German Pure-Web Newspaper In Line For $10 Million Revenues

Netzeitung.de is a six-year-old web-only German newspaper that has a team of 60 journalists, an army of citizen reporters – and which is in line to turn a profit this year with revenues of $10 million. Despite being shuffled between various media owners, this “experiment in online news” has become a budding media empire with acquisitions in various health, auto and technology sites. In MediaGuardian, Jeff Jarvis writes about the way readers engage with and enhance the journalism at the core of the brand (no commentary – just reporting) but the financial viability of this site is significant. OhMyNews in South Korea is much touted but that model is very culturally specific and has not transferred successfully outside the country on any great scale. Netzeitung has achieved an authority and editorial reputation something akin to a traditional newspaper brand, but editor-in-chief Michael Maier doubts he could have developed the site if the owner was a traditional newspaper. Jarvis agrees, saying newspapers are “addicted to ink”. Established brands have the advantages of credibility, weight and power – the disadvantage is in turning the tanker.
Related: Keeping An Eye on The Citizen Journalism Business Model

This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.

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