Document details

Chasing Sustainability on the Net: International Research on 69 Journalistic Pure Players and Their Business Models

Tampere: Tampere Research Centre for Journalism, Media and Communication (2012), 125 pp.

ISBN 978-951-44-8967-9

"The SuBMoJour study has mapped journalistic startups in nine countries. It has created an online database detailing the business models of journalistic startups that are deemed sustainable (www.SuBMoJour.net) and this accompanying narrative report. The study supports research to date that online environments offer the necessary market characteristics for niche journalistic sites and content production. There is a rich and diverse set of media case studies in the database, all with their unique interpretation of serving communities or reportage. The study was carried out across 12 months with a team of international researchers. Where it was hard to evidence entirely new revenue sources, it was however possible to find new ways in which revenue sources have been combined or reconfigured. Most of the 69 case studies have diversified their income to include more than one revenue source. As such, there is potential innovation in new business models by way of combining revenue sources in new and interesting ways to make their sites profitable in the long term. Some sites, particularly those born to support products, which were very much of the net, have rebundled or recombined revenue streams in relatively innovative ways." (Conclusion, page 116)
1. Introduction / Esa Sirkkunen, Clare Cook and Pekka Pekkala, 7
2. DIVERSIFIED MEDIA LANDSCAPES, 16
Overview of media systems / Esa Sirkkunen, 17
USA: Moderate success after a long crisis / Pekka Pekkala, 21
Japan: Journo-based and journo-oriented / Mikihito Tanaka, 29
UK: Big media friends / Johanna Vehkoo and Clare Cook, 42
France: Tensions and diversity / Clare Cook, 52
Italy: An unfinished transition / Nicola Bruno, 62
Spain: Enthusiasm and fragility / Luchino Sívori, 72
Finland: Legacy dominates / Esa Sirkkunen, 80
3. Revenue sources / Clare Cook and Esa Sirkkunen, 88
4. Sustaining journalistic entrepreneurship / Pekka Pekkala and Clare Cook, 108
5. Conclusions / Clare Cook, Esa Sirkkunen and Pekka Pekkala, 116