Business models in digital journalism

With the digital age, two pillars of media financing have collapsed: advertising revenues and sales figures. The financing of journalism must therefore take new paths today. Non-profit status and platform economy can not only be two options, they can also be thought of together.

»Why hasn't there been a Spotify for newspaper products?« (Martin Rabanus, SPD member of the Bundestag, 2020)

Contact person

Alexander Sängerlaub

To date, publishers have hardly found viable business models for adequately financing journalism in the digital space. Journalism is confronted with two problems: dwindling subscription figures in analog and declining advertising revenues in digital as well. The transformation of old subscription models into digital has hardly been successful to date, and accordingly, the willingness of Germans to pay is extremely low from an international perspective (8 % according to the Digital News Report 2020). The time would actually have long since come for a cooperative platform approach: either as a single log-in to subscriptions for users or as a flat-rate model, as known from streaming providers, but taking into account the special features of the media system and individual media use. futur eins wants to help break down mental barriers and develop new business models, which in turn enable users to be as well informed as possible.

Further topics

#01

Next Generation Social Media

The first age of social networks was a gigantic global success with a new form of human interconnectivity and communication, but also dark underbellies of destructive disinformation and propaganda. What can we learn from the first age, about business models, blueprints, algorithms, and echo chambers, and do better in the next?

#02

Constructive News Lab

News needs perspective. Constructive journalism is the logical development from the insights we have gained about journalism in the last century. We want to help editorial offices to develop their working methods and to think up new formats.

#03

Resilience against Disinformation & Hate Speech

How to deal with populism? Which measures help against disinformation and hate speech? How can we increase the resilience of our society by having better strategies in hand to respond to the challenges of the digital information society? futur eins helps journalists, politicians and citizens and provides them with concepts and tools on how best to deal with populism and disinformation.

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