What's in a niche? Exploring the business model of online journalism

Abstract

There has been much discussion about a shift from general news to a marketplace of niche. We have examined the business models of 69 journalistic online-only startups in ten countries operating a sustainable niche. We correlate our findings against Chris Anderson’s long-tail statistical Internet economic model to explore the extent to which it can explain the marketplace for niche journalism. We find that the long tail model only partially describes the dynamics of the journalistic startups market. It goes some way to explain those niche which exist around journalistic content creation. However, it does not allow for the complexities around niche that generate revenues around platforms, selling technology or information on a business to business basis.