Sharing for sustainability: relating independent community news management practices within digital platforms

ABSTRACT

This article combines two prominent discussions in media studies and industry: the challenged economic situation for independent community news and the complex relationship with digital platforms. Through empirical data, it assesses current incomes and the impact of platform companies on management practices in the UK. It finds that building your social media following, particularly on Twitter, correlates to higher income. Independent community media also report utility benefit from digital platforms for audience growth, the provision of analytics and story suggestions. Direct returns economically from advertising are less forthcoming and publishers feel subjugated by policymaker and platform opacity. Through a mixed method approach, we conclude social media practices can have positive indirect impact on the news revenue model, but absent direct returns mean management frustrations persist

KEYWORDS:

• Business model
• independent community news
• digital platforms
• social media

Acknowledgments

The Value My News project was a collaboration between the University of Cardiff, the University of Central Lancashire, and Omni Digital (2018–2020) funded by Google Digital News Initiative.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clare Elizabeth Cook

Clare Elizabeth Cook (PhD) is a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, where she co-founded the Media Innovation Studio research group. She is also head of journalism and media viability at International Media Support, Denmark. [email protected]

Coral Milburn-Curtis

Coral Milburn-Curtis (PhD) is an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, where she teaches research methods to graduate students. She is a professor at Pôle Paris Alternance and Director of Studies for the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme. She is also a visiting professor at the GreMOG Laboratory, Paris.