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This paper proposes a practice-theoretical journalism research approach for an alternate and innovative perspective of digital journalism’s current empirical challenges. The practice-theoretical approach is introduced by demonstrating its explanatory power in relation to demarcation problems, technological changes, economic challenges and challenges to journalism’s legitimacy. Its respective advantages in dealing with these problems are explained and then compared to established journalism theories. The particular relevance of the theoretical perspective is due to (1) its central decision to observe journalistic practices, (2) the transgression of conventional journalistic boundaries, (3) the denaturalization of journalistic norms and laws, (4) the explicit consideration of a material, socio-technical dimension of journalism, (5) a focus on the conflicting relationship between journalistic practices and media management practices, and (6) prioritizing order generation over stability.
Why Do Digital Native News Media Fail? An Investigation of Failure in the Early Start-Up Phase
(2020)
Digital native news media have great potential for improving journalism. Theoretically, they can be the sites where new products, novel revenue streams and alternative ways of organizing digital journalism are discovered, tested, and advanced. In practice, however, the situation appears to be more complicated. Besides the normal pressures facing new businesses, entrepreneurs in digital news are faced with specific challenges. Against the background of general and journalism specific entrepreneurship literature, and in light of a practice–theoretical approach, this qualitative case study research on 15 German digital native news media outlets empirically investigates what barriers curb their innovative capacity in the early start-up phase. In the new media organizations under study here, there are—among other problems—a high degree of homogeneity within founding teams, tensions between journalistic and economic practices, insufficient user orientation, as well as a tendency for organizations to be underfinanced. The patterns of failure investigated in this study can raise awareness, help news start-ups avoid common mistakes before actually entering the market, and help industry experts and investors to realistically estimate the potential of new ventures within the digital news industry.
Subscription-based news platforms (such as “Apple News+” or “Readly”) that bundle content from different publishers into one comprehensive package and offer it to media users at a fixed monthly rate are a new way of accessing and consuming digital journalism. These services have received little attention in journalism studies, although they differ greatly from traditional media products and distribution channels. This article empirically investigates the perception of journalism platforms based on eight qualitative focus group discussions with 55 German news consumers.
Results show that the central characteristics these platforms should fulfill in order to attract users are strikingly similar to the characteristics of media platforms from the music and video industries, in particular regarding price points, contract features, and modes of usage. Against this background, the potential and perspectives of a subscription-based news platform for journalism’s societal role are discussed.
True to the motto “Money for nothing and content for free”, both up-to-date information and thoroughly researched reporting are principally used free of charge in their digital forms. Considering this, how can journalism be funded sustainably? This study focuses on users and investigates the reasons for their lack of willingness to pay for content, as well as what they do pay for, and why.
Das vorliegende Gutachten befasst sich mit der Innovationslandschaft des deutschen Journalismus. Innovation wird als eine essenzielle Voraussetzung verstanden, um tragfähige Lösungsansätze für die gegenwärtigen Probleme des Journa-lismus zu entwickeln. Im Mittelpunkt des Gutachtens steht die Frage, wie Innovationspolitik im Journalismus – d. h. die Unterstützung von Innovation durch die öffentliche Hand – funktionstüchtig ausgestaltet werden kann. Dabei wird dem Innovationssysteme-Ansatz gefolgt, welcher Probleme, Barrieren und Hemmnisse identifiziert, die der Innovationsfähigkeit des Journalismus in Deutschland grundlegend im Wege stehen.