Synopses & Reviews
Can digital journalism be profitable? What's making money, what isn't, and why? Columbia University faculty members Bill Grueskin, academic dean of the Journalism School, and Ava Seave, Principal at Quantum Media and adjunct professor at the Business School, addresses these questions about the financial state of digital journalism. The Story So Far offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of the business challenges that large and small, old and new for-profit news organizations face with their digital ventures.
Grueskin, Seave, and Lucas Graves spent several months reporting on-site at news organizations -- some that were founded over a century ago and others created in the past year or two. Based on that body of data, they examine how news organizations allocate resources, explore what patterns are emerging in revenue streams, and draw conclusions about how companies might generate revenue more effectively.
The book is divided into nine chapters covering everything from advertising models at a diverse array of news organizations, to alternative platforms, new revenue streams and audience engagement.
The authors argue that news organizations must do more to embrace the unique attributes of the Internet rather than trying to adapt Web offerings to legacy business models. The authors suggest that news organizations and their audiences regard digital platforms as being in a constant state of transformation, one that demands a faster and more consistent pace of innovation and investment.
Synopsis
Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves spent close to a year tracking the reporting of on-site news organizations--some of which were founded over a century ago and others established only in the past year or two--and found in their traffic and audience engagement patterns, allocation of resources, and revenue streams ways to increase the profits of digital journalism.
In chapters covering a range of concerns, from advertising models and alternative platforms to the success of paywalls, the benefits and drawbacks to aggregation, and the character of emerging news platforms, this volume identifies which digital media strategies make money, which do not, and which new approaches look promising. The most comprehensive analysis to date of digital journalism's financial outlook, this text confronts business challenges both old and new, large and small, suggesting news organizations embrace the unique opportunities of the internet rather than adapt web offerings to legacy business models. The authors ultimately argue that news organizations and their audiences must learn to accept digital platforms and their constant transformation, which demand faster and more consistent innovation and investment.