RASMUS KLEIS NIELSEN

RISJ DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

6th European Communication

Conference (ECREA) keynote

PUBLISHERS AND PLATFORMS

Platforms: Large technology companies that—

have developed and maintain digital platforms that enable interaction between at least two different kinds of actors

and in the process come to host public information, organize access to it, and create new formats for it,

And thereby influence incentive structures around investment in public communication (including news production).

THE RISE OF PLATFORMS

15/06/2016 RISJ Digital News Report 2016 4

Sources: Ian Maude, Be Heard Group, data from Google, Facebook, and estimates from Enders Analysis

Platforms’ share of digital advertising

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

$ b

illio

nEstimated global digital advertising revenues (some shared), 2005-2015

Google Facebook Others

Sources: Company reports.

The size of platforms (vs publishers)

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Google (1998) Facebook (2004) Axel Springer (1946) BBC (1922) New York Times (1851)

$ b

illio

n

2016 Market capitalization ($billion)

2015 Revenues ($ billion)

Q10. Thinking about how you got news online (via computer, mobile or any device) in the last week, which were the ways in which you came across news stories?

(Only some options included above.)

Base: Total sample in each country

How people come across news online

FRA GER UK USDirect access to brand 27% 27% 47% 35%

Search engine 35% 37% 20% 30%

Social media 26% 21% 25% 35%

Distributed discovery

And distributed content

PUBLISHERS’ REACTION

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Focus on onsite versus off-site distribution

Onsite Off-site

Three responses

Coexistence

Confrontation

Collaboration

Three responses

Coexistence

“We need Facebook.

Facebook does not need us.”

Confrontation

Collaboration

Three responses

Coexistence

Confrontation

They are “content

kleptomaniacs”, “thieves”

Collaboration

Three responses

Coexistence

Confrontation

Collaboration

“This can be win-win.”

A STRATEGIC CASE STUDY

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Collaboration in practice?

Generally good relationship

Collaboration in practice?

Generally good relationship

Tensions between

operational and strategic

Collaboration in practice?

Generally good relationship

Tensions between

operational and strategic

Fear of missing out

Collaboration in practice?

Generally good relationship

Tensions between

operational and strategic

Fear of missing out

Difficulties of evaluating

Collaboration in practice?

Generally good relationship

Tensions between

operational and strategic

Fear of missing out

Difficulties of evaluating

Asymmetrical relationship

IMPLICATIONS?

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Implications? “Platformed publishing”?

“Platformed publishing”?

Empowerment and

dependency?

Implications?

“Platformed publishing”?

Empowerment and

dependency?

Institutional reliance on

disembedded technological

systems?

Implications?

Large technology companies have—

Hard power

Soft power

Platform power, including

• Power to set standards

• Power to make and break connections

• Power of automated action at scale

• Power of secrecy

• Power that operates across domains

Power

Large technology companies have—

Hard power

Soft power

Platform power, including

• Power to set standards

• Power to make and break connections

• Power of automated action at scale

• Power of secrecy

• Power that operates across domains

Power

Large technology companies have—

Hard power

Soft power

“Platform power”, including

• Power to set standards

• Power to make and break connections

• Power of automated action at scale

• Power of secrecy

• Power that operates across domains

Power

IMPLICATIONS FOR US?

15/06/2016 RISJ Digital News Report 2016 29

RASMUS KLEIS NIELSEN

RISJ DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

6th European Communication

Conference (ECREA), Prague

PUBLISHERS AND PLATFORMS

References and acknowledgementsThis presentation is based in part on research done with Sarah Ganter and has benefited indirectly from discussions with the whole research team at the Reuters

Institute for the Study of Journalism (Alessio Cornia, Annika Sehl, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, Benjamin Toff, Richard Fletcher, and Tom Nicholls, as well as Nic

Newman). In addition, I want to thank Andrew Chadwick, Daniel Kreiss, and Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon for inspirational comments, discussions, and suggestions.

It builds on the work of many others, including—

Bell E with Wardle C, Brown P, Rashidian N, Bengani P, and Gonclaves A. (2016) Who owns the news consumer: Social media platforms or publishers?

Columbia Journalism Review.

Bell E. (2014) Silicon Valley and Journalism: Make up or Break up? Presented at the Reuters Memorial Lecture 2015, Reuters Institute for the Study of

Journalism.

Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dijck J van (2013) The culture of connectivity. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Evans, P.C., and A. Gawer. (2016) ‘The Rise of the Platform Enterprise: A Global Survey’. New Yok: The Center for Global Enterprise.

Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.

Gillespie T (2010) The politics of “platforms.” New Media Society 12(3): 347–364.

Gillespie T (Forthcoming) Governance of and by platforms. Forthcoming in SAGE Handbook of Social Media, edited by Jean Burgess, Thomas Poell, and Alice

Marwick.

Grewal, D. S. (2008) Network Power: The Social Dynamics of Globalization. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Latour, B. (1984) ‘The Powers of Association’. The Sociological Review 32 (S1): 264–280.

Newman N, Fletcher R, Levy DAL, and Nielsen RK (2016). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2016. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Pasquale F (2015) The Black Box Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Plantin J-C, Lagoze C, Edwards P N and Sandvig C (2016) Infrastructure studies meet platform studies in the age of Google and Facebook. New Media &

Society 00: 1-00.