At this point, professional newsgathering is still largely supported by advertising directed to such legacy platforms as print and television and, secondarily, by audience revenues (mostly subscriptions). But other ways of paying for news are becoming more visible. Much of the momentum is around this high-profile interest from the tech world, in the form of venture capital and individual and corporate investments, which bring with them different skill sets and approaches to journalism. Philanthropy is growing, too, particularly as a source of capital for regional and investigative journalism. These newer investments—many of which are ‘unearned revenue’—do not yet represent a sea change in the business model. But they do signify a pivot in the news world. More than the sum of dollars and cents, this funding patchwork serves as a series of signposts pointing toward the ways journalism may be paid for in the years to come.
As an industry, news in the U.S. generates roughly $63 billion to $65 billion in annual revenue, according to Pew Research analysis of official filings, projections by financial firms and self-reported data.1 While admittedly an estimate, the figure provides a sense of scale: The global video game industry takes in about $93 billion a year. Starbucks reported $15 billion in 2013 revenues and Google alone generated $58 billion that year.
Pew also shows just how much noncommercial radio stations are billing with news-related content. NPR had $191.7 million of revenue in 2013, of which $44 million came directly from ads and underwriting announcements. That’s more than twice what was given by individual donations.
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