Document details

Rebooting Journalism: How Media Startups Overcame the Business Model Crisis. What Can We Learn from Eldiario.es and Mediapart?

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2019), 78 pp.

Series: Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper

"This research is based on the belief that there is no journalism crisis, but a business model one. So, learning from successful experiences that innovate in the business is the first step towards building a healthier media landscape in other countries. During this paper I will focus specially in two European news startups launched in the last 11 years which betted for audience support and up to date have succeeded in reaching a very influential position in the media landscape of their countries. Both are economically profitable as well. They are Eldiario.es from Spain and Mediapart from France. Founded by experienced and already well-known journalists, both news outlets are ranked in the top 10 most frequently visited websites in their countries (competing with legacy media brands from all platforms). They are also in the top three in terms of trust, according to the 2019 DNR. They have constantly increased their newsrooms and multiplied more than five time their budgets since launching. They published scoops that dominated news agenda and lead to resignations to high members of each national government." (Page 7)
Motivation & executive summary, 6
ELDIARIO.ES, 10
Journalism pedagogy -- Building a community -- The beginnings of Eldiario: ownership and business model -- Journalistic proposal: An editorial gap to fill -- Future challenge: The possible impact of a business model change -- El Diario’s competitors: similar origin but different trajectories: La Marea, CTXT, Infolibre
MEDIAPART, 35
A Journalism Model for the XXI century -- “A journal of reference” -- Mediapart is Partipatory Media -- How does the audience of Mediapart look like? -- Becoming Robin Hood: the beginnings of Mediapart -- The challenge of transcending -- What happened with the “Nouvelle Vague” of news startups in Fance? Rue89 -- Les Jours
KEY FINDINGS, 59
Are Mediapart and Eldiario models replicable? 63
Special annex: Is there room for an independent news startup based on audience revenue in Argentina? 66