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Amid all the bad news about business models for high-quality journalism, eldiario.es ("The Daily") in Spain shows that good journalism can be good business. Escolar: "Journalism is a public service that has to be profitable" Its founder and CEO, Ignacio Escolar , just announced that the publication finished 2015 with revenues of US$ 2.6 million, up 33% on the year, and a profit after taxes of US$ 235,000. Although the digital publication is free, its 14,500 "partners" ( socios ) pay at least US$ 66 a year to get access to the news a few hours ahead of everyone else as well as ad-free pages, discounts, and invitations to events. Those partners brought in about a third of eldiario.es's revenues , "And they allow us to remain independent," Escolar said in his announcement. Although advertising brings in more than the partner revenue, no single advertiser comes close to bringing in what the partners do, so none has enough leverage to influence ...

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz speaks to the press in Huesca. Photo by EFE HUESCA, Spain -- Yes, it�s good to have a billionaire owner with patience, but it�s even better to have a billionaire owner with a vision. And the vision of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is that a news organization has to make its work available free, everywhere. Bezos is urging the publication's journalists to adopt the principles of retail sales that he has learned over the years in running Amazon , America's largest online retailer of practically everything. And the man who is putting that vision into practice is Emilio Garcia-Ruiz , the Post's managing editor for digital. Versi�n en espa�ol A fundamental concept in retail strategy is the sales funnel, Garcia-Ruiz said in his keynote address March 10 at the Digital Journalism Conference in Huesca, Spain. The idea is to get as many people as possible to sample your product (in journalism, it's through sharing in social networks ), get them to pay for...

Last week the Department of Communication at the University of Navarra invited 16 alumni with interesting career paths to share their stories with the students. I attended four of the sessions and heard a similar comment from each of the presenters: I never imagined that I would be doing the things I am doing now in my professional career. A journalism major was hired in public relations by a German automaker, partly because he learned German during a year of study abroad. Another journalism major's assignment to cover sporting events, in which he had little expertise, eventually led to assignments covering culture and entertainment, which he loves. Many unimaginable opportunities presented themselves at unexpected moments from unlikely sources. Professional life for them had been an adventure. I�aki Gabilondo, Foto de biografiasyvidas.com Versi�n en espa�ol The advice these alumni gave also ran along similar lines: You need to be flexible, learn at every stage of your career, an...

News publishers are again the pawns in a chess game among the big technology platforms, mainly Google , Facebook , and Apple . And while publishers are losing control of their future, users are gaining a better experience with pages that load faster on mobile devices. This is the scenario that is emerging with the expanded rollout of Facebook's Instant Articles , Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages , and Apple's iOS9 and News products. I have spent a weekend reading over expert commentaries on the business and technical aspects of the latest innovations in Internet technology. What all three of these innovations have in common is that they are aimed at serving mobile users better and that they claim to help publishers gain revenue, audience, and data about users. Many of the commentators are worried that publishers are losing out to the platforms. Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of the Verge , was warning back in November that the battle among Google, Facebook, and App...

Latin America has spawned a rich breed of online news publishers who are challenging mainstream journalism. These digital natives have achieved significant influence by innovating with digital tools. They often aim to provide an alternative to the traditional voice of mainstream media, which are usually linked to political and business interests that have long predominated in these countries. "Digital-ness" of highly influential websites. These are among the findings of a new study of 67 native-born digital news publications by Ramon Salaverria of the University of Navarra (Spain) and Summer Harlow of Florida State University. The study , published in the journal Digital Journalism , is an ambitious effort to measure the innovation, influence, and goals of these 67 digital natives -- "Regenerating Journalism: Exploring the 'alternativeness' and 'digital-ness' of Online-Native Media in Latin America". And while the scholars have not set out to creat...

Note: This blog post from Poynter Institute is used with permission. I think it is a particularly well stated summary of key points digital news entrepreneurs need to keep in mind. A Spanish version was translated by �tica Segura of the New Journalism Foundation of Iberoamerica. - James Diversify revenue streams. Train from within. Make the most of metrics. Sometimes the simplest ideas can be the most effective. A small group from Poynter visited a dozen nonprofit and for-profit news organizations in 2015 to gather information to share at this week's Nonprofit News Exchange. Here are 25 ideas, observed at many of the places we visited, that anyone can apply to his or her own newsroom. 1. Know your mission. As you build your team, look for staffers that buy into your mission and keep communicating the big point of your venture clearly. This is an advantage startups have over legacy outlets attempting transformation and struggling to bring staffers along. 2. Start with a fresh ide...

MediaTek is a chip slinger, known for its budget SoC solutions, mainly featured in entry-level and midrange devices. However, in 2015, the company unveiled its new line of Helio chips, currently featuring two octa-core models and an upcoming deca-code one, which is heavily advertised as a competitor to Qualcomm's own top-shelf Snapdragon 820. The former two are the Helio P10, which is the most affordable in the line, and the middle-of-the-road Helio X10. Both models are already available and powering a few budget-oriented smartphones, mainly aimed at Asian markets. The third one is the Helio X20 � the world's first 10-core processor, eagerly awaited by tech-heads, as leaks and reports are really boasting about its performance. Having said that, the silicone slinger has certainly taken its time with the X20. The chip was announced way back in May of 2015, but it has yet to hit the market. Rumors from Chinese tech block Anzhuo say that the reason for this is that the X20's de...