Revenue logic means a media corporation’s way to create profits and thus to fund its functions.

The revenue logic of media corporations has traditionally been based on dual markets: a newspaper or another journalistic product is sold to the consumers and the subscribing/paying audience is sold to the advertisers. This means convincing the advertisers of all the potential people who could see or hear the advert.

The digital revolution has had an impact on the revenue logic of media. Some advertising has moved to the websites of newspaper corporations. Online advertising is often more affordable than traditional newspaper advertising, which means that the total profits of newspaper corporations have fallen. Some corporations also use a bigger share of their advertising budget to market their products directly to their customers through their own websites and social media channels.

The self-evident downside of the digital revolution for media houses is that people are less willing to pay for journalism, as all sorts of sources of information can be found online for free. The challenge of this trend is of course that not all free internet sources follow the same principles of truthfulness, impartiality and responsibility as the professional media channels do. The adverse consequences of this trend can then be witnessed in the popularity of some fake news, counter media sites and blatant propaganda channels.

The self-evident downside of the digital revolution for media houses is that people are less willing to pay for journalism, as all sorts of sources of information can be found online for free.

Media companies are now trying to find ways to build new, digital-revenue models through which to maintain their trade. An example of these is the use of paywalls that restrict the access of users not logged in as subscribers to some or all of the content on a website.