ABSTRACT
Digital journalism has many income possibilities, but rarely does one method provide enough alone. Advertising remains an important revenue source, whether from display ads or the huge and anonymous programmatic market (now being rendered less effective by the phasing out of third-party cookies) or from affiliate advertising (where payment is a percentage of product sales) or from paid content – native, branded and sponsored advertising. Advertising income can come direct but may be sought through ad networks, dominated by those run by Facebook and Google. Other revenue sources include aggregators who pay for content (not all do), publishing platforms like Medium and Substack, and podcast providers. The most valued income comes direct from the audience, usually through reader subscriptions to paywalled content, but some outlets are thriving on continued crowdfunding and donations. Grants and sponsorships are another possibility and may come from philanthropic foundations, major companies, overseas governments, NGOs and international organisations, though they are usually in the form of one-off grants. Journalism entrepreneurs can also sell things such as their own skills or goods and services. Finally, organising events can bring in money from ticket sales or fundraising. Most media outlets in fact combine different methods to earn enough income.
