The Business of Digital Journalism
The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 10:00 AM
The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism (PDF) Introduction Chapter One News From... More
Introduction
The story so far: what we know about the business of digital journalism
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:13 AM
Few news organizations can match the setting of The Miami Herald. The paper’s headquarters is perched on the edge... More
Chapter One: News From Everywhere
The economics of digital journalism
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:12 AM
In early 2005, a researcher at the Poynter Institute published a column that was instantaneously read and—by many—misunderstood. Rick... More
Chapter Two: Traffic Patterns
Why big audiences aren’t always profitable
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:11 AM
At first glance, the numbers don’t seem to add up: The New York Times has more than 30 million... More
Chapter Three: Local and Niche Sites
The advantages of being small
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:10 AM
TBD.com went out with a whimper, not a bang. In February 2011, just six months after going live, the... More
Chapter Four: The New New Media
Mobile, video, and other emerging platforms
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:09 AM
News organizations can be forgiven for feeling that they’re in an endless cycle of Whac-A-Mole. They’ve had fifteen years... More
Chapter Five: Paywalls
The price tag for information
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:08 AM
“Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. Information wants to be free because it has... More
Chapter Six: Aggregation
‘Shameless’—and essential
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:07 AM
A group of middle school students at Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters got a special treat... More
Chapter Seven: Dollars and Dimes
The new costs of doing business
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:06 AM
Journalism is expensive and good journalism especially so, but the newsroom usually is not the costliest part of running... More
Chapter Eight: New Users, New Revenue
Alternative ways to make money
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:06 AM
“The basic point about the Web is that it is not an advertising medium, the Web is not a... More
Chapter Nine: Managing Digital
Audience, data, and dollars
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:05 AM
Although all digital news organizations live in a brutally competitive environment, some companies do much better than others because... More
Conclusion
Lessons, takeaways, and bullet points
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:04 AM
"Here’s the problem: Journalists just don’t understand their business.” That’s the diagnosis from Randall Rothenberg, a former New York Times... More
Executive Summary
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:03 AM
Chapter One News From Everywhere: The Economics of Digital Journalism Large-scale competitive and economic forces are confronting news organizations, old... More
Acknowledgements and Credits
For “The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism”
By Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves May 10, 2011 at 12:02 AM
Acknowledgements We owe a great debt to many people who contributed to this report. While we can’t name them all... More
How Smaller Gets Bigger
By Jan Schaffer May 10, 2011 at 12:02 AM
"The future of journalism will be a tale of smaller and smaller organizations making a bigger and bigger impact," asserts... More
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
