A Press Company and its Online Audience

Economic Models, Uses and the Pluralism of News Online
The Construction of Web Metrics as Strategic Data in the Belgian Media Industry
By Sylvain Malcorps
English

Since the late 1990s, the online journalists working for press companies have gradually integrated web metrics into their day-to-day work. This article examines the mechanisms whereby, since 1996, online journalists of the Belgian daily L’Écho have used these figures. The author looks at how the business models adopted by the firm for its online activities have influenced this process. First providing an update on the forms of negotiation of the actors involved in the “audience configuration” process, this case study shows that with the switch from an advertising-based business model to a subscription-based one, online journalists have come to use metrics differently and to modify the nature of the content published on the website.

Keywords

  • Web metrics
  • online audience
  • income models
  • online press
  • journalistic practices
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info