Australian Newspapers Online: Four Business Models Revisited

Abstract

This article revisits four online news business models, first documented in 1997, to discuss current worldwide newspaper website trends and new research data on Australian newspaper websites. The data are from a survey of Australian newspapers and their websites, and show that the Australian experience mirrors international experience in terms of the growth of newspapers online and their lack of profitability. The survey shows that, while there is international evidence that providing news content online reduces offline newspaper subscriptions, a third of the newspapers studied registered circulation increases after setting up their websites. While there is international evidence that generating revenue through online advertising is difficult, for nearly half of the newspapers studied, overall advertising revenue increased after setting up their websites. The survey also found that, while newspaper publishers worldwide continue to rely mainly on the subscription and advertising business models to generate revenue online, there is evidence that Australian newspapers are forming online alliances with other media and non-media businesses to facilitate their online business activities.

E-paper News Publishing

“…According to Alves (2001: 63), one reason why newspaper companies lose money online is that they fail to find "a successful business model for new media", while Mings and White (1997:2) claim that newspaper companies' "rush" to the Internet has "vastly outstripped their understanding of how to profit from these ventures" (cited in Lewis 2004:2). Thus, in 2002, 17% of the newspaper websites globally were profitable, according to a study performed by Innovation International Media Consulting Group (2002, in Lewis, 2004. Moreover, American Opinion Research (Celina, 2000, cited in Ewart, 2003and in Schiff, 2003 reported that 24% of newspaper online executives said they were making a profit.…”