Recent years have witnessed a consistent deterioration in the viability and sustainability of conventional business models of the news media. In the last century media companies were mostly funded by advertising revenues, benefitting from a two-sided audience and advertising market. However, increased competition in digital advertising has undermined this model that, for almost a century, provided a solution to the issue of how to finance public interest journalism. More recently, newspapers and audiovisual services have faced a severe decrease in revenues from advertising, due to the rise of new digital platforms competing on the advertising market, coupled with a decreased willingness-to-pay in light of the abundance of free news online.Strongly impacted by those structural changes, the media became more vulnerable to multiple crises and external shock. News media have dealt with perpetual, multiple crises in recent years, ranging from a general economic crisis, sometimes exacerbated by developments in other markets such as the energy market affecting cost-of-living, to more systemic shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The resilience of the news media thus relies on their ability to survive during times of crisis – and not just to survive but to continue their journalistic operations and cope with threats and challenges. To be able to secure financial income in this context, news media need sustainable business models that enable them to perform their democratic mission – critically overseeing power and providing citizens with the information they need to navigate society and make decisions for themselves and others.This report collects good practices of media sustainability at national levels. Analysing some trends in Council of Europe member states can help in forecasting future scenarios and envisaging media policies fit to ensure media sustainability and plurality in a changing media landscape. To do so, the report describes the relevant trends in the news media sector, highlighting the conditions that limit or boost the viability of the news media industry and best practices in news media funding.
Authors
Committee of experts on increasing resilience of media (MSI-RES)
- Format
- Number of pages
- 98
- Published in
- France
- Ref
- 026324GBR
- Size
- 7,52 MB
- Type of document
- Document
Table of Contents
- Preliminary remarks 6
- Introduction 8
- Definitions and principles 9
- Summary of recommendations 10
- 1. The framework for the analysis 12
- 1.1. The economic characteristics of journalism 12
- 1.2. Media business model as a two-sided market 12
- 2. Methodology used in the data collection and selection of the good practices 14
- 2.1. Academic literature review on news media resilience 14
- 2.2. Academic literature review on income sources for news 15
- 2.3. Policy reports and independent studies 20
- 3. Examples of good practices for revenue sources under consideration 28
- 3.1. Advertising revenue 29
- 3.2. Direct revenue by users 32
- 3.3. Philanthropic funding 36
- 3.4. State support 43
- 3.5. Redistribution of copyright revenues 48
- 3.6. Cooperation in addressing the challenges of innovation and competition 49
- 3.7. Development assistance 51
- 3.8. Diversified income streams 52
- 4. Conclusions and recommendations 56
- 4.1. Recommendations to states 57
- 4.2. Recommendations to news media companies 59
- 4.3. Recommendations to philanthropic donors 60
- 4.4. Recommendation to the Council of Europe 60
- 5. Summary of European Union’s funding and policy initiatives for improving media sustainability 62
- 6. Summary of Council of Europe policy recommendations 64
- References 68
- Annex – Analysis of the replies received from the Council of Europe member states through the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) 78
- Coverage of the survey 78
- Part A. The national context 79
- Part B – Good practices 85
- Conclusions 95
- Appendix 1 96
- Appendix 2 97
