The emergence, innovation, and consolidation of new models for digital journalism: case studies of El Confidencial, elDiario.es and infoLibre

Abstract

In the scenario of media digitalization, a deep transformation of journalism has taken place. The traditional model of the press has known a deep crisis, and in the last two decades native digital media have emerged, bringing new journalistic formats and routines, and new business structures to produce them. This is the case of El Confidencial, elDiario.es and infoLibre, which have managed to grow and establish as national informative references. Here, we analyze their main common characteristics (ownership by journalists and a community of partners) and differences (such as payment walls and ethical codes), together with some milestones of their trajectory, to find some key factors for their higher or lower success and consolidation. Therefore, we interview some of their directors, and we also map and evaluate their digital network metrics, in order to identify different interaction management policies, concluding their low weight in the prediction of the number of followers.