The document discusses various aspects of the business of news websites, including: 1) The largest media companies in the US own many of the most popular news sites. 2) While news sites have growing user numbers, they still generate a small percentage of parent companies' overall revenue. 3) Challenges include generating enough ad and subscription revenue to financially support high-quality journalism into the future.

1. Business and Internet Journalism - with a focus on news sites Referent: Alexander Jaeger Final Project Jour 3500 Survey of Internet Journalism Dr. Jin Yang Fall of 2008

4. 3 1. Who are the big players in the U.S. media market? Top ten U.S. media companies in 2007 Name of the company Revenue in Mio. $ Profit in Mio. $ Time Warner Inc. 46482 4387 Walt Disney Corp. 35510 4687 Comcast Corp. 30895 - News Corp. Ltd. 32996 5387 Viacom Inc./CBS Corp. 27496 3085,1 NBC Universal Inc. 15416 3107 Cox Enterprises Inc. 15033 - Dish Network Corp. - - The Thompson Corp. 9901 1587 Virgin Media Inc. 7023 25 220752 22267,1

5. 4 1. Who are the big players in the U.S. media market? What does that mean? Example: Time Warner Inc., 6 Business Divisions

6. 5 1. Who are the big players in the U.S. media market? What does that mean? Example: Time Warner Inc., 6 Business Divisions

7. 6 1. Who are the big players in the U.S. media market? What does that mean? Example: Time Warner Inc., 6 Business Divisions

15. 14 4. What is the current economical situation for news sites? Where does the money go to? Type of site U.S. Ad Spending in Mio. $, 2006 Portals, search engines & ISP’s 1,277,9 Business, finance, investing 900,5 News & current events 766,8 Sports 715,4 Local news & guides 689 General interest/general entertainment 644,1 Computing & technology 523,8 Movies, videos, TV & cable 374 TV Stations 340,9 Portals and search engines 318,6

20. 19 5. Which economical problems news sites have to face in future?

21. 20 5. Which economical problems news sites have to face in future? The measurement problem

23. 22 6. Which impact the current situation on newsrooms? Precise numbers of people employed in online newsrooms are in short supply Writing, editing and designing for web- Employed bachelor’s degree recipients in communications doing this work (%) Source: Annual Survey of Journalism & Mass Communication Graduates, 2007

25. 24 7. Which conflict areas do exist between the business point of view and the point of views of journalists? Experts say… David Waters: Cooperation increases Collaboration could be a problem Editorial retains complete control over content Ad tries to sale what editorial does, editorial tries not to provide content for ad Question: How shall journalists write about companies which spend a lot of ad money into the news company and how much shall they write about them? Question: Shall journalists give up some accuracy in order to gain more visitors to the web site? Business men control the resources that go into journalism

26. 25 8. What should be considered more important, the business side or the content side of a news site? Experts say… David Waters: Content interesting useful creative compelling informative “ I’m a journalist so I say content. I think it’s all about the content. Ad can’t sale a lousy product for long.” Opposite opinion: News sites are businesses. Businesses need to make profit.

28. 27 10. Which trends can be observed that have an impact on the profitability of news sites?

29. 28 10. Which trends can be observed that have an impact on the profitability of news sites? Experts say… Rising costs of news print and newspaper distribution. Declining newspaper subscriptions and ad revenue. Higher demands from Wall Street. David Waters “ On flip side, growing tech/digital ways of distributing content faster, and in more efficient ways. Shifting costs from production and distribution to content.”