Document details

Income Models of Independent Media in Difficult Contexts

Free Press Unlimited (2020), 48 pp.
"Diversification with age: The media in this research are in a constant process of diversifying their revenue streams. Generally speaking, the longer a medium exists, the more income streams a medium has. This shows that diversification of income models takes time and patience. Donor funding remains important: Donor funding is a very important source of income, even within diversified income models. Media that do not receive any donor funding are generally either start-ups (less than two years old) or solid, long standing media houses (founded more than 20 years ago) that have a print edition or also broadcast on television. Most media generate advertisement income: Advertisement income is also still a very important source of income; a large majority of the media generate some income through advertisement. Even though digital advertising generates much less revenue than print advertisement once did, advertisement income is still a welcome contribution to the annual budget of media. Reader revenue in diversified models: Reader revenue is an important upcoming revenue streams in many contexts. However, it hardly ever is the first source of revenue, and generally becomes part of already diversified income models (three revenue streams or more). Media in challenging contexts are fragile: Across all the challenging contexts, media struggle to sustain themselves financially. In low income countries, and countries with a very bad press freedom status, growth or income diversification are not easy–almost impossible –to accomplish [...]" (Main findings, page 4-5)