The Markets for News: Enduring Structures in the Age of Business Model Disruptions

In the face of ongoing digitisation, The Markets for News examines how certain established economic features of the news industry have persisted and what makes them such stable frameworks for journalistic organisations.

Drawing on an analysis of Scandinavian news industries, this text revises journalism’s economic foundations in the context of the algorithmically driven platform economy. Exploration of features such as journalism’s two-sided market model, the network effect of platforms, and chain ownership, leads to a discussion about how journalism faces disruption from the introduction of artificial intelligence in the production, dissemination, and sale of news. As journalism undergoes transformations due to revenue losses, this book recognises a return to certain enduring features of journalism’s organisational form, in particular the chain ownership form, that enables scale in adapting to platform logics and economics. This text serves as a basis for a theoretical discussion about strategic media management and critical political economy in the age of digital disruption.

This is an insightful book for academics and researchers in the fields of journalism, media industries, media policy and, communication studies.

Helle Sjøvaag is Professor of Journalism at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Her research focuses on the structural conditions for journalism, including its technology, economy, and regulation. She has published extensively on the digitalisation of the news industries, media pluralism and diversity, media systems, and journalistic professionalism.