Business Challenges of News Media Companies on Digital Platforms

Prior research suggests that digital platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, serve as a channel between news media companies and their customers. In this view, the role of digital platforms is to aggregate user-­‐generated content in order to attract more users and advertisers to a platform. However, rapid growth of digital platforms and proliferation of platform-­‐based content, such as Snapchat Discovery, Facebook Instant Articles and Youtube channels, challenge the status quo, between news media companies and digital platforms. In this qualitative study we focus on exploring the challenges of news media companies operating on digital platforms. By conducting semi-­‐structured interviews with news media companies we derive three key themes and provide a conceptual model for explaining how digital platforms are becoming a marketplace for distributed contribution of news sourced from a wide array of contributing news media. We conclude with future research propositions

Colloquy with Emily Bell at Columbia University on digital platforms, journalism, and society

This interview with Professor Emily Bell encompasses a variety of topics centered on the relationship between digital platforms and journalism, religion, and society. Issues range from the alarming phenomenon of a growing share of the population who avoid news altogether to the resistance of internet companies to regulate speech. Professor Bell is not sparing with her criticism of digital behemoths, defending comprehensive regulation and greater transparency in their algorithms and data. She talks at length about the seismic consequences of the technological revolution for journalism and the challenges in finding a sustainable business model for the news media. When it comes to religion, she points out that churches have an ally in digital platforms, which can be used to disseminate their messages far and wide. Nevertheless, she warns against the risk of jeopardizing ethical principles when such an alliance lacks critical judgement. Professor Emily Bell is the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and an expert on the interplay of communication and technology

”We are all in this together” : What are the challenges Google ”helps” media industries with?

Studies have shown that the platform companies Google and Facebook have a disruptive nature in how media companies organise their work, and some researchers claim they are a duopoly in digital advertising. However, Google says it supports media by “helping” media industries through funding and training. This study argues that by examining what media projects Google supports, we get a good overview of what challenges journalism is currently facing and the solutions for tackling these problems, and ultimately, how this connects to Google as a platform company and to its narrative. This study aims to investigate which media industry challenges Google tries to address by financial support and to examine the solutions to these challenges proposed in accepted Digital News Innovation Fund (DNI) projects. Thus, this research asks: What are the challenges for media and journalists that Google Digital News Initiative is addressing? What specific challenges get the largest support? What are the main solutions proposed in projects supported by Google DNI? Based on the review of the literature about the relationships between platform companies and media and responses to challenging conditions in the ecosystem of platforms, qualitative content analysis was used to examine the last round of the DNI Fund’s 102 projects. The analysis demonstrated that Google supports projects that classify in three directions: Business Model Innovations, Product Development in Editorial Processes and Ecosystem Development Approaches. One of the most interesting findings shows that Google favours supporting projects that concern solutions for the increase in audience subscriptions rather than addressing what publishers have concerns about the most – Google’s domination over the digital advertisement. The results open the discussion about the possible signs of Google’s support in media industries being a “self-help” for their mission of organising the world’s information. Further research is needed to identify what is the content of the other projects Google presents as “help” to media industries

Lowering the barriers for online cross-media usage: Scenarios for a Belgian single sign-on solution

The digitization has led to an ecosystem in which an online media portal has become an essential extension of traditional media and users are enabled to consume news and entertainment via different platforms. These evolutions pose some challenges for the media companies in terms of shifting business models, but they also bring them new possibilities in managing their relations with users. An important first step here is to identify the online users and turn anonymous users into registered ones. Today, however, there is a myriad of logins and passwords one needs when surfing the web, which can make the management of these logins a challenge for users. The Belgian media industry seeks to deal with this challenge by introducing a collaborative nation-wide single sign-on (SSO) system across their digital platforms, called Media ID. This paper provides four scenarios describing the potential outcomes in terms of user adoption and hence market potential of the integration of a SSO service into a regional media system. The scenarios are built upon focus group interviews with media users and in-depth interviews with the stakeholders from the involved media companies. They describe to what extent the innovative service can influence user’s online media consumption behaviour but also to what extent the media companies can implement it, two factors that mutually shape each other. In the discussion of the scenarios, requirements to ensure the broad applicability of a SSO service by both media users and media organizations are identified

Tackling food marketing to children in a digital world: trans-disciplinary perspectives. Children’s rights, evidence of impact, methodological challenges, regulatory options and policy implications for the WHO European Region

There is unequivocal evidence that childhood obesity is influenced by marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fat, salt and/or free sugars (HFSS), and a core recommendation of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity is to reduce children’s exposure to all such marketing. As a result, WHO has called on Member States to introduce restrictions on marketing of HFSS foods to children, covering all media, including digital, and to close any regulatory loopholes. This publication provides up-to-date information on the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to children and the changes that have occurred in recent years, focusing in particular on the major shift to digital marketing. It examines trends in media use among children, marketing methods in the new digital media landscape and children’s engagement with such marketing. It also considers the impact on children and their ability to counter marketing as well as the implications for children’s rights and digital privacy. Finally the report discusses the policy implications and some of the recent policy action by WHO European Member States

On Digital Distribution’s Failure to Solve Newspapers’ Existential Crisis: Symptoms, Causes, Consequences and Remedies

This chapter examines some of the symptoms and causes of the crisis facing newspapers via analyses of their finances and of audience measures. The consequences of the crisis, and whether there are any realistic remedies, are also considered, both in relation to journalism as a product and to the institutions, such as newspapers, that have traditionally produced it. We start with an analysis of the financial performance of multiplatform news publishers in Australia, Europe and the USA, which leads us to conclude that digital distribution is not reversing newspapers’ decline, and raises questions about the support for journalism in the long term. Next, some of the consequences of the declines that have already taken place are discussed. Moving from consequences to possible remedies, the chapter focuses on two areas. Firstly, media policy, and secondly, journalism as a product: what news should be produced and how it should be delivered. Another strand of the chapter concerns audience measures. They are used to help explain newspapers’ continuing dependency on print revenues, and are understood, depending on their constitution and use, as both a party to the crisis and as an able assistant in its alleviation

Mapping the Money in Public Media

Provides an overview of emerging "user-centric" business models for public media that utilize the interactivity of digital technologies as a way to integrate content, communication, commerce, and community through participatory media creation

Brands in international and multi‐platform expansion strategies: economic and management issues

Powerful media branding has historically facilitated successful international expansion on the part of magazine and other content forms including film and TV formats. Multi-platform expansion is now increasingly central to the strategies of media companies and, as this chapter argues, effective use of branding in order to engage audiences effectively and to secure a prominent presence across digital platforms forms a core part of this. Drawing on original research into the experience of UK media companies, this chapter highlights some of the key economic, management and socio-cultural issues raised by the ever-increasing role of brands and branding in the strategies of international and multi-platform expansion that are increasingly common- place across media