Mutual Dependencies Within the Publisher-Platform Relationship: Broadening the Perspective on the Role of Emerging Platforms in Journalism

Platformization is significantly transforming media markets such as film and music. While media and communication research has acknowledged these developments, its focus often is on a few very large platforms of big tech giants, overlooking emerging platforms and those serving niches. To address this research gap, this study examines the German market of journalism platforms by drawing on the spaces of negotiation framework, and applying a two-step methodological approach that combines market analysis with 17 qualitative semi-structured expert interviews. Our findings reveal that the platform market in journalism is highly dynamic and comprises more than just the well-known very large platforms. The dependencies between publishers and platforms are reciprocal, particularly with smaller platforms that are currently emerging, indicating that publishers have a degree of counter-power and can strategically shape platforms. Our study contributes to media and communication studies by offering a more nuanced understanding of the publisher-platform relationship and the related negotiation spaces.