The last 12 to 18 months have seen an explosion of new businesses created on blockchain technology—the underlying technology behind Bitcoin which is rapidly expanding to support new businesses with a wide range of functions in a wide variety of markets. Funded with “ICOs” (Initial Coin Offerings), these businesses form by creating new cryptocurrencies and selling them to a large and diverse group of buyers, who then become stakeholders in the resulting company; the currency is then used to power the activity of the company, increasing the value of the company and distributing the rewards for that value increase to the users, who in effect are the shareholders.
The new, “decentralized” web has attracted increasing attention as ICOs have pushed into the nine-digit stratosphere in initial raises, creating companies with pretty massive spending power right out of the gate.
At least three such companies are presently operational or in formation with the idea of developing a media economy on the blockchain that will support journalism with an entirely new, decentralized business model. One of these three—Civil—is a project the author is working on directly; two others—Steemit and DNN (Decentralized News Network)—are pursuing similar goals, differently.
“Journalism on the Blockchain” will explore the possibilities for creating new economic models for journalism on the blockchain. In the process, it will document the challenges and successes of the people who are trying to execute on this idea right now, assess where the space is heading, and what the major challenges and proven successes are and have been.
Project lead: Bernat Ivancsics
This report lays out a framework for thinking about reader revenue strategy in nonprofit news organizations.
Project lead: Elizabeth Hansen
Team member: Emily Goligoski
This essay is part survey and part manifesto, one that concerns itself with the practice of journalism and the practices of journalists in the United States.
Project leads: Chris Anderson, Emily Bell, Clay Shirky
What kinds of digitally-based journalism in the U.S. is the commercial market likely to support, and how?
This report focuses on news organizations that do original journalism, defined for our purposes as independent fact-finding undertaken for the benefit of communities of citizens. Those communities can be defined in the traditional way, by geography, but can also be brought together by topics or commonalities of interest. We also look into media companies that aggregate content and generate traffic in the process.
This report focuses mostly on for-profit news enterprises. The authors recognize the outstanding work done by such national organizations as ProPublica and the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as local sites like Voice of San Diego and MinnPost. But for the purposes of this study, the authors felt it was more valuable to spend time examining organizations that rely as much as possible on the commercial market.
Project leads: Lucas Graves, Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave
"The Future of Digital Longform" seeks to define the new format “digital longform,” articulate criteria by which digital longform journalism is judged and valued, and layout and discuss successful models for soliciting, editing, publishing, and disseminating—and, of course, monetizing—longform content in the digital ecosystem.
Project lead: Anna Hiatt
This analysis of news publishers focused on a single subject and their methods of engagement with niche audiences. The study finds that in order to thrive, news publishers will need a fusion of reporting experience and startup savvy—essentially the skills of small business management. Single-subject news accelerates the trend of “unbundling” the newsroom: Bleacher Report as a spun-off sports desk, FactCheck.org as the outsourced function of a political desk, and Education News Network (Chalkbeat) as a specialized bureau on local schools. Journalists can create new content where they see a deficit because the demand for in-depth news coverage by niche audiences is spawning new products for the digital marketplace.
Project leads: Kristin Nolan, Lara Setrakian
This study looks how video journalism is defined and produced by newsrooms across the U.S., as well as its subsequent return on investments. The report finds that none of the participating newspapers make a profit on their videos and most describe themselves as in a state of investment and development. The newsrooms do earn some revenue on pre-roll advertising, but they are operating at a deficit when compared to the total cost of video production. Along with building their under-resourced production teams with the intention of increasing content production, news organizations are also heavily focused on increasing traffic.
Project lead: Duy Linh Tu
A systematic analysis of the challenges facing managers of modern news organizations in order to provide publishers and managing editors with specific recommendations regarding recruiting strategies, target skills, and educational backgrounds that will complement existing newsroom workforces.
Project leads: Allie Kosterich, Matthew Weber
Platforms and Publishers is a multi-year project researching the relationship between journalism and social platforms in order to promote mutual understanding and best practices for conducting journalism on the social web.
In the rush to capture audiences and establish new commercial businesses the impact on the citizen rather than consumer is often overlooked. Non-commercial functions of the free press, such as defending free speech, protecting vulnerable sources, resisting government pressure for censorship, practicing commercial transparency, are new requirements for technology companies.
This project will provide news publishers and journalists with a more granular understanding of how journalism and independent publishing is affected by integration with social media, and how platform companies are also having to adapt to a new role. It will engage software and social platform companies in understanding best practices for supporting ethical journalism in a new environment.
We’d love to hear from you if you are grappling with the issues of publishing and monetizing distributed content. Please get in touch with Meritxell Roca: m.roca [at] columbia [dot] edu.
To learn more about the project, read our latest white paper “The Platform Press: How Silicon Valley Reengineered Journalism” and explore our interactive Platforms and Publishers: A Definitive Timeline which identifies key developments on tech platforms used by journalism publishers.
If you are interested in learning more or working with us, email Nushin Rashidian, research lead on the Platforms and Publishers project.
Project lead: Emily Bell
Team members: Pete Brown, Elizabeth Hansen, Nushin Rashidian, Nausicaa Renner, Claire Wardle, Kathy Zhang