A Changing Landscape: the evolution of online news and music models

The past two years have been a turbulent time for the New Economy generally – and for the digital content industry in particular. In the wake of the dot.com and telecoms crashes, smaller companies are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain the advice they need to make strategic decisions (such as, for example, whether to modify their business model, or whether to buy or sell a subsidiary). The WWW (World Wide Web) has had a significant influence on some industries – particularly the digital content industry. In this paper we show how the advent of the WWW is changing the business models of the online news and music sectors in Europe. Our findings are based on the first two phases of a three-phase, European Commission-funded market survey. In the paper we consider in greater detail the Internet business models of these companies, discussing the changes taking place in these two fast-moving digital content sectors, the evolution of the business models within them, the driving forces we have identified and, finally, some predictions about what the future may hold for both these sectors. 1