Subsidized news-media innovation: outputs, outcomes, and impact

Digital disruptions have put an emphasis on innovation as a means for survivalfor news and journalism in uncertain times. As a response, Denmark introduceda targeted subsidy instrument for news-media innovation in 2014 to supportboth the establishment of new news media and the development of legacymedia. This study analyzes the first decade of this subsidy instrument (2014–2023), where a total of 23,573,219 EUR was allocated. Guided by studies basedon innovation-policy impact assessment, we map and evaluate the news-mediainnovation subsides with a focus on outputs, outcomes, and impact. The analysisshows that 52 % of the subsidies has been allocated to legacy media, the rest tonew news media. Furthermore, we find that new news media predominantly doinnovation aimed at content and market development, whereas legacy mediapursue product development. One outcome is that 44 new news media havebeen established with the support of the subsidy instrument, 31 of which stillexist. Finally, in terms of impact, the analysis shows that of the 31 new newsmedia, only few are both widely recognized and used by the Danish population.