Need a quick overview? Check the executive summary

The executive summary of the Journalism Value Report provides a quick overview of the survey’s findings together with information on methodology and definitions.

Download the full report here

Definition
What exactly is the sector of public interest media? It is neither public service broadcasters (like the BBC) nor traditional media organisations (like the local newspaper), but it shares fundamental journalistic principles and values. The sector of public interest journalism is a fragmented landscape of recently founded, mostly digital-born economically independent news outlets with a high share of legally registered nonprofits whose public value mainly consists of providing free access to relevant news.

Sector facts
Independent public interest newsrooms are a relatively new component of the European media landscape. There has been a noticeable growth in the sector since the beginning of the new millennium. The mostly small teams cover mainly national or local issues and the vast majority focuses on politics. The second most frequently reported topic is one of the most pressing issues of our times: environment and climate.

Filling gaps
Public interest newsrooms step in where legacy media have withdrawn for economic reasons—especially on the local level which is of particular concern with democracies being increasingly under pressure. However, it is a little too early to speak of a legitimate renaissance in local journalism due to the number of newly founded local media and their outreach. Another valuable niche public interest media are stepping in disproportionately ist investigative journalism. Two thirds say that muckraking is at the core of their work.

Old habits
Even though members of the audience increasingly access news through other platforms (mainly social media) the website remains the central distribution channel for the vast majority of public interest newsrooms. Since most people access news via social media but, apparently, there are no working monetization strategies for journalistic content on these platforms, almost everyone in our sample uses them, but only complementary to other distribution channels.

Small budgets
Public interest media organisations operate on relatively small budgets. Half of the participating organisations report annual budgets of less than 200,000 euros. Only the top 10% operate with budgets higher than 1.8 million euros. Local media generally generate the least amount of revenue.

Working conditions
The sector’s financial insecurity has implications for staff recruitment and retention. Salaries are, on average, lower than in the rest of the industry, as is the share of the employed workforce, leaving journalists with an all but bright long-term perspective. Local media tend to offer particularly precarious working conditions and rely more heavily on unpaid work.

Promising audience revenue
Most public interest newsrooms regard the audience as a potential source of revenue. Audience revenue (donations, membership fees, subscriptions etc.) accounts for roughly one third of the sector’s overall budget. Those who include audience revenue models in their business strategy, on average, secure 43% of their budget from that. To generate income through user contributions most newsrooms ask for donations, however, this seems to be the least lucrative option. Instead, organisations that sell traditional subscriptions (not memberships) earn almost half (47%) of their revenue from this source. Memberships can also contribute significantly but membership programs are not widespread, yet, and might not fit in every country context . After all, the income generated by memberships remains low across the sector.

Information is (mostly) free
Free access to information is one key principle that large parts of the sector adhere to. For the underlying business models of public interest newsrooms this ethos creates a dilemma which can, for now, only be resolved through foundation support. The fact that local newsrooms, which often operate in highly precarious circumstances, in general attract some of the largest audiences compared to the rest of the sector, indicates how valuable its work is for the public (and how little valued it is publicly).

From audience to community
In response to increasing news avoidance and reluctance to pay for online news, newsrooms must explore new strategies to engage with the (potentially paying) audience. More than half of the surveyed newsrooms involve their community in editorial processes or even in organisational decision-making, indicating a shift towards community-driven journalism. However, most media organisations lack the human resources to unleash the full potential of community engagement. If newsrooms want to convince people to pay for content, inviting people to in-person events or allowing for a high degree of community participation seems to work best.

Existential foundation funding 
Financial support from foundations is a lifeline for many independent public interest newsrooms. The majority received grants that accounted for almost half of their budgets. However, the importance of foundation funding varies strongly for different countries. Most of it is widely criticised project-funding, but a significant number of participants also secured core funding. Despite numerous complaints about overburdened funding bureaucracy, slightly more than half the respondents describe the return of investment in applying for foundation funding as good or even very good. The dependency on foundation money does not seem to have a big influence on the grantees’ journalism. One in seven newsrooms did report perceived or actual influencing attempts by funders, though.

Facing an uncertain future
Asked for how long the participating media organisations can sustain operations, most respondents painted a rather grim picture of a (in part highly) precarious environment. One third can only plan a maximum of 6 months ahead. Another third can securely operate for another 6 to 12 months. Only one third is not under immediate pressure and reports financial stability for more than a year. Once again, it is local media that are faring the worst. In contrast, investigative outlets indicate a considerably better financial outlook than other newsrooms. The same goes for organisations with diversified revenue streams.

External threats to sustainability
Public interest media face multifaceted threats and challenges, especially, but not limited to, financial uncertainty. This, in many cases, impacts their journalistic work negatively. In hostile environments political pressure imposed on independent media by authoritarian governments is regarded as worrying as the financial hardship. Additionally, rising distrust against the media and the dependency on big tech came up sporadically.

Nurturing the sector
To build a nurturing environment for public interest media, it would be helpful to provide more core funding, allowing newsrooms to focus on long-term organisational development rather than being constrained by time consuming project funding. Additionally, implementing capacity-building, such as training in business skills and fundraising, in funding schemes would address the lack of expertise many journalists turned founders face. Finally, providing spaces for collaboration and knowledge transfer, along with reducing bureaucratic hurdles in the funding process, would facilitate peer learning and strengthen the overall resilience of public interest newsrooms.

Methodological overview
The survey was conducted in winter 2023/2024 by Netzwerk Recherche, a nonprofit journalism network and the German association of investigative journalists. The participants represent a cross section of the diverse landscape of independent newsrooms in Europe, with a focus on the nonprofit-sector. 174 independent newsrooms are included in the online map (journalismvalueproject.eu/survey)—an ongoing part of the project still expanding. This report is based on answers from newsrooms from 31 European countries. Partially filled in questionnaires are not excluded from our analysis, which leads to changes in the number of answers indicated in the report (more information on methods of the survey see chapter “About the survey”). While the mapping shows individual newsrooms this report works with anonymous data. If organisations are mentioned by name in the following, the information is derived from publicly accessible sources, such as the podcast “The Journalism Loop”.