Media Finance Monitor - Center for Sustainable Media

Media Finance Monitor - Center for Sustainable Media

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And the paywalls came tumbling down
The EU budget that keeps on giving, annual report from one of the largest funders in Europe, freelancer rates, ads on Subtack, an event invitation and…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
1
The new EU budget promises a big boost for journalism. It’s probably too good to be true.
After months of speculation, the European Commission has unveiled its draft for the next Multiannual Financial Framework. On paper, it looks like a…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
Beggars, choosers, AI scrapers
Watching your best people walk out the door, the end of free content, leaks about the new MFF, an entrepreneurial program for newsrooms in exile, nerdy…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
 and 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
2025 European Digital News Pricing Report
We’ve mapped pricing, discounting, and trial strategies from 101 European newsrooms. If you're planning to launch or rethink your digital subscription…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
, 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
, 
Gréti Balázs
, 
Daniel B.
, and 
Virág Szabó

June 2025

Fracturing the attention economy
European distribution, leadership in crisis, cool workshops in the autumn and 28 active calls.
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
 and 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
Small batch, organic, tech to table digital sovereignty does not exist
We can’t ‘degrow’ European tech into global relevance. What we need are massive public and private investments, and news publishers ready to get serious…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
Your deepest, darkest user needs and the emotional economics of modern journalism
An ambitious new European platform to distribute public interest journalism, the best paid job in a nonprofit newsroom, welcoming Austria into CEE and…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
 and 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
When 99% of your audience tells you they want more investigative journalism, don't believe them
A beginners guide to audience surveys and interpreting research data.
 • 
Peter Erdelyi

May 2025

A European Empire of Attention
A Trump that keeps on bumping, volatility in distribution and 26 active calls.
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
 and 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
The 2025 Newsletter Playbook
Everything you need to know about choosing platforms, building audiences, and monetizing newsletters, featuring 19 case studies of successful models…
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
 and 
María Paula Ángel Benavides
The right atrium of darkness
Hungary’s new foreign agent law shows how authoritarian regimes cut off the lifeblood of independent media: funding.
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
The brief history of people writing things to other people
Newsletters peaked in ~1530, the Medicis invented Substack and we are running a sale for a week before starting experiments with the paywall.
 • 
Peter Erdelyi
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