Online-only news outlets 'struggle to find funding'

The first report to systematically assess how online-only news websites across Western Europe are faring has found that new start-ups are struggling to find business models that can cover their operating costs. It suggests that the funding environment is more challenging for new start-ups than for traditional media outlets that also have online content, because the latters' operations can be subsidised by revenues from offline businesses. The report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford, finds that although internet use and online advertising is growing fast across Europe, and there is much experimentation in the online news space, the stumbling block continues to be the absence of a viable business models for new forms of journalism. Even the most innovative online enterprises in Europe have found it difficult to break even. The report, 'Survival is Success', is based on in-depth analysis of nine case studies from Germany, France, and Italy-including prominent pure players like Netzeitung , Mediapart, and Lettera43 . The study shows that the start-up scene in Europe is still at a stage where surviving for more than a few years is a form of success in itself. Out of nine new start-ups analysed across the three countries, only two, Mediapart and Perlentaucher , broke even.