Other reports and sites

All around Europe, new journalistic ventures are launched on the internet even as legacy media like newspapers and broadcasters are often struggling to adapt to a new communications environment. This report is the first to systematically assess how they are doing. Based on analysis of nine strategic cases from Germany, France, and Italy, it shows that the economics of online news today are as challenging for new entrants as they are for industry incumbents.

Reuters Institute – Survival is Success: Journalistic Online Start-Ups in Western Europe

The Digital Media Law Project’s new IRS guide provides an SAT-prep style walk through of the 501(c)(3) process for news nonprofits. Concise, point-by-point look at how the IRS figures out who gets nonprofit status and how journalists can determine whether their organization makes the cut.

NiemanLab: Starting a journalism nonprofit? Read this guide first.

A new study, based on analysis of private financial data from 38 newspapers and in-depth interviews with senior executives from 13 companies, found that the papers studied are losing seven dollars in print advertising for every one dollar they are gaining in new digital revenue — a ratio that shows the pace at which newspapers are shrinking. Executives were candid about the obstacles they faced in making the digital transition, including changing corporate culture and attracting digital sales people to newspapers.

Pew Research Center: How Newspapers Are Faring Trying to Build Digital Revenue

Scott Rosenberg: With journalism entrepreneurs launching local news startups at a rapid pace, the local news landscape is evolving ­– and so are the rules of the road guiding ethical decisions.

Rules of the Road

To find out, Street Fight contributor Stephanie Miles, who authors the “Case Study” series on the website, spoke with over 50 local merchants from around the country to produce our first Street Fight Insights white paper research report, “The Local Merchant: Inside the Minds and Motivations of the Business Owners Driving a $43 Billion Advertising Market.” Combining these interviews and the resulting data with expert analysis, this report is a playbook for anyone looking to succeed in the hyperlocal marketing ecosystem.

Street Fight Publishes First Research Report, ‘The Local Merchant’

One of the goals of the New Business Models for News Project is to help local and niche sites grow into sustainable operations. Toward that end, we’ve identified some of the best sources of information about a variety of editorial, business, technology, and legal & ethics topics relevant to running a small website.

CUNY: Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism – Resource Guide for Local Sites

By Jon Funabiki: When the Internet, Craigslist and other media developments shoved newspapers into a tailspin, it touched off a fleet of entrepreneurial start-ups racing to fill the voids in journalism. Now there are signs of a looming shakeout among these new, largely web-based operations, and philanthropy is poised to offer them the two things they need most: cash, of course, but more importantly, business know-how. These are the implications of a Renaissance Journalism Center study of news media entrepreneurs called “Online Journalism Enterprises: From Start-up to Sustainability.”

Renaissance Journalism Center: Online Journalism Enterprises: From Startup to Sustainability

The Fall 2011 Community Media Innovation Project class at the Medill School has focused on local “watchdog” reporting as part of its work examining the digital strategy of the Chicago Reporter. The Chicago Reporter, an investigative magazine focused on issues of race and poverty in Chicago, is over 40 years old and adapting slowly to the growing dominance of digital content consumption.Through examination of comparable sites in other communities, we sought to inform our recommendations for the Reporter. We also learned a lot about what is working for local watchdog sites. This report summarizes what we found.

Non-Profit Watchdog News: What’s Working?

By Mayur Patel and Michele McLellan: The new study we just completed, “Getting Local,” offers a detailed look at some of the country’s leading online local nonprofit news ventures, providing data on how they are generating revenue, engaging users and cultivating donors.

Getting Local: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability

By Bill Densmore: Several media and technology organizations have built proprietary or closed systems to distribute and get compensated for content they control. However successful these closed, siloed systems, outside them lies a larger universe of consumers seeking and using additional news and digital information. Connecting the silos, sharing users and content, could expand consumer choice and the digital information marketplace – an “easy pass” for information.

A public-benefit Information Trust Association could create and administer technical protocols and business rules for a shared user network that exchanges trust, identity and information commerce.

RJI: Making the new digital market: A case for an Information Trust Association