What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Columbia Journalism School | Tow Center for Digital Journalismnoted, too many of them are relics of a decade ago—boxes on a page thatconvey little of the information or appeal that historically made advertisingvaluable to consumers.• News organizations must be vigilant about outright theft of their content,but they should also realize that most aggregators operate within the boundsof copyright law and are generating value for readers. This means news sitesmust do more than simply insert links (most of which are never clicked)within stories, and instead develop a thoughtful approach to understandingwhat topics best lend themselves to aggregation and how best to engagetheir readers in the effort.• It is asking a lot to expect a legacy division—in news or ad sales—to embracesuch a radically different world as digital. Retraining gets you only sofar. Small, traditional news organizations may find it impossible to set up separatedivisions. But bigger companies should analyze the potential in creatingseparate digital staffs, particularly on the business side. We did find successfulcompanies with integrated digital and legacy departments, but others havedemonstrated that they can compete more effectively by deploying committeddigital-only teams that adapt to rapidly changing circumstances.• Journalists must be prepared for continued pressure on editorial costs. There’san old rule of thumb in the newspaper world, that every 1,000 readers supportsone newsroom staffer. That kind of thinking isn’t going to hold in thedigital world. We are likely to see a world of more, and smaller, news organizations,the most successful of which will leverage their staffs and audienceby using aggregation, curation and partnerships with audiences to providecontent of genuine value.• Mobile digital devices represent a special challenge for news companies; forevery successful new product or new platform, there will be others the companytried that didn’t work. If a company can place small bets on many ventures,the probability increases that one will win.• Any news site that adopts a pay scheme now should have very limited expectationsfor its success—at least on the Web. In the case of a print publication,requiring digital readers to pay may help to slow circulation losses, but thatConclusion 131
The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalismis hardly a long-term solution. A pay plan merged with an ambitious strategyto improve users’ experience on mobile platforms has a much better chanceto succeed.We restate the bias we offered at the beginning of this report: We believethe public needs independent journalists who seek out facts, explain complexissues and present their work in compelling ways. We also believe that whilephilanthropic or government support can help, it is ultimately up to the commercialmarket to provide the economic basis for journalism. The industry hasrealized many of the losses from the digital era. It is time to start reaping someof the benefits.132
Page 1 and 2:
The Story So FarWhat We Know About
Page 3 and 4:
Columbia Journalism School | Tow Ce
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7:
Page 10 and 11:
The Story So Far: What We Know Abou
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85: Columbia Journalism School | Tow Ce
Page 120: Columbia Journalism School | Tow Ce
Page 123 and 124: The Story So Far: What We Know Abou
Page 140: Columbia Journalism School | Tow Ce
Page 143: The Story So Far: What We Know Abou
show all

What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?