Struggling with the Business Models: Content Monetisation Strategies of News Startups in India

Rapid digitization, internet affordability, and success stories in English news media enabled several digital news startups to emerge in different parts of India, producing content in other languages. On one hand, they compete with legacy media, which have already established a robust digital presence. On the other hand, there is competition from other digital news portals. Moreover, news startups depend on top media platforms with ever-changing algorithm rules for content dissemination and monetization. Free and independent media play a critical role in providing reliable information. In India, the world's largest democratic country, democracy and press freedom index have been declining in recent years. Irrespective of the nature of these news startups, strategizing content distribution and content monetization remains a critical issue for the survival of these startups. Based on semi-structured interviews of the founders and editors of fourteen digital news startups in India, this study explores content monetization strategies and their challenges. While bringing forth the challenges of choosing various revenue models, our results show that relying only on one model makes survival difficult. The findings also reveal the importance of building a collaborative culture for sharing content and overcoming commercial and political challenges.