"This study provides an in-depth treatment of the global newspaper publishing market and its evolution, with a particular view on the development of online news and related challenges. It assesses online news consumption patterns and new online news value networks, compared with the traditional news ... paper value chain. It shows that the economics of news production and distribution has been radically altered, in particular in the context of the economic crisis which has accelerated structural changes. After very profitable years, newspaper publishers in most OECD countries face declining advertising revenues and signficant reductions in titles and circulation. The economic crisis has amplified this downward development. However, the data and the large country-by-country differences, for instance, currently do not lend themselves to make the case for “the death of the newspaper”, in particular if non-OECD countries and potential positive effects of the economic recovery are taken into account. Importantly, the study shows that many promising forms of news creation and distribution are being experimented with, some of which are empowered by increasing technological sophistication and resulting decentralised forms of content creation and broad-based participation [...] More recently newspaper websites have seen strong growth in their own pages, with large newspapers reporting several million unique visitors to their pages per month, increasingly including readers from abroad, a radical shift from national patterns of established newspapers." (Summary, page 6) more

"Drawing on an expanding array of intelligent web services and applications, a growing number of people are creating, distributing and exploiting user-created content (UCC) and being part of the wider participative web. This study describes the rapid growth of UCC and its increasing role in worldwid ... e communication, and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content? What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are the new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts? What are the associated challenges? Is there a government role, and what form could it take?" (Back cover) more