It would be like looking at a film made in the 1940's - in black and white - then comparing that to an AI computer generated sci-fi film on a 50" screen and think - really?

For that generation read and enjoy?

1. When journalism was a trade, not a profession:

For most of the 20th century, journalism in the UK was a working-class craft. Pay was low, hours were long, and the job was simple: produce something — anything — before the presses rolled.

The brief was famously blunt: “Go out, son, and find a story. Don’t care what it’s about — just bring one back.”

Speed mattered more than polish. Output mattered more than comfort.

*This is where the term “hack” was born — not as an insult, but as a badge of survival*.

However:

2. When hacks drifted into hacking decades later, pressure for exclusives, shrinking newsrooms, and the race for scoops pushed parts of the industry into ethically dangerous territory.

Information-gathering blurred into intrusion. Intrusion blurred into illegality.

The phone-hacking scandal erupted, triggering the Leveson Inquiry, a judicial investigation into press culture and ethics. Lord Leveson produced a long list of recommendations. Many were implemented.

*A few critical ones weren’t*.

The result was a press landscape that changed unevenly — reformed in some areas, resistant in others.

Then:

3. The digital era rewrites the job: Over the next 15–20 years, journalism was reshaped by forces far bigger than any newsroom, collapsing print revenue, the rise of online advertising, 24/7 hour publishing cycles, shrinking staff numbers, consolidation of ownership resulting in just 3 politically right leaning 'groups with 3 Multi Billionaire Owners, the pressure to publish constantly, and the economics of clicks and metrics - the nature of newscasting changed completely.

*The old brief — “find a story” — evolved into something narrower, shaped by the need to require more right wing views expressed than that of other political views than theirs, and the need to fill endless online space*.

The demands of providing 24/7 news broadcasting be it printed, digital, or through the relentless TV news channels - where news doesn't increase so you have to repeat it more often resulted in.

4. The rise of “copy-and-paste” journalism:

With fewer journalists producing more content, on the same news, a new mode emerged: rewrites of agency copy, identical stories across multiple outlets, templated formats, minimal original reporting standards, speed over depth, volume over verification, mission over accuracy.

*Academics call this “churnalism” — journalism driven by output pressure rather than investigation. The result is a landscape where many stories look the same, differing only in presentation*

Conclusion:

5. The arc in one line:

From underpaid hustlers, to ethical crises, to digital overload, to copy-and-paste journalism — the profession didn’t collapse; it simply bent under the weight of its own economics.

Summary:

Precisely How Right Wing Leaning British Media Evolved Into Complete Domination Of Right Wing News - In A Nutshell.