Abstract | In the repressive political climate prevailing in Egypt in 2013-15, news ventures aspiring to high standards of reporting were forced to innovate in their business models and management techniques in order to underpin ethical journalistic practice that served the public need for information. This chapter explores the interactions between media business innovation and sustainable journalism by analyzing how a number of Egyptian start-ups experimented with novel revenue streams and news services during that period. In the process it compares different criteria for assessing sustainability and concludes that, under political repression, narrow economic measures of media profitability and survival may give a misleading picture as to the sustainability of the kind of journalism conducive to democratic practice. Operating collaboratively, transparently and ethically may slow productivity and profitability in the short term while laying stronger foundations for durable relations among media teams, as well as with readers and advertisers, in the long run. |
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