What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism

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Columbia Journalism School | Tow Center for Digital JournalismExecutive SummaryChapter 1News From Everywhere: The Economics of Digital JournalismLarge-scale competitive and economic forces are confronting news organizations,old and new. This chapter identifies 16 features of the digital world thatare transforming the business of news, including changes in audience, aggregation,distribution, customer experience, cost structure, innovation cycles and advertising.Chapter 2The Trouble with Traffic: Why Big Audiences Aren’t Always ProfitableDigital audiences often far outnumber those for broadcast or print news outlets,but online ad revenue is usually a fraction of what’s earned in traditionalnews media. One reason is the difficulty sites have keeping readers’ attention.The most loyal users typically make up a small part of the audience but look atthe most pages per visit. Some news organizations are retooling their approachto derive more revenue from those users.• Companies discussed: New York Times, Houston Chronicle,Los Angeles Times, Scout Analytics, Gawker Media, PBS, Dallas MorningNews, Examiner.com, The Atlantic, Tumblr, New York Magazine,Newser, MashableChapter 3Local and Niche Sites: The Advantages of Being SmallDespite the general distress in the news industry, some community sites havesucceeded. The economics of local and niche news providers are much differentthan those of large sites, and they capture some benefits by operating at such asmall scale: low costs, local ties and creative online ad sales strategies. Networkssuch as Patch are attempting to be local to their audiences but national in theirtechnology and ad sales, with uncertain success so far.Executive Summary 133
The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism• Companies discussed: TBD, Main Street Connect, Patch, Baristanet,Alaska Dispatch, Batavian, Daily CandyChapter 4The New New Media: Mobile, Video and Other Emerging PlatformsJournalism companies are grappling with a stream of innovations in digitalmedia. Most organizations have tried to develop new ways to report and distributestories, and many are making substantial investments to enable their work toappear on attractive new devices. Companies must constantly evaluate where toinvest and how much. Video has been a special challenge. Publishers know thatadvertisers will pay a premium for video, but the video audience remains smallat many news sites.• Companies discussed: Wall Street Journal, The Daily, Wired, SportsIllustrated, Miami Herald, Dallas Morning News, CNN, New YorkMagazine, LIN Media, Forbes, Detroit Free PressChapter 5Paywalls: Information at a PricePublishers cite several reasons to charge for news online. One is to increasesubscription revenue, another is to slow erosion in print audiences. Even beforethe Internet, subscription revenue didn’t amount to much; Americans are used topaying little for their news. With few exceptions, digital pay plans have not beenable to make up for declining advertising revenue offline. Digital subscriptionsmay pay off in the years to come, but only if media companies can persuade consumersto use, and pay for, mobile platforms like smartphones and tablets.• Companies discussed: Wall Street Journal, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Financial Times, Newport DailyNews, New York Times134
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