Some viable models for digital public-interest journalism

Bibliographic Data

ID7499709
AuthorsMercedes Medina (0000-0003-1754-6811, Universidad de Navarra, corresponding author), Alfonso Sánchez‐tabernero (0000-0003-3392-1861, Universidad de Navarra), James Breiner (0000-0001-6774-8978, Universidad de Navarra)
Year2021
Publication date2021-02-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEl Profesional de la Informacion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1386-6710 • E-ISSN: 1699-2407
PublisherEdiciones Profesionales de la Informacion SL (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3145/epi.2021.ene.18
OpenAlexW3130729384
LanguageCA
Citations received12
References cited39

The supply of public interest journalism that serves the needs of citizens in a democratic society has always been scarce in the media marketplace when compared with sensationalism, gossip, entertainment, propaganda, and misinformation. This scarce commodity, whose market value lies in its credibility and depends on costly investments of time and money in professional research, has frequently required a subsidy, which for more than a century was provided by advertising. Now that this subsidy has mostly been devoured by technological platforms such as Google and Facebook, the industry and profession are developing new models focused on user needs and wants with a trend toward public service rather than profit. This paper uses deductive and critical methodologies to identify the most promising business models used by media companies to counteract the decline in public-interest journalism. Our proposal is that an appropriate business model can be the best way to revitalize media companies. The research is based on Chesbrough’s business model framework applied to 20 leading digital news publications from 16 countries. In addition, we analyze how Covid-19 has impacted those business models

Advertising · Business · Business model · Credibility · Economics · Journalism · Misinformation · Political science · Public interest · Public relations · Sensationalism · Social media · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Marketing

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