Do Small Streams Make a Big River? Detailing the Diversification of Revenue Streams in Newspapers’ Transition to Digital Journalism Businesses

The newspaper industry is in a deepening revenue crisis and the advertising side of the news business has virtually collapsed as a result of global competition with technology platforms, as well as the Covid-19 outbreak. This study examines the business of digital journalism through a revenue diversification lens and maps how the revenue streams of a national newspaper industry is shifting. Our case study is the Norwegian newspaper industry’s revenue streams from 2006 to 2019, a media market deemed particularly successful in making readers pay for news online. By means of industry data, we measure revenue diversification by applying the Revenue Diversity Index—an index which quantifies the number of revenue streams and the distribution amongst them for the whole newspaper industry. The findings identify a forced diversification which challenges assumptions of a simple and positive relationship between revenue diversification and economic performance. We find that revenue structures have flipped from an advertising based model to an audience dominated model, with a larger diversity of revenue sources but lower total revenues overall. The increasing prices of digital journalism may further expand knowledge gaps in the population between those willing and able to pay and those who are not.报业正陷入不断加剧的营收危机，受全球科技平台竞争与新冠疫情(Covid-19)爆发双重影响，新闻业务的广告板块已近乎彻底崩塌。本研究从营收多元化视角切入，剖析数字新闻业的经营现状，并梳理全国性报业的营收渠道变迁轨迹。本次案例研究选取2006年至2019年挪威报业的营收结构作为研究对象——该媒体市场在推动读者为在线新闻付费领域被公认为成效卓著。研究依托行业数据，采用营收多样性指数(Revenue Diversity Index)对报业整体的营收渠道数量及其分布结构进行量化，以此衡量营收多元化程度。研究结果揭示了一种被动驱动的多元化转型，这对“营收多元化与经济绩效间存在简单正向关联”的传统假设提出了挑战。研究发现，报业营收结构已从以广告为核心的模式彻底转向以受众付费为主的模式：营收来源多样性有所提升，但整体营收总额却出现下滑。数字新闻服务费的持续上涨，可能进一步拉大人群中愿意且有能力付费群体与无力付费群体之间的知识鸿沟。