Media and Communication Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2439 Volume 8, Issue 2 (2020) DigitalDigital NativeNative NewsNews Media:Media: TrendsTrends andand ChallengesChallenges Editor Ramón Salaverría Media and Communication, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2 Digital Native News Media: Trends and Challenges Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editor Ramón Salaverría (University of Navarra, Spain) Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original and Media and Communication is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents Exploring Digital Native News Media Ramón Salaverría 1–4 Journalism in Digital Native Media: Beyond Technological Determinism Berta García-Orosa, Xosé López-García and Jorge Vázquez-Herrero 5–15 Cross-National Similarities and Differences between Legacy and Digital-Born News Media Audiences Alfonso Vara-Miguel 16–27 Business Model Innovation in News Media: Fostering New Relationships to Stimulate Support from Readers Giuliander Carpes da Silva and Gabriela Gruszynski Sanseverino 28–39 The Enduring Popularity of Legacy Journalism: An Analysis of Online Audience Data Jacob L. Nelson 40–50 Why Do Digital Native News Media Fail? An Investigation of Failure in the Early Start-Up Phase Christopher Buschow 51–61 Data Journalism as a Service: Digital Native Data Journalism Expertise and Product Development Ester Appelgren and Carl-Gustav Lindén 62–72 Journalism Expands in Spite of the Crisis: Digital-Native News Media in Spain Samuel Negredo, María-Pilar Martínez-Costa, James Breiner and Ramón Salaverría 73–85 Behind the Comments Section: The Ethics of Digital Native News Discussions Orge Castellano Parra, Koldobika Meso Ayerdi and Simón Peña Fernández 86–97 Media Roles in the Online News Domain: Authorities and Emergent Audience Brokers Sílvia Majó-Vázquez, Ana S. Cardenal, Oleguer Sagarra and Pol Colomer de Simón 98–111 Between Self-Regulation and Participatory Monitoring: Comparing Digital News Media Accountability Practices in Spain Pedro-Luis Pérez-Díaz, Rocío Zamora Medina and Enrique Arroyas Langa 112–123 Table of Contents Managing Social Networks in Online-Native Newsrooms: When Less Means More Antonio Mendez, Bella Palomo and Agustin Rivera 124–134 Information Quality in Latin American Digital Native Media: Analysis Based on Structured Dimensions and Indicators Claudia Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Diana Rivera-Rogel and Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez 135–145 Native Media and Business Models: Comparative Study of 14 Successful Experiences in Latin America Santiago Tejedor, Augusto Ventín, Laura Cervi, Cristina Pulido and Fernanda Tusa 146–158 The Emergence of Native Podcasts in Journalism: Editorial Strategies and Business Opportunities in Latin America José Luis Rojas-Torrijos, Francisco Javier Caro-González and José Antonio González-Alba 159–170 Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 1–4 DOI: 10.17645/mac.v8i2.3044 Editorial Exploring Digital Native News Media Ramón Salaverría School of Communication, University of Navarra, 31009 Pamplona, Spain; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 20 March 2020 | Published: 16 April 2020 Abstract Digital native news media are becoming a blooming phenomenon, expanding globally. Up until now, however, the scholar community has paid little attention to online-born media, compared to the high interest devoted to the legacy media brands. Drawing upon the extant literature on this emerging topic, this editorial summarizes the empirical and theoretical contributions of the thematic issue entitled “Digital Native News Media: Trends and Challenges.” The author highlights that the studies selected for this thematic issue not only explore the innovative characteristics and opportunities of digital native media in thirty countries, but also provide a cautionary tale about their structural problems and limitations. Keywords digital journalism; digital native media; legacy media; media; newswork; online-born media Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Digital Native News Media: Trends and Challenges,” edited by Ramón Salaverría (University of Navarra, Spain). © 2020 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). In 2020, providing a definition of digital news media, ness models (Arrese & Kaufmann, 2016; Sirkkunen & whether native or not, is not an easy task. A quarter Cook, 2012). Beyond such structural aspects, digital na- of a century ago, when the first news publications ap- tive media show also, at least to some extent, a spe- peared on the Web, the imprecise label ‘new media’ was cific implementation of news values (Canter, 2018; Kilgo, broadly used to designate all types of digital publications. Harlow, García-Perdomo, & Salaverría, 2018) and a dis- In recent years, however, journalism scholars and practi- tinctive approach to covering the news (Higgins Joyce & tioners have started to distinguish between ‘legacy’ dig- Harlow, 2020; Thomas & Cushion, 2019). ital publications, meaning those derived from consoli- To date, most empirical research about the digital na- dated journalistic brands, and new online publications, tive news media phenomenon has been limited to case characterized by their digital nature and recent origin. studies, exploring either global-reaching brands (Tandoc, These latest publications have been labeled in various 2018) or some local cases (Harbers, 2016; Wagemans ways, such as ‘digital-born’ (Nicholls, Shabbir, & Nielsen, et al., 2016). However, one of the main limitations of 2016), ‘digital-native’ (Pew Research Center, 2015; Wu, case studies is that they usually focus on the most suc- 2016), ‘online-native’ (Harlow & Salaverría, 2016), or cessful and well-developed examples, the characteristics even simply as ‘pure players’ (Sirkkunen & Cook, 2012) or of which hardly apply to the average publications. In or- ‘start-ups’ (Naldi & Picard, 2012; Wagemans, Witschge, & der to get a more nuanced idea about the contributions Deuze, 2016). and problems of the average digital native news media, No matter the term used, recent research has found broader studies are needed. This is the main contribu- that digital native media proceed according to specific tion of this issue of Media and Communication: Offering principles, relatively different from those used by non- a comprehensive overview of the characteristics and native media (Küng, 2015; Tandoc, 2018). Their digi- trends of digital native news media at the beginning of tal nature emphasizes the tendency towards an early the third decade of the 21st century. adoption of new technologies (Nee, 2013), as well as This thematic issue consists of 14 research articles a deeper experimentation with multimedia storytelling that explore the typology, strategies, and limitations of formats (Harbers, 2016) and more diversification in busi- online media. The empirical studies, some of them com- Media and Communication, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 2, Pages 1–4 1 parative and cross-national, cover media located in more The multiplication of digital native news media that oc- than thirty countries of the world, distributed between curred in Spain during the years of the Great Recession Europe, North and South America. The research method- (2008–2014). Also based on a large volume of data, al- ologies used are also diverse, comprising quantitative, most 100,000 user-comments from three major Spanish qualitative and mixed approaches. The reader will find digital native newspapers, Castellano Parra, Ayerdi, and everything from descriptive studies comparing formal el- Peña Fernández (2020) analyze the quality of the delib- ements of the media, to algorithm-based data analyses. erative debate in the comments of those media’s news. Most studies focus on identifying the characteristics of For their part, Majó-Vázquez, Cardenal, Sagarra, and de digital native media, although there are also some that Simón (2020) use algorithmic methods to determine the explore the dynamics of their audiences and even the degree of informative relevance achieved by digital na- professional routines of their journalists. In short, this tive news media in the country; according to their find- thematic issue brings a set of diverse and consistent ings, the legacy news media retain control of the broker- studies which helps to expand the attention given to an age positions for the general population, but digital na- emerging area of journalism studies. tive media are gaining relevance among younger news From a geographical point of view, four articles por- consumers. Pérez-Díaz, Medina, and Langa (2020) also tray the blooming phenomenon of digital native news compare the Spanish legacy and native media, although media in Latin America. Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Rivera-Rogel, in their case they examine their respective accountability and Romero-Rodríguez (2020) weigh the level of struc- practices. The fifth study on Spain, by Mendez, Palomo, tural development of the most salient digital native me- and Rivera (2020), shows the particular adaptation of dia brands in the 20 countries of the region, through a journalists working in native media to the use of social descriptive analysis of various technical and formal di- networks both as an information source and as an edito- mensions.