This article aims to analyze the use of economic metaphors in the particular case of the European sovereign debt crisis, by the examination of the public discourse as reflected in the daily press. Three countries of the European Union with severe sovereign debt problems (Greece, Italy, and Spain) and three countries without them (Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) have been selected for analysis. The general hypothesis, in accordance with the research undertaken in similar studies on economic metaphors and on the uniformity of economic journalism frames, is that one can expect a fairly common use of the same metaphors and with the same weight among countries, types of newspapers, and diverse economic conditions. The findings basically support this hypothesis, showing how difficult it is for the media, even when using rhetorical devices such as economic metaphors, to stand aside from the experts’ discourse or to forge new ways of analyzing economic events outside the traditional and prevalent frames.

The decline of the news business model for print newspapers in many Western countries and the digital disruption caused by the Internet have influenced the rise of digital-born news media. These new media are different from legacy brands in terms of business models, distribution strategies, corporate organisation, and editorial priorities. It would be expected that the different nature of both legacy and digital-born news media has driven to two types of significantly different audiences. This article aims to analyse whether there are significant differences between the users of these two types of media, by comparing the online audiences of five European countries’ (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy) legacy and digital-born media brands in 2015 and 2019. The article will focus on four aspects: demographic and socioeconomics profiles (sex, age, income and level of education); interest in news; payment for online news; and media trust.

Manuel Goyanes ResumenSe analiza la probabilidad de pagar por un diario digital en España. Mediante una encuesta a una muestra representativa de 2.104 españoles mayores de edad, mostramos, de modo general, el escaso número de ciudadanos dispuestos a pagar por información digital. Asimismo, a través de una regresión logística binomial exploramos los factores que afectan a esta probabilidad y discutimos las principales implicaciones prácticas para el desarrollo de estrategias de pago por contenidos de la industria de los periódicos. Palabras clavePago por contenidos; Probabilidad de pago; Periódico digital; Interés en las noticias; Confianza en las noticias; Independencia de los medios de comunicación. AbstractThe probability of paying for a digital newspaper in Spain is analyzed. Using a survey of a representative sample of 2,104 Spanish adults, we show, in general terms, the lack of people willing to pay for digital information. In addition, through a logistic regression analysis, we explore which factors affect this probability and discuss the main practical implications of developing paid-content strategies in the newspaper industry.

Digital news publishers strive to balance revenue streams in their business models: as standard advertising declines, alternatives for sustaining digital journalism arise in the forms of sponsored content, user donations and payments—one-off purchases, subscriptions or memberships, public or private grants, electronic commerce, events and consulting. An exhaustive study found 2874 active online news publications in Spain, and it observed the adoption of such models in early 2021. Advertising remains the most popular source of income for digital news operations (85.8%) and most sites rely on just one or two revenue streams (74.5%). We compare the cases in our census by their origin (digital-native or non-native), geography (local/regional or national/global) and topic scope (generalist or specialized). We find that traditional, national and specialized online media have a broader and more innovative revenue mix than digital-native, regional or local and general-interest news outlets. The comprehensiveness of this pioneering study sheds light for the first time on the risk that the lack of diversification and innovation in funding sources may imperil the financial sustainability of some online news operations in Spain, mostly those with a smaller scope and no backing from a traditional business, according to the results we present here.

El Digital News Report España 2022 es la 9.ª edición del informe anual más global sobre consumo de noticias, elaborado por la Facultad de Comunicación de la Universidad de Navarra, en coordinación con el Reuters Institute de la Universidad de Oxford