What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism

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Columbia Journalism School | Tow Center for Digital JournalismIn February 2011, News Corp. launched The Daily, a tablet-only newspaper.First offered on just the iPad, though there are plans to extend it to more tablets,The Daily announced a start-up budget of $30 million, which let it hire enoughjournalists, designers and technicians to create 100 pages of content per day. Integratedinto the Daily are features that seem to shine on the iPad platform, suchas social-media links, audio and video. Greg Clayman, publisher of the Daily, saidhundreds of thousands of users have downloaded the app, but he’s not ready toreveal how many use it on a regular basis. 17George Rodrigue, managing editor of the Dallas Morning News, says the iPad“may be the thing that helps people read enterprise journalism. We used to sayyou have to be platform agnostic. I don’t think that’s right anymore. You haveto be platform specific.” But the transition isn’t cheap. “We have to build a stafffor the iPad—two people plus an assignment editor,” he says. “We’re going tohandcraft little stories summarizing every story—55 words max. Every reporterwill write the summary themselves. Every section front will be a summary of thenews page.” At the Miami Herald, Raul Lopez, the interactive general manager,estimates the paper’s total digital page views to be 30 million per month; about 2million are mobile, and half of those are via the iPhone.* * *Meanwhile, video has become an essential element of the digital experience.According to comScore, about 89 million people in the U.S. watched at least oneonline video, or video advertisement, daily by the end of 2010. 18For journalism sites, broadband access has made video distribution more feasible.But persuading users to watch news video isn’t easy. Online video journalismis becoming a world of haves and have-nots. Among the haves, CNN.comreigns supreme.“In any given month, well over half our unique visitors watch video,” saysK.C. Estenson, senior vice president and general manager of CNN.com. “Thepercentage has gone up every year.” When CNN.com redesigned its site in 2009,The New New Media: Mobile, Video and Other Emerging Platforms 59
The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalismthe network “anchored it on video,” Estenson says. It isn’t unusual for the websiteto have 15 or more video links on its home page, including at least three or fourin high-profile featured positions.CNN.com is different than other video-rich sites because of the size and expectationsof its audience. The company says it delivers between 60 million and100 million video streams a month. In contrast to local-broadcast competitors,CNN.com can match the costs of substantial technology and newsgatheringwith a massive audience. “If you do not have scale, you do not have a business,”says Estenson. CNN.com has also launched a free iPad application in whichvideo is integrated into text. And CNN is hungry for more viewers. Estensonsays CNN can sell “almost every single video impression we create. So we wouldlike more video consumption.”CNN has brought its broadcast expertise onto the Web. “We program by timesof day,” says Estenson. “The bell curve of visitors to our site peaks between 11a.m. and 2 p.m. on regular news days. We’ve noticed that social media links go upa lot at night.” Sometimes CNN makes programming decisions based on a mixof demographic and editorial priorities. Estenson notes that users under the ageof 25, who “are disproportionately on social media,” tend to be more interestedin entertainment and features rather than in hard news. So, while “CNN is allabout trust and reliability,” Estenson says, “for CNN.com, entertainment is oneof the biggest sections of the site.”Estenson sees contrasts between the content on CNN’s cable channel andCNN.com. Online, producers have more freedom to experiment and expand,and the content can be more daring. “Going online is a private experience, versuswatching in the living room. When people are online, they seem to gravitate tothings that are more provocative than they would if they were in a room withtheir friends.”How profitable is CNN online? According to a presentation the network madeto analysts in mid-2010, revenue for CNN overall (consisting of the U.S. and internationaldivisions, Headline News and digital) was about $500 million; digitaladvertising and content sales accounted for about 10 percent of total revenue. 19CNN.com’s profit margin isn’t broken out publicly by either its division, TurnerBroadcasting System Inc., or by the parent company, Time Warner Inc. Estenson60
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