News & Analysis

Nonprofit News Model is Fragile

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Nonprofits have been touted as a possible alternative to the collapsing business models of for-profit news. But a study released last week by the Pew Research Center points to the fragility of that model and also to the need for a more concerted effort to shore it up. The study identified 172 nonprofit news outlets throughout the U.S. – two-thirds of these were launched only since the 2008 financial crisis. While the recession has accelerated the closure of newspapers and the downsizing of news staffs throughout the country, it has given rise to a boom in nonprofit news.

Case Studies

How Three Independent News Sites Survived their First Five Years

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Launching a news publication online is the easy part. Paying the bills and surviving for several years is the hard part. Three of those who have evolved and survived for at least five years are La Silla Vacia, a political website in Colombia, Homicide Watch, a news and data platform in three U.S. cities, and Texas Tribune, a news site focused on Texas civic life.

crowdfunding

Can Crowdfunding Support Media Business Models?

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Monday July 6 saw the launch of The Ferret, a new Scottish investigative journalism platform, which joins an expanding list of media business models benefitting from crowdfunding. Given the seemingly increased popularity of this funding route many media players will understandably be asking if this source of income is for them. In this article we explore some of the benefits – and potential pitfalls – anyone exploring these channels needs to consider.

Alfonso Vara-Migue

Digital Strategy: Prioritize Community, Not Audience

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The old news business model has been serving advertisers and investors at the expense of the most important people in the media equation — the public, the readers, the users. But now that digital media have broken up that arranged marriage of advertising and news content, publishers are rediscovering the importance of focusing on serving readers.