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This is an excerpt from our free-to-download report, Specialist Media Innovators in Europe
Specialist media businesses are thriving by serving consumer and professional communities around topics of interest. It is a bustling, agile sector with creator-led, consumer and B2B media.
Even news organisations are developing and acquiring media for specialist communities – for example, The New York Times’s acquisition of The Athletic. Business models are replicated in new areas – for example, Vogue’s launch of Vogue Business. And enthusiasts and expert creators are serving communities through vibrant Substacks, podcasts and more.
How are business models in specialist consumer and B2B media changing?
Very dramatically, based on our research into innovation in media across Europe.
Digital revenues
Of course, digital revenues are contributing an increasing share of media revenues. And while the story of traditional print publishers pivoting to digital advertising and subscriptions is an important trend, we have also covered many digital-only new entrants.
Revenue diversification
Revenue diversification is a common theme, with smart businesses identifying new needs among their audiences, and developing marketplaces, tools, data, services and consultancy to a broad range of organisations and individuals.
Technology investment
Technology investment is crucial, whether that is buying in third party tech platforms to better understand audience behaviour and streamline the content production process or hiring your own in-house dev team and becoming a software developer.
Exploring collaboration
More specialist media businesses are exploring collaboration with partners or even competitors, especially sharing technology investments.
More international
Media is becoming ever more international. Many media businesses are launching events or media brands into nearby countries. Linguistic barriers are lowering, and organisations realise that innovative business models can successfully cross borders.
Di5rupt have just launched their latest Mx3 Leadership report on specialist media innovators in Europe, written by digital media consultant Carolyn Morgan. The 43-page independent report, based on qualitative interviews and quantitative survey data, highlights European specialist media, focusing on the innovations and trends driving it forward.
The “Specialist Media Innovators in Europe” report is free and available to download here.
Who are the European specialist media innovators?
For this report, we asked media experts and analysts to nominate businesses they admired from across Europe. From this longlist, we selected twenty businesses that were particularly innovative, with a bias to smaller and medium-sized independents, not subsidiaries of US or global giants. They provide a snapshot of innovation in multiple sectors and countries.
- 14 B2B, 1 scientific, 3 news and 2 consumer specialist markets
- Headquartered in 13 different countries and active in almost every European market
- 13 started in print and are at varying stages of the journey to digital, 6 are digital-only and one began as an events business
- 9 have fewer than 50 staff, 6 are mid-sized businesses (<200 staff) and 5 are larger businesses or a division within a larger business (>200 staff)
Specialist media, be that creator-, consumer, or B2B-led, is a proven resilient segment of media. What’s more, they continue to innovate as they look for new and better ways to serve their special interest communities.
All on the shortlist answered an email questionnaire and six were interviewed on zoom. We have included a short profile of each business in this report. Here we have the full interview recordings with top innovators included in our Mx3 Leadership report on innovation and trends in specialist media in Europe.
To watch in-depth interviews with six specialist media leaders, click below to view the recordings.
Click here to watch the interviews
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In the report, the best of Europe’s specialist media innovators share their experiences and strategies for growing revenues, including best practices, revenue sources, and investment priorities.
The “Specialist Media Innovators in Europe” report is free and available to download here.
