In Service of News Subscribers: Exploring Belgian Journalists’ Perceptions of Stakeholder Relations in the Digital News Ecosystem

Dorien Luyckx,Steve Paulussen

doi:10.3390/journalmedia3010007

Abstract

This qualitative paper contends that as news media are faced with growing commercial pressures and changing news consumption habits, they need to rethink their relationship with two of their main stakeholders: readers and advertisers. Multi-stakeholder marketing provides a useful conceptual framework for such an exercise, since it invites media practitioners to reconcile the conflicting interests of different stakeholders. This study aims to understand journalists’ levels of multi-stakeholder thinking regarding advertisers and readers. To explore how contemporary journalists see their role with regard to distinct stakeholders in the news ecosystem, we interviewed 14 Belgian journalists working for legacy and digital native news media. The goal of this exploratory study is to examine (1) how journalists perceive and rethink their dependence on readers and advertisers in the digital news ecosystem and (2) how their perception of the digital news ecosystem influences their attitudes towards these stakeholders. Findings indicate that journalists tend to see the value of readers in monetary terms and believe increasing reader revenue will help journalism survive. Other types of reader value (feedback, expertise, and content) are peripheral. This focus on subscribers also seems to coincide with a devaluation of other stakeholders like advertisers and non-paying readers.

Highlights

Andreu Casero-RipollésLike any company, a news organization does not exist on its own but is always part of a complex ecosystem of interdependent stakeholders exchanging value between one another (Hillebrand et al 2015)
The journalists we spoke to seem to recognise stakeholders within the ecosystem and its current tensions, but they have a limited view of the value exchange that happens between their newsrooms and the primary stakeholders
This limited view of the stakeholder system leads to only recognising dyadic relationships with one stakeholder at a time, in which tensions are being avoided by disconnecting from stakeholders or by maintaining traditional walls and separation

Summary

Introduction

Andreu Casero-RipollésLike any company, a news organization does not exist on its own but is always part of a complex ecosystem of interdependent stakeholders exchanging value between one another (Hillebrand et al 2015). To avoid that the interests of advertisers (commercial) would collide with those of readers (democratic), commercial news media have traditionally separated their advertising departments from the newsroom (Lauerer 2019). This model has been predominant and stable in the news industry in the 20th century and has kept the news business a solid industry while at the same time providing independent journalism at an affordable price (Picard 2014). These democratic goals have been cemented in journalists’ role perceptions to remain independent of commercial influences (Deuze 2005). Faced with the double commercial challenge of attracting readers and advertising revenue, news media saw the need to Received: 7 December 2021

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