News agencies

News agencies are the wholesalers of news. They have bureaus all across the world where they film, document and record all sorts of events. They are known as the ‘invisible giants’ of news. News agencies sell their content to broadcasts, print organisations and online sites. In this model we can liken these news companies as the retailers, they receive the goods from the wholesalers and then redistribute it to us, the consumers (/customers.) The general ethos of news agencies is to produce unbiased and impartial news which does not rely on ambiguity. Credible news is their currency, and they must be able to sell this to a wide spectrum of distributors each with differing agendas.

News agencies

(Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Getty Images)

Broadcast, Print and Online producers

( BBC, Sky News, Guardian, Heart FM, Daily Mail)

Audience

The biggest news agencies in the world are Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse; all of which are global agencies. However each are based out of different countries.

Associated Press – New York, United States

Thomsons Reuter – London, United Kingdom

Agence France-Presse – Paris, France

News agencies grew out of the need for newspapers to have a global reach. Most could not afford to have more than a couple bureaus outside of their headquarters. To resolve this problem global news agencies developed who could be all over the world, where they would collect the news. They then supplied this information to a huge amount of localised newspapers via a wire feed. News companies pay subscriptions for this service. The strong news agencies grew out of the development of the telegraph in the 1850s.

Generally news agencies are commercially run. However in some more authoritarian countries, the news agencies are state run. This leads to concerns of the news being more akin to propaganda rather than impartial news. A few examples of these would be

Xinhua (China)

ITAR-TASS (Russia)

Further reading

How does Al Jazeera make money?

Al Jazeera is owned and therefore subsidized by the Emir of Qatar. It was set up in 1996 on a 5 year loan that totals $137 Million dollars. Al Jazeera continues to be state owned and therefore does not need to worry about making profit. Making profit in not it’s primary foal, instead it was to help build the image of the Emir of Qatar, as well as create a network to appeal to the higest amount of Arab around the world.

They do receive some revenue from, like VICE, licencing out original content to other networks. They also rent out their equipment and staff to other production companies. Furthermore they receive advertising revenue solely from their Youtube channel, which is how the majority of the world receive their content. Whilst this will be a pretty substantial amount of revenue, it is almost nothing compared to the support from the Emir of Qatar.

How Does VICE make money?

VICE makes 80% of its revenue online.

In a Business Insider article about VICE’s deal with Time Warner, Aaron Taube wrote:

But the company has spent the past decade building a robust advertising and licensing machine, the strength of which lies in a prescient early bet on the viability of online video and a creative approach to monetizing its content.

VICE has been smart with how they have managed their content. They were one of the first content producers to delve into the world of online video. Having become frustrated with the time it took to produce and distribute DVDs, VICE entered into a deal with Viacom to start producing streaming content online. This website was VBS and it rapidly grew the VICE’s brand, getting their unique journalistic style out to a much larger audience.

Due to the growing desire for original TV shows, VICE has been able to make huge amounts of money by simply licencing it’s already produced content to different broadcasters and media companies around the world. Occasionally building or re appropriating content for the specific geographic audience. This is an easy way to create a lot of money, Shane Smith has said it is the primary reason why VICE has made more in Q1 of 2014 compared to the whole of 2013.

VICE are able to offer brands a dynamic range of advertising opportunities. According to their media kit, the VICE target audience is generally affluent young males. Brands such as Go Pro, Red Bull and The North Face are always looking to get involved with these videos. Whether it is just a sponsorship to have their brand feature at the start and end of the video, or a more in depth approach; VICE offer a premium advertising spot on their online content.

They also carry banner and pre roll content on their site which can help bring in revenue from further companies.

According to an article in The New Yorker, brands can sponsor episodes or whole series of VICE shows for between $1 – $5 Million:

Besides selling banner displays and short ads that play before its videos, Vice offers its advertisers the option of funding an entire project in exchange for being listed as co-creator and having editorial input. Advertisers can pay for a single video, or, for a higher price—one to five million dollars for twelve episodes, according to Vice—they can pay for an entire series, on a topic that dovetails with the company’s image. (The North Face, the outdoors company, recently sponsored a series called “Far Out,” in which Vice staffers visit people living in “the most remote places on Earth.”)

VICE has built a media empire based on the early uptake of online video. They have a reputation for creating edgy and high quality content that other companies such as BuzzFeed and The New York Times are struggling to compare with. Through advertising and sponsorship across almost all their content, they have been able to make huge amounts of revenue, which they keep reinvesting to expand the company.

Who Owns Al Jazeera?

Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN) is a multimedia multinational conglomerate from the Middle East. It is based in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Al Jazeera is a subsidiary of AJMN and is a state run broadcaster in the Middle East. Al Jazeera have expanded into many other countries and languages, some of which can be seen below .Al Jazeera is one of the largest news broadcasters in the world, with 82 bureaus spread across the planet.

The AJMN is owned by Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, who is also the CEO of  Al-Gharafa Sports Club.

Hamad Bin Thamer Al-Thani is cousin to the former Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. He is part of the ruling family of Qatar, The House of Thani.

Al Jazeera has come under criticism from several countries over concerns regarding its religious and political agenda, along with it’s bias due to state ownership. Al Jazeera have often been called up on their primarily Islamist perspectives, for example when showing support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Who owns VICE?

VICE started out as a free magazine in Montreal in 1994, founded by Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith. Since then it has developed a reputation as an alternative / punk publication which delves into more unusual stories across a variety of different from international news, local news, music, politics, fashion and current affairs. They take an anti-mainstream approach in their journalism.

VICE launched its website in 1996 under the address Viceland.com. In 2007 it launched a website dedicated more specifically to video, called VBS.tv. In 2011 The two sites were combined into a all encompassing website: vice.com.

In mid August 2013, Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox invested $70 million into VICE media for a 5% stake in the company. In an interview, Shane Smith stated: “We have set ourselves up to build a global platform but we have maintained control.” Minority shareholders hold 25% of the voting power in the company, whilst the rest remains with the founders.

On August 29 2014, A&E entertainment bought a 10% stake in VICE media for $250 million. A&E networks is a joint venture between Hearts Corporation and The Disney/ABC television group. This was to enable VICE to break into traditional TV as they had long wanted to do.

Later that year in October, VICE announced a CDN$100 million joint venture with Rogers Communications to launch new VICE production facilities in Toronto for locally produced content, along with a VICE branded Canadian TV show.

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Below is a diagram showing the ownership structures of the companies invested in VICE. Whilst News Corp don’t own BSKYB completely, they do have a 39.1% stake in the company

Introduction

I have set in this blog in order to document my findings in my Journalism Futures module.

Journalism Futures looks at the big debates around technological developments and the effects they have on journalism. I will look to understand the complex relations between the changing technological and social contexts and how they effect our journalistic output. Together with this I will study the historical context of the practice and see how journalism has developed throughout history.

I will also be comparing the output of two news media sites, tracking how each one handles certain stories. Each website is different and offers readers different ways to engage in news stories. Each site have different models of practice and I believe this will make for interesting comparison.

I have chosen to compare the VICE news network with Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera has over 65 bureaus across the globe with the majority of them in the global South. They broadcast a news and current affairs program 24/7 from their Doha headquarters as well as centres in London and Washington, DC. They are the 13th most viewed news channel on Youtube, with approximately 589 million views per month. VICE news is a rapidly growing, new competitor. They are a part of VICE Media, a company with several digital channels covering an array of subjects. The news channel was created 2 years ago in 2013. VICE is the 33rd most viewed news channel on Youtube with approximately 300 million views per month.