The Nordic countries have been regarded as so-called “media welfare states.” Despite the large amount of public money used on press subsidies over the decades in the Nordic countries, there is not much academic research on the financial performance of the newspaper publishing industry in these countries. This study examines the “media welfare state” approach to public support for newspapers and the financial performance of newspaper companies in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our data consists of the key financial figures of newspaper publishing companies in the aforementioned countries from 2005 to 2019. Based on our analysis, we argue that direct press subsidies in Sweden and Norway have not been able to prevent a decrease in the number of titles and, importantly, have resulted in a number of subsidy-dependent news outlets unable to survive on their own income. By contrast, the Finnish newspaper publishing industry has been in a better financial situation in terms of almost all indicators and throughout the review period, despite Finland abandoning direct press subsidies in the 1990s.
{"title":"Press Subsidies and Business Performance of Newspaper Publishing in Three Nordic Media Welfare States","authors":"Mikko Grönlund, Mikko Villi, Marko Ala-Fossi","doi":"10.17645/mac.7570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7570","url":null,"abstract":"The Nordic countries have been regarded as so-called “media welfare states.” Despite the large amount of public money used on press subsidies over the decades in the Nordic countries, there is not much academic research on the financial performance of the newspaper publishing industry in these countries. This study examines the “media welfare state” approach to public support for newspapers and the financial performance of newspaper companies in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our data consists of the key financial figures of newspaper publishing companies in the aforementioned countries from 2005 to 2019. Based on our analysis, we argue that direct press subsidies in Sweden and Norway have not been able to prevent a decrease in the number of titles and, importantly, have resulted in a number of subsidy-dependent news outlets unable to survive on their own income. By contrast, the Finnish newspaper publishing industry has been in a better financial situation in terms of almost all indicators and throughout the review period, despite Finland abandoning direct press subsidies in the 1990s.","PeriodicalId":507746,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":"93 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139859422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Nordic countries have been regarded as so-called “media welfare states.” Despite the large amount of public money used on press subsidies over the decades in the Nordic countries, there is not much academic research on the financial performance of the newspaper publishing industry in these countries. This study examines the “media welfare state” approach to public support for newspapers and the financial performance of newspaper companies in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our data consists of the key financial figures of newspaper publishing companies in the aforementioned countries from 2005 to 2019. Based on our analysis, we argue that direct press subsidies in Sweden and Norway have not been able to prevent a decrease in the number of titles and, importantly, have resulted in a number of subsidy-dependent news outlets unable to survive on their own income. By contrast, the Finnish newspaper publishing industry has been in a better financial situation in terms of almost all indicators and throughout the review period, despite Finland abandoning direct press subsidies in the 1990s.
{"title":"Press Subsidies and Business Performance of Newspaper Publishing in Three Nordic Media Welfare States","authors":"Mikko Grönlund, Mikko Villi, Marko Ala-Fossi","doi":"10.17645/mac.7570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7570","url":null,"abstract":"The Nordic countries have been regarded as so-called “media welfare states.” Despite the large amount of public money used on press subsidies over the decades in the Nordic countries, there is not much academic research on the financial performance of the newspaper publishing industry in these countries. This study examines the “media welfare state” approach to public support for newspapers and the financial performance of newspaper companies in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our data consists of the key financial figures of newspaper publishing companies in the aforementioned countries from 2005 to 2019. Based on our analysis, we argue that direct press subsidies in Sweden and Norway have not been able to prevent a decrease in the number of titles and, importantly, have resulted in a number of subsidy-dependent news outlets unable to survive on their own income. By contrast, the Finnish newspaper publishing industry has been in a better financial situation in terms of almost all indicators and throughout the review period, despite Finland abandoning direct press subsidies in the 1990s.","PeriodicalId":507746,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":"151 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139799927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lukas Erbrich, Christian M. Wellbrock, Frank Lobigs, Christopher Buschow
This study explores the potential of cross-publisher bundled offers as a strategy for increasing subscription sales in digital journalism. While innovative forms of bundling are an integral part of media distribution in music (e.g., Spotify) and film (e.g., Netflix), their adoption in digital journalism has been limited, despite research showing that bundled access to products can increase consumers’ willingness to pay, especially in younger target groups. Against this background, we conduct a choice-based conjoint analysis using data from a representative survey of the German online population (n = 1,542). Results show that bundling digital journalism has the potential to raise publisher revenues and subscription sales in digital markets. In particular, they highlight that a comprehensive, cross-publisher bundled offer, available at a fixed monthly rate, has the potential to stimulate digital journalism sales among different consumer groups in a relatively balanced way, including those who are typically more reluctant towards journalism. These findings align with the principles of information goods economics, which posit that maximising the size of digital content bundles often tends to be the most profitable distribution strategy. However, it is crucial to examine these findings in the context of the potential negative effects associated with this emerging business model in digital journalism, such as the cannibalisation of print subscriptions, diminished brand identification, and a possible imbalanced distribution of revenues.
{"title":"Bundling Digital Journalism: Exploring the Potential of Subscription-Based Product Bundles","authors":"Lukas Erbrich, Christian M. Wellbrock, Frank Lobigs, Christopher Buschow","doi":"10.17645/mac.7442","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7442","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the potential of cross-publisher bundled offers as a strategy for increasing subscription sales in digital journalism. While innovative forms of bundling are an integral part of media distribution in music (e.g., Spotify) and film (e.g., Netflix), their adoption in digital journalism has been limited, despite research showing that bundled access to products can increase consumers’ willingness to pay, especially in younger target groups. Against this background, we conduct a choice-based conjoint analysis using data from a representative survey of the German online population (n = 1,542). Results show that bundling digital journalism has the potential to raise publisher revenues and subscription sales in digital markets. In particular, they highlight that a comprehensive, cross-publisher bundled offer, available at a fixed monthly rate, has the potential to stimulate digital journalism sales among different consumer groups in a relatively balanced way, including those who are typically more reluctant towards journalism. These findings align with the principles of information goods economics, which posit that maximising the size of digital content bundles often tends to be the most profitable distribution strategy. However, it is crucial to examine these findings in the context of the potential negative effects associated with this emerging business model in digital journalism, such as the cannibalisation of print subscriptions, diminished brand identification, and a possible imbalanced distribution of revenues.","PeriodicalId":507746,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":"303 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139799268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This editorial introduces our thematic issue, titled Examining New Models in Journalism Funding, at a pivotal time. While news companies have attempted to build sustainable business models, we have not yet seen a major leap forward. As observed by the authors of this issue, digital reader revenue has become a prominent source of income for many publishers, but the bulk of them continue to rely on advertising and print subscriptions for money. Recently, Google and Facebook have become major funders of news and innovation in journalism. Some governments have also launched specific support programs. After providing some background context, we introduce the articles featured in the issue. We go on to argue that these articles signal a renewed interest in the business of journalism, which will help us better understand the ongoing financial crisis in the commercial news sector at a more granular level.
{"title":"New Funding Models in Journalism Are Emerging, but Major Leap Forward Is Lacking","authors":"M. Myllylahti, James Meese","doi":"10.17645/mac.7891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7891","url":null,"abstract":"This editorial introduces our thematic issue, titled Examining New Models in Journalism Funding, at a pivotal time. While news companies have attempted to build sustainable business models, we have not yet seen a major leap forward. As observed by the authors of this issue, digital reader revenue has become a prominent source of income for many publishers, but the bulk of them continue to rely on advertising and print subscriptions for money. Recently, Google and Facebook have become major funders of news and innovation in journalism. Some governments have also launched specific support programs. After providing some background context, we introduce the articles featured in the issue. We go on to argue that these articles signal a renewed interest in the business of journalism, which will help us better understand the ongoing financial crisis in the commercial news sector at a more granular level.","PeriodicalId":507746,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":"29 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139859179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As marketing is increasingly expanding from the commercial domain to governance strategy, public health branding and promotional communication for the COVID-19 vaccine were essential for national authorities trying to transfer the WHO communication strategy and vaccine policies to their domestic contexts while maintaining public trust. The aim of this study is to explore the role of (de)legitimation in the COVID-19 vaccine communication (#ROVaccinare/ ROVaccination) policy transfer and branding conducted by the Romanian government on Facebook. Adopting a top-down and bottom-up approach to the sensemaking process of the message strategy promotion, we employed a mixed-methods approach and drew on categorizations of message tailoring related to health communication and operationalizations of discursive (de)legitimation. The main findings showed a preference for rationalization legitimation through the usage of fact-based posts and a clear integration of authorization and narrativization into the message strategy promotion of the ROVaccination page. But despite the prevalence of fact-based posts, legitimation through personal and medical stories were positive predicators of engagement unlike legitimation through facts. The bottom-up approach revealed polarized attitudes towards healthcare professionals as sources of the campaign, the Romanian medical system and towards past and present vaccination. The dominance of polarization in online users’ comments emphasizes their role of agents of conversion contesting either the message sources employed in the campaign or other commenters as personal authorities.
{"title":"(De)Legitimation in Policy Transfer and Branding. A Co-Creational Approach to Message Strategy Promotion of COVID-19 Vaccination Policy in Romania","authors":"Camelia Cmeciu, Anca Anton, Eugen Glavan","doi":"10.17645/mac.7743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.7743","url":null,"abstract":"As marketing is increasingly expanding from the commercial domain to governance strategy, public health branding and promotional communication for the COVID-19 vaccine were essential for national authorities trying to transfer the WHO communication strategy and vaccine policies to their domestic contexts while maintaining public trust. The aim of this study is to explore the role of (de)legitimation in the COVID-19 vaccine communication (#ROVaccinare/ ROVaccination) policy transfer and branding conducted by the Romanian government on Facebook. Adopting a top-down and bottom-up approach to the sensemaking process of the message strategy promotion, we employed a mixed-methods approach and drew on categorizations of message tailoring related to health communication and operationalizations of discursive (de)legitimation. The main findings showed a preference for rationalization legitimation through the usage of fact-based posts and a clear integration of authorization and narrativization into the message strategy promotion of the ROVaccination page. But despite the prevalence of fact-based posts, legitimation through personal and medical stories were positive predicators of engagement unlike legitimation through facts. The bottom-up approach revealed polarized attitudes towards healthcare professionals as sources of the campaign, the Romanian medical system and towards past and present vaccination. The dominance of polarization in online users’ comments emphasizes their role of agents of conversion contesting either the message sources employed in the campaign or other commenters as personal authorities.","PeriodicalId":507746,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":"122 1-2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140511809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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