What makes for great entrepreneurial journalism? A content analysis of 24 award-winning journalism startups,2021-2024

Abstract

This study examines the defining characteristics of successful entrepreneurial journalism by analyzing 24 award and grant-winning journalism startups recognized between 2021 and 2024 by The Next Challenge for Media & Journalism, and the Nonprofit News Awards. These programs celebrate innovative ventures that are reinventing media and journalism. Through a content analysis, we identify the operational strategies, content models, audience engagement practices, and revenue streams that distinguish these successful startups. We find that storytelling within these ventures often incorporates solutions-oriented, collaborative, and participatory narratives that deepen audience engagement. Innovation emerged as a central driver of success, with some startups leveraging AI for enhanced content curation and immersive storytelling, while others emphasize hyperlocal and community-centric reporting. Many of the studied winners excelled in blending conventional journalistic practices with market-savvy revenue strategies, such as subscriptions, crowdfunding, affiliate marketing, and partnerships with technology platforms. The study also reveals a strong emphasis on mission-driven journalism that often targets underserved communities or addresses critical social issues.

Keywords

awards entrepreneurship innovation journalism startups

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aldridge

(2007) Understanding the Local Media. McGraw-Hill Education. Alternative News Reporting in Brazil (pp. 147-180). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Armour-Jones

Clark

(2019) Global media philanthropy. What funders need to know about data, trends and pressing issues facing the field. https://mediaimpactfunders.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Gates-Report-Final-3-26-19.pdf

Bonixe

(2022) Practices and models of entrepreneurial journalism in Portugal. Brazilian Journalism Research 18(3): 550–573. https://doi.org/10.25200/BJR.v18n3.2022.1494

Braun

Clarke

(2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2): 77–101.

Briggs

(2007) Review of James F. English, the economy of prestige: prizes, awards, and the circulation of cultural value. Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature 6(2): 6.

Briggs

(2016) Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing. 3rd edition. CQ Press.

Bruno

Nielsen

(2012) Survival is Success: Journalistic Online start-ups in Western Europe. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Callison

Young

(2020) Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/reckoning-9780190067076

Carbasse

(2015) Doing good business and quality journalism? Entrepreneurial journalism and the debates on the future of news media. Brazilian Journalism Research 11: 256–277. https://doi.org/10.25200/BJR.v11n1.2015.816

10.

Carlson

Lewis

(eds) (2015) Boundaries of Journalism: Professionalism, Practices and Participation. 1st edition. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315727684

11.

Caro-González

Sánchez-Torné

Pérez-Suárez

(2022) Female entrepreneurs in digital journalism. Journal of Media Business Studies 19(2): 71–89.

12.

Carvajal

García-Avilés

González

(2015) Crowdfunding and non-profit media: the emergence of new models for public interest journalism The Future of Journalism: Developments and Debates. Routledge, pp. 101–110.

13.

Cohen

(2015) Entrepreneurial journalism and the precarious state of media work. South Atlantic Quarterly 114(3): 513–533.

14.

Cornia

Sehl

Nielsen

(2020). We no longer live in a time of separation: a comparative analysis of how editorial and commercial integration became a norm. Journalism 21(2): 172–190.

15.

Deuze

Witschge

(2018) Beyond journalism: theorizing the transformation of journalism. Journalism 19(2): 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916688550

16.

English

(2005) The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value. Harvard University Press.

17.

Ferrer-Conill

(2016) Camouflaging church as state: an exploratory study of journalism’s native advertising. Journalism Studies 17(7): 904–914. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1165138

18.

Hanitzsch

Vos

(2018) Journalism beyond democracy: a new look into journalistic roles in political and everyday life. Journalism 19(2): 146–164.

19.

Hardy

(2021) Sponsored editorial content in digital journalism: mapping the merging of media and marketing. Digital Journalism 9(7): 865–886.

20.

Harlow

(2018) Quality, innovation, and financial sustainability: central American entrepreneurial journalism through the lens of its audience. Journalism Practice 12(5): 543–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1330663

21.

Harlow

Harp

(2013) Alternative media in a digital era: comparing news and information use among activists in the United States and Latin America. Communications Society 26(4): 25–51.

22.

Heckman

(2013) Where the women are: Measuring female leadership in the new journalism ecology. [Unpublished Masters Thesis]. Northeastern University. https://megheckman.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/heckman_thesis.pdf

23.

Heft

Dogruel

(2019) Searching for autonomy in digital news entrepreneurism projects. Digital Journalism 7(5): 678–697. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2019.1581070

24.

Higgins-Joyce

VDM

(2018) Independent voices of entrepreneurial news: setting a new agenda in Latin America. Palabra Clave - Revista De Comunicación 21(3): 710–739. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2018.21.3.4

25.

INN News (2025) Community at the center of the 2025 nonprofit news awards. https://news.inn.org/community-at-the-center-of-the-2025-nonprofit-news-awards/

26.

Jenkins

Volz

(2018) Players and contestation mechanisms in the journalism field: a historical analysis of journalism awards, 1960s to 2000s. Journalism Studies 19(7): 921–941.

27.

Kalender

(2024) The datafication of newsrooms: a study on data journalism practices in a British newspaper. Journalism and Media 5(1): 48–64.

28.

Kibarabara

Cheruiyot

Muindi

(2023) Missionaries of excellence? post-Award role orientations of journalism prize winners. Journalism Studies 24(1): 45–65.

29.

Kosterich

Weber

(2018) Starting up the news: the impact of venture capital on the digital news media ecosystem. The International Journal on Media Management 20(4): 239–262.

30.

Lewis

Westlund

(2015) Actors, actants, audiences, and activities in cross-media news work: a matrix and a research agenda. Digital Journalism 3(1): 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.927986

31.

Mathisen

(2017) Entrepreneurs and idealists: freelance journalists at the intersection of autonomy and constraints. Journalism Practice 11(7): 1–16.

32.

McHugh

(2016) How podcasting is changing the audio storytelling genre. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 14(1): 65–82.

33.

Mohammed

Adelakun

Elega

, et al. (2024) Age of techno-innovative journalism: a systematic mapping of entrepreneurial journalism research, 2000–2022. Communication Research and Practice 10(2): 249–273.

34.

Mohammed

James

Elega

(2025) Nurturing innovation in a digital age: a typological analysis of Nigerian media startups. In: Ozohu-Suleiman

Suemo

Ahmad

, et al. (eds) Communication and Mass Media in Nigeria: Trends, Performance, Perspectives. Ahmadu Bello University Press, pp. 401–429.

35.

MPR (2025) Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media Group Announces Winners of the 2025 next Challenge for Media & Journalism | Minnesota Public Radio. Minnesota Public Radio. https://www.mpr.org/stories/2025/06/11/glen-nelson-center-at-american-public-media-group-announces-winners

36.

Munoriyarwa

de-Lima-Santos

Mesquita

, et al. (2025) The philanthrocapitalism of google news initiative in Africa, Latin America, and the middle east–empirical reflections. International Journal of Cultural Studies 28(1): 56–79.

37.

Nee

(2013) Creative destruction: an exploratory study of how digitally native news nonprofits are innovating online journalism practices. The International Journal on Media Management 15(1): 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14241277.2012.732153

38.

Nelson

Schmidt

(2022) Taking the audience seriously? The normative construction of engaged journalism. International Journal of Communication 16: 5843–5863. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19467

39.

Nerone

Barnhurst

(2003) US newspaper types, the newsroom, and the division of labor, 1750–2000. Journalism Studies 4(4): 435–449.

40.

North

(2014) The Gender of “soft” and “hard” news: Female journalists’ views on gendered story allocations. Journalism Studies 17(3): 356–373.

41.

Nygren

(2008) The news factory – journalistic professional roles in a changed media world. Student Literature.

42.

O'Donnell

(2009) That’s gold! thinking about excellence in Australian journalism. Australian Journalism Review 31(2): 47–60.

43.

Ojo

Heravi

(2018) Patterns in award winning data storytelling: story types, enabling tools and competences. Digital journalism 6(6): 693–718.

44.

Parker

Ross

Pehlivan

Bridgman

(2024) Old news, new reality: A year of Meta’s news ban in Canada. Montreal: Media Ecosystem Observatory. Available at: https://meo.ca/work/old-news-new-reality-a-year-of-metas-news-ban-in-canada.

45.

Picard

(2011) Mapping digital media: digitization and media business models. Open Society Foundations. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media

46.

Porlezza

Splendore

(2016) Accountability and transparency of entrepreneurial journalism: unresolved ethical issues in crowdfunded journalism projects. Journalism Practice 10(2): 196–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1124731

47.

Posetti

(2018) Time to step away from the ‘bright, shiny things’? Towards a sustainable model of journalism innovation in an era of perpetual change. Journalism Innovation Project 1(1): 1–30.

48.

Price

(2017) Can the ferret be a watchdog? Understanding the launch, growth and prospects of a digital, investigative journalism start-up. Digital Journalism 5(10): 1336–1350. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1288582

49.

Robinson

(2023) How Journalists Engage: A Theory of Trust Building, Identities, and Care. Oxford University Press, Rowman & Littlefield. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-journalists-engage-9780197667118

50.

Schmidt

Nelson

Lawrence

(2020) Conceptualizing the active audience: rhetoric and practice in ‘engaged journalism. Journalism 23(1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920934246

51.

Singer

(2017) Reinventing journalism as an entrepreneurial enterprise. In: Boczkowski

Anderson

(eds) Remaking the News. MIT Press, 195–210.

52.

Tandoc

Thomas

(2015) The ethics of web analytics: implications of using audience metrics in news construction. Digital Journalism 3(2): 243–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.976410

53.

Teixeira

Jorge

(2021) Crowdfunding platforms in the political economy of alternative media. Communications Society 39: 183–202. https://doi.org/10.17231/comsoc.39(2021).2863

54.

Usher

(2017) Venture-backed news startups and the field of journalism: challenges, changes, and consistencies. Digital Journalism 5(9): 1116–1133.

55.

Vos

Singer

(2016) Media discourse about entrepreneurial journalism. Journalism Practice 10(2): 143–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1124730

56.

Wagemans

Witschge

Deuze

(2016) Ideology as resource in entrepreneurial journalism: the French online news startup media part. Journalism Practice 10(2): 160–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1124732

57.

Warner

Best

Iastrebner

, et al. (2021) Inflection point international: a study of digital media entrepreneurs in Latin America, southeast Asia, and Africa. Semana Medica. https://data2021.sembramedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Inflection-point-ENG-Nov3-2021-2.pdf

58.

Wenzel

Nelson

(2020) Introduction: “engaged” journalism: studying the news industry’s changing relationship with the public. Journalism Practice 14(5): 515–517. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1759126

59.

Westlund

(2013) Mobile news: a review and model of journalism in an age of mobile media. Digital journalism 1(1): 6–26.

60.

Young

Hermida

Fulda

(2018) What makes for great data journalism? A content analysis of data journalism awards finalists 2012–2015. Journalism Practice 12(1): 115–135.

61.

Zhang

(2019) The business model of journalism start-ups in China. Digital journalism 7(5): 614–634.