nikos smyrnaios, university of toulouse “towards neo-journalism? redefining, extending or...
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Nikos Smyrnaios, University of Toulouse
“Towards Neo-Journalism? Redefining, Extending or Reconfiguring a Profession”
Brussels, 3 & 4 October 2012
Journalistic pure-players
in France between innovation & struggle to
survive
The IPRI Project (2010-2012)
(Internet, Pluralism & Redundancy of Information)
Pluralism of journalism is a political and social stake:
Pluralism of opinions depends on diversity of news
Who are the journalistic players that favor news diversity and why ?
Method:
Massive quantitative analysis of 209 French news websites
(portals, aggregators, online media, blogs, pure-players), 11 days (7-17/03 2011)
37.569 news articles classified in 5.481 news topics (mesuring agenda variety)
Online news agenda:
- pure-players, blogs online newspapers tv+radio, aggregators
+
original topics, news bilndspots « shovelware » (wire material, PR)
The French Context
In France online news dominated by mainstream media (Le Monde, Le Figaro +8M UV) & aggregators (Orange, Yahoo, Google News)
At the same time emerges a “Nouvelle vague” of journalistic start-ups (Bruno et Nielsen, 2012): more than 40 pure players in general news & politics in 2012
Pure players have a small target (highly educated, young, urban, white collar) but growing: 18% of French internet users say they looked up for news on the 2012 presidential elections (mainly intensive social network users)
Since 2010 independent journalistic pure players have their own professional organization (SPIIL, Syndicat de la presse indépendante d’information en ligne)
Since 2010 there are public aids in France especially for this category of sites
Research Question & Method
Why do journalistic pure players favor news diversity ?
Why and how do they distinct themselves from the dominant news agenda ?
Hypothesis 1 : the degree of news diversity results from journalistic practices in online newsrooms which, in their turn, depend largely on economic constraints
Hypothesis 2 : news websites that are not or less depended on advertising and on massive traffic (like portals & corporate media) tend not to follow the dominant news agenda
Theoretical framework: socio-economic analysis, articulating economic model with professional practices and usages
Method : interviews and observations inside three French journalistic pure-players
From May 2010 to April 2012, interviews with founders, journalists and technicians + access to internal documents: traffic, economy, strategy etc.
Sample of websites
Business model: 360° revenue stream, advertising (60%), magazine (stopped), BtoB services (web agency, consulting, courses), donations, business angels
Content: politics, society, work conditions, family, culture, sex
Main target: Bourgeois-bohèmes (urban young professionals keen on culture) + people interested in progressive politics
Editorial strategy: “3 voices news” (journalists + experts + UGC)
Journalistic practices: no shovelware (press agencies, PR), original reporting essentially in Paris, permanent dialogue with readers (comments, social networks, participation in newsroom conference), 8,5% of traffic coming from Facebook
Marketing: use of sophisticated tools (SEO, community management, analytics)
Growth in traffic (2M UV) & revenue (2M€ in 2011) but still didn’t break even after 4 years because of high salary costs
In 2012 Rue 89 was sold to Le Nouvel Observateur media group, still operates autonomously but advertising synergies + cross promotion
Initial business model: Owni just a brand, no advertising, no paywall or subscription, content under Creative Commons, open source software
Revenue stream: BtoB services (web agency, social media strategy, computer graphics) provided by parent company “22 mars” (Tactilize)
Start-up mode: rapid growth of traffic and personnel financed by business angels
Content: “geeky” politics & hacker ethics (web, copyright, technology, surveillance, censorship, Wikileaks, Anonymous etc.)
Editorial strategy: initially blogosphere curating => nowadays desk “investigative” journalism, technology oriented scoops
Journalistic practices: “young” & “plugged” journalism, intensive use of social networks (12% of traffic coming from Facebook), IRC, wikis, Google (Docs, Talk, Gmail, Maps), no shovelware (press agencies, PR), datajournalism
Business model not working (-1M€ in 2011), conflict between journalists & founder, stuff departures, progressive separation
between Owni & Tactilize, future unknown
Business model: subscription based with no advertising (26.886 subscribers in April 2012 for 40€/year or 3,5€/month), low cost (few employees & expenses)
Revenue stream: subscriptions & book sales (“Crise in Sarkozistan” written by founder sold 28.000 copies in 2010)
Content: three weekly TV shows (essentially debates in studio) + articles on media critique & progressive politics
Editorial strategy: no marketing, no real sales policy, no analytics, voluntary “improvisation”, strong ties to the subscribers base, permanent debate between journalists & public over content, accountability
Journalistic practices: desk journalism specialized in online investigations, social networks (4,2% of traffic coming from Twitter) without community management
Company broke even in 2011, “small is beautiful” but stagnation of subscribers base, no money to invest, no possibility of original
reporting “outdoors”
Innovative but insufficient business models
Diminishing dependency on advertising & SEO: can’t face competition from corporate media & web giants (Google, Facebook etc.) for traffic and advertising revenue
Diversification of revenue sources: BtoB services (ethical problems), subscriptions, crowdfunding, public aids (only in France), book sales
Financing growth like technology start-ups: but French business angels with “political” and not economic motivations (influence, prestige)
High salary costs : professional journalists are necessary for production of original content but also “expensive”
Innovation in journalistic practices online
New formats: datajournalism (infographics, serious games, webdocumentaries), online TV shows with no time limits & no editing
Diversification of topics and frames: original subjects & angles, blindspots of dominant news agenda, politically engaged journalism, commentary
Loose time constraints: no urgencies, no real-time coverage, no breaking news competition
Permanent dialogue with readers: the public participates in the choice of subjects, in the production of news, in the dissemination of content through social networks), accountability of journalists in an everyday basis (comments, social networks) =>
“networked production of news” (Lotan et al., 2011) or “Ambient journalism” (Hermida, 2010)
Conclusions
French pure players explicitly inspired by “the myth of online journalism” (Domingo, 2008) : critique of mainstream media & will to renew the profession, transparency, independency, public interest, freedom of expression
Pure players practice a niche journalism: non exclusive news coverage, complementary to corporate media
They are pioneers in innovative journalism practices but also in the establishment of new business models
For the moment these business models are insufficient to sustain an activity with high costs such as original news production
The only business model that seems to work is that of subscription based news websites with strong communities
But this is related to the particular French context: Sarkozy’s presidency & lack of critical journalism in the mainstream media
Money is the key for the future development of alternative & independent online journalism & research shouldn’t ignore the
political economy of online media
