The media environment has changed dramatically in the last few years. Audience fragmentation and online advertising atomisation have transformed existing business models and put into question traditional media management practices. Now more than ever, policy makers and editors are concerned about the future of newspapers. In this changing scenario, there are new media models that attempt to promote and preserve public interest journalism. Among them, non-profit institutions and community-funded platforms are the most innovative and relevant alternatives. They promote audience involvement using what is known as crowdfunding, or they are funded by grants received from wealthy millionaires. For these new models, profit margins and income are unwelcome. Despite the fact that they could be regarded as non-business models, they are actually changing the paradigm of public interest journalism while providing fresh ideas for traditional media. The aim of this paper is to explain the nature of crowdfunding by describing the context in which it takes place and considering its impact on journalism. We have created a database to identify all the crowdfunding initiatives around the world. The results highlight the emergence of these platforms and other systems that make possible crowdfunded journalism and investigative reporting. Transparency, user involvement and control over where their money goes tend to be the success factors of these initiatives.

This paper explores how innovation emerges in the media through the views of journalists who are leading the process of newsroom change in Spain. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 20 journalists working in some of the most innovative outlets, according to the 2014 Index of Journalism Innovation in Spain (García-Avilés, Carvajal-Prieto, De Lara-González, & Arias-Robles, 2018). The results highlight the importance of innovations in content production, internal organization, distribution, and commercialization as the drivers of change in the media industry. Our study also reveals several factors that shape both the practice and implementation of innovations in newsrooms. We draw on these factors to outline a model of diffusion of media innovation.

Convergence is reshaping the landscape of journalism in a variety of ways. This comparative study was targeted on integrated newsrooms, which combine at least two platforms: print and online, in some cases also television and radio. Research was conducted in six media companies which are undergoing some degree of newsroom convergence in Austria, Spain and Germany. Descriptors for different levels of cross-media production and the process of convergence were established*avoiding technological determinism and the typical mindset in the industry that regards full integration as the necessary final step of any convergence project. As a result of the transnational comparison of six case studies, a convergence matrix for analysis and comparison of integrated newsrooms was outlined. The matrix is related to four essential areas of development in a media convergence process: project scope, newsroom management, journalistic practices, work organization. Based on this matrix, three models of newsroom convergence were drawn: full integration, cross-media and co-ordination of isolated platforms.

From a global vision of journalism innovation, this article presents a matrix that analyses and measures an innovation index of market-specific media initiatives, providing a valuable tool for comparative analysis. A method has been designed that consists of (1) sample collection and selection, and (2) the quantitative and qualitative analysis of each innovation identified in the cases studied. With the aim of generating an Index of Media Innovation, 25 of the most innovative cases within the field of reference in Spain were studied during the period 2013-2014 through a database consisting of 196 innovations that were analysed as a function of area, degree and technological basis. The results indicate that, in Spain, journalism innovation occurs at the margins of the traditional news industry and, for the most part, innovation is expanding among digital native media outlets, niche initiatives and start-ups.

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