Recent years have witnessed a consistent deterioration in the viability and sustainability of conventional business models of the news media. In the last century media companies were mostly funded by advertising revenues, benefitting from a two-sided audience and advertising market. However, increased competition in digital advertising has undermined this model that, for almost a century, provided a solution to the issue of how to finance public interest journalism. More recently, newspapers and audiovisual services have faced a severe decrease in revenues from advertising, due to the rise of new digital platforms competing on the advertising market, coupled with a decreased willingness-to-pay in light of the abundance of free news online.
Strongly impacted by those structural changes, the media became more vulnerable to multiple crises and external shock. News media have dealt with perpetual, multiple crises in recent years, ranging from a general economic crisis, sometimes exacerbated by developments in other markets such as the energy market affecting cost-of-living, to more systemic shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The resilience of the news media thus relies on their ability to survive during times of crisis – and not just to survive but to continue their journalistic operations and cope with threats and challenges. To be able to secure financial income in this context, news media need sustainable business models that enable them to perform their democratic mission – critically overseeing power and providing citizens with the information they need to navigate society and make decisions for themselves and others.
This report collects good practices of media sustainability at national levels. Analysing some trends in Council of Europe member states can help in forecasting future scenarios and envisaging media policies fit to ensure media sustainability and plurality in a changing media landscape. To do so, the report describes the relevant trends in the news media sector, highlighting the conditions that limit or boost the viability of the news media industry and best practices in news media funding.
