a luxury than a must-have by many. With so many articles and apps sharing free news and Facebook and YouTube also being used to source such content, many prospective buyers and those looking to remortgage are looking to offload such payments. This creates a challenging market for the news publishing sector with print sales reducing and advertising budgets also being scaled back by many companies due to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Give people a choice between having paid news content or buying a property, and their decision is simple.