Born in the Fire: What We Can Learn from How Digital Publishers in the Global South Approach Platforms

"Our findings capture how digital-born publishers reject the hype that sometimes surrounds the opportunities platforms offer..."

This report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, analyses how various digital publishers across a range of Global South countries approach digital platforms, including: big platform companies, such as Google and Meta; rapidly growing ones, such as TikTok; and smaller ones, such as Twitter and Telegram. Based on interviews with a strategic sample of 11 publishers in eight low- and middle-income countries with demonstrable track records of success, the report highlights key shared aspects of their approaches that can serve as inspiration for journalists and news media elsewhere. It looks at how they see platforms, how they approach them in their day-to-day work, and key aspects of their overall approach.

As explained in the report, the 11 publishers in this study range from established digital news media with decades of experience, a demonstrated track record of success, and three-figure headcounts to newer entrants with half a dozen journalists. They are: 070 Cerosetenta in Colombia; Animal Político in Mexico; Daily Maverick in South Africa; La Silla Vacía in Colombia; Magdalene in Indonesia; Malaysiakini in Malaysia; Ojo Público in Peru; Scroll in India; Stears Business in Nigeria; The Outlier in South Africa; and The Quint in India.

In the first section, the report outlines the research methodology and the characteristics and working contexts of the media outlets participating in the study. The second section explores how the interviewees see the different platforms they work with. The third section examines how they use different platforms for different purposes, and the final section presents the lessons media outlets say they have learned along the way.

The report shows that the interviewees generally see platform companies through the lens of what the Reuters Institute terms "platform realism", based on five shared tenets, with platforms generally seen as:

• integral and inescapable parts of the digital media environment;
• self-interested, powerful for-profit actors;
• amorphous, ever-changing, and opaque in their operations;
• in most cases not particularly interested in news (compared to other content); and
• less engaged in smaller and/or economically poorer markets far from their corporate headquarters.

In terms of how they use platform tech companies, the research shows that each of the publishers interviewed has its own editorial mission and funding model and operates in a different context. These missions and models, as well as their contexts, inform different choices about how they engage with platform opportunities and manage the accompanying platform risks. Beyond frequent use of search engines, social media, and other platforms in reporting, the research shows that the digital publishers use platforms in five main ways, for: (a) distribution, (b) marketing, (c) monetisation, (d) back-end operations including analytics, and (e) audience engagement and community building. Each of these ways is discussed in some detail. The research shows that with limited resources, both in terms of money and access to tech developers, most publishers engage in "platform bricolage" as they pick and choose which platform products and services are worth integrating into the stack of other tools and technologies, whether off-the-shelf or bespoke, that they rely on to do their job. At the same time, they remain very aware that platform products and services are tied to the strategic and commercial interests of the companies that provide them and are liable to change with little or no notice.

In the discussion on what digital publishers have learned from working with platforms, the report highlights some common guiding principles that cut across different editorial priorities, funding models, and tactical choices. These commonalities around how publishers approach platforms can be summarised as "platform pragmatism" and are based on five broadly shared components, which are outlined in the final section of the report:

• clarity about editorial mission, funding model, and audience;
• adaptability to a constantly changing environment and transient platforms;
• selective and diverse investments in platforms to pursue key platform opportunities while hedging against platform risk;
• proactive relations to identify useful contacts inside platform companies; and
• constant monitoring of the editorial and financial return on investment in platforms.

Overall, the report explains that the digital publishers in this study "expect nothing from them, know the risks involved, and seize the opportunities they see. From their point of view, as one publisher says, 'platforms are not friends, and they are not enemies', they are integral parts of the digital media environment, self-interested, powerful for-profit actors that represent opportunities and risks that our interviewees navigate on the basis of their own editorial ideals and organisational interests."

The report concludes with a list of take-away quotes from interviewees reflecting specific key learnings they want to share with others.