The Business of Digital Journalism

Download the full report "The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism"as a complete PDF.

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

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