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Transcription

Rrapo Zguri
The online media
in Albania
This publication was realized with the support of the
Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).
Rrapo Zguri
THE ONLINE MEDIA IN ALBANIA
Coworkers:
Erion Habilaj
Matilda Alku
Rr “Gjin Bue Shpata”, Nr. 8, Tiranë
TelFax: ++355 4 2229800
E-mail: [email protected]
www.institutemedia.org
2
Table of Contents
Object and Methodology ........................................................................................6
A few words on internet penetration in Albania .........................................9
The approach of traditional media on the web .........................................14
Individual websites or “digital native media” ...........................................18
Elements and traits of the Albanian online media ....................................21
General profile and types of publications ................................................21
The production of online content ................................................................22
The speed in reporting and publishing breaking news ......................24
The audience and the role of social media ..............................................25
Interactivity and readers feedback ...........................................................26
The online media and citizen journalism ................................................28
News on cell phones .........................................................................................28
Registration, design and archiving ............................................................29
Human resources and the economics
of the online media in Albania ...........................................................................31
Profile of Albanian online media ..................................................................... 39
Summary .................................................................................................................... 60
Bibliography................................................................................................................62
3
4
T
he Internet and the World Wide Web have ushered in historic
developments in the field of information and communication. Like
no other media, they have multiplied by thousands of times the
expanse and the fund of information at our disposal, as well as the ways,
means and techniques of collecting, processing and disseminating this
information.
“A fiber the size of a human hair can deliver every issue ever made of the
Wall Street Journal in less than one second,”1 says Nicholas Negroponte,
in his 1995 book Being Digital.
Even though in its genesis the internet started life as a conspiracy-like
secret project in “military uniform,” it would very soon be delivered to the
public at large as a medium with extraordinary capacities and capabilities
on collecting, processing and disseminating mass information. By getting
involved and operating in the field of information, this new medium
would set in motion and stir up all the traditional media that operated
in this field, which besides a certain perception of threat, identified,
some sooner others later, a new field of operations for their activity and
survival.
Jim Hall, a scholar of the new media, points out that: “The news media
were the third global professional sector, after the military complex
and higher education and research, to go online.”2 In Albania, the first
institutions that managed to enter and explore the cybernetic space were
scientific and academic institutions, such as the Informatics Department
and Applied Mathematics of the University of Tirana, the INIMA institute,
etc. On the other hand the news media, in general, would get online
only after the birth of the first ISPs (Internet Service Provider), which
facilitated the access to the internet to the wider public.
1. Negroponte, Nicholas, Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995
2. Hall, Jim, Online journalism: a critical primer. London: Pluto Press, 2001, p. 3
5
Object and Methodology
T
he object of this research study are the online media operating in
Albania, and it should be first clarified that the term “online media”
refers, for the purpose of this study, to “online news media”, while
the phrase “Albanian media” that is often used in this study is used to
identify media that operate within the territory of Albania, and not in the
meaning of media written in Albanian.
The scope of this study is the portrayal, as completely as possible, of the
history and the development of online media in Albania up to the present,
by identifying approaches, specific developments and characteristics
in comparison with global model characteristics, formats and models
of publications. We also need to assess the extent and the efficiency in
the application of techniques and capacities of the web practices and
genuine cyber-media developments, the level of interactivity, the speed
in transmitting of the information, the managing strategy and business
models they have pursued and the individual profile each have established.
In order to explore tendencies, characteristics and specific traits of
Albanian online journalism, some research-study methods have been
used, such as: empirical research, comparative analysis, and interviews
by questionnaire.
The empirical research has been carried out through a monitoring of
Albanian online media to identify specific developments in the Albanian
web journalism. The period of monitoring extended from April 1, 2014
to July 1, 2014. The object of the monitoring and research were 45 most
visited news websites, which were listed among the 300 most visited
sites, according to an overall ranking for Albania presented from the
statistical search engine Alexa, published on March 23, 2014.
6
A considerable amount of quantitative and qualitative data has been
amassed from questionnaire-interviews organised by the Albanian
Media Institute during the period of March-April 2014 with managers
or representatives of 39 of these Albanian online media. These were
the criteria in selecting the media to be interviewed: 1. The ranking of
the interviewed website in the top-list of most-clicked news websites in
Albania. 2. A proportional representation between online media that are
offshoots of traditional media and “digital native media.” 3. A proportional
representation between different kinds of online publications.
The following table represents a ranking of Albanian news websites,
as published on March 23, 2014 by Alexa search engine.3
Online media
top-channel.tv
balkanweb.com
shekulli.com.al
ikub.al
gazetatema.net
panorama.com.al
shqiptarja.com
noa.al
albeu.com
lajmifundit.al
gazetadita.al
oranews.tv
gazeta-shqip.com
mapo.al
gazetaidea.com
abcnews.al
sot.com.al
ata.gov.al
anabel.al
kohajone.com
Ranking among the 45 most
visited news websites
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
3. www.alexa.com, accessed on March 23, 2014.
7
Alexa general ranking
for Albania
2
11
13
14
15
18
20
21
23
28
29
32
33
40
41
51
55
57
61
68
respublica.al
lajmepolitike.com
panorama-sport.com
tvklan.al
dielli.al
opozita.com
albanianscreen.tv
sportekspres.com
vizionplus.al
sportishqiptar.com.al
a1report.tv
grid.al
shqiperia.com
gazetatelegraf.com
living.al
gazetastart.com
peshkupauje.com
scan-tv.com
ama-news.al
bota.al
ladyalbania.al
gazetarepublika.al
monitor.al
channel-one.al
tiranaobserver.al
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
69
71
72
77
81
89
91
94
97
104
108
110
117
126
130
140
149
159
166
180
185
188
255
263
286
Six out of the 45 monitored websites, namely: noa.al, mapo.al, anabel.
al, opozita.com, grid.al and bota.al were left out of the questionnaireinterviews because of failure to contact them despite several tries or lack
of cooperating will from the managers of these media.
Both, the empirical research and the comparative analysis have
focused on three main areas of interest: identification of the data,
characteristics, practices and developments, the comparing of data,
characteristics, practices and developments, and their contextual
evaluation and interpretation, with an aim at coming up with conclusions
and recommendations that would help online media operators improve
their work to meet future challenges with success.
8
A few words on internet penetration in Albania
T
he resounding success of internet and the World Wide Web in the
early 90s amplified the interest of Albanian academic institutions
to be connected with the global information network. The
first connection to the internet in Albania was established from the
department of Informatics of the University of Tirana in 1993, through
a dial-up connection with EARN centre in Pisa, Italy4. The connection
functioned only for a few months due to technical problems with the lines
and lack of investments.
The offer of internet as a service opened to the public was made
possible for the first time from UNDP in 1995 through a server installed
at their Tirana headquarters.5 This service was offered for free mainly to
civil society organizations, NGOs, and state institutions. The same thing
was done two years later, in 1997, by the Soros foundation, by offering
internet services not only to civil society organizations but also to media
operators.
In the meantime, in 1998, the first private ISP was established: ICC
(Intellectual Communications Centre).6 Soon after three other ISPs,
namely ADA-Net, AbissNet and ABCom entered the market. It is worth
noting that two out of the first four ISP were established by companies that
owned media organizations, such as the case of AbissNet, whose owner
4. Albania’s representative speech at the ITU conference (International Telecommunication
Union) in Moscow, 2001. Link: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/__e-strategy/internet/Seminars/
Moscow/Docs/Albania%20TRA%20note.pdf, Accessed on 06.06.2014
5. Compendium, Cultural policies and trends in Europe, Albania, Link: http://www.
culturalpolicies.net/web/albania.php?aid=423 , Accessed 12.04.2014
6. Albanian representative speech at the ITU conference (International Telecommunication
Union) in Moscow, 2001. Link: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/__e-strategy/internet/Seminars/
Moscow/Docs/Albania%20TRA%20note.pdf , Accessed on 06.06.2014
9
also controlled Shekulli daily newspaper, or the case of ADA-Net which
owned the media group Klan. This goes to show that media operators
were among the first organizations to show any interest to introduce the
internet as a commodity.
In 1998 the parliament approved the law “On telecommunications
in the Republic of Albania.” In that same year the Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission (ERT) was founded and it established an
institutional base for further developments in this field and prepared
the ground for strategic privatizations and granting of new licenses for
internet, telecom and cellular telephony.7
After the year 2000 the internet started to be accessible to the
general public, thanks to the expansion of services of ISPs to Albanian
households and the creation of some private providers of services called
“Internet cafe”. The pace of internet expansion was slow however,
because of the hefty prices being applied. For example, at the beginning
of 2000s, ALBtelecom offered internet services with a preliminary cost of
installation that amounted to USD 500 (before taxes) while the monthly
pay amounted to USD 400 (before taxes) for a 64 kbps internet connection
and USD 6,000 a month (before taxes) for a 2 Mbps internet connection.8
The real growth and the massive use of internet in Albania commenced
especially after the privatization of Albtelecom in 2007, which brought
about a liberalization of the market and a reduction of prices for the
internet service offered.
The increase of the number of internet users in Albania has progressed
alongside other indicators that relate to the advance and spread of
information and communication technology for the public. Each year
ITU (International Telecommunication Union), publishes a ranking of
countries based on the IDI coefficient (ICT Development Index), which
takes into account many indicators such as: the number of computers,
number of cell phones, internet accessibility, etc. As shown in the
following table, by the end of 2012 Albania was ranked 80th among 157
countries in the world with an IDI coefficient of 4.11, while the world
average stood at 4.35, and Europe’s was 6.8.9
7. Tartari, Alban, Internet in Albania and its use by the media –history and the present, Studime
Albanologjike, Issue 5 “History of the media and mediatization of history”, Tirana 2012
8. Same reference.
9. International Telecommunication Union, Measuring Information Society, 2013
10
countries in the world with an IDI coefficient of 4.11, while the world average stood at 4.35, and
Europe’s was 6.8. 9
Albania’s ranking according to IDI coefficient for 2011 and 2012
indicators such as: the number of computers, number of cell phones, internet accessibility, etc.
As shown in the following table, by the end of 2012 Albania was ranked 80th among 157
countries in the world with an IDI coefficient of 4.11, while the world average stood at 4.35, and
Europe’s was 6.8. 9
Source:
ITU,
Measuring
Information
Society,
Source:
ITU,
Measuring
Information
Society,
2013 2013
Albania was ranked last among European countries, as can be seen in the following chart
Ranking in Europe and a graphic comparison with the global average
Source: ITU, Measuring Information Society, 2013
Albania was ranked last among European countries, as can be seen in
the following
Albania waschart:
ranked last among European countries, as can be seen in the following chart:
Ranking
in Europe
a graphic
comparison
with
the average
global average
Ranking
in Europe
andand
a graphic
comparison
with the
global
Individual
indicators
for the Society,
IDI coefficient
Source:
ITU, Measuring
Information
2013 on Albania are shown in detail in the
following chart:
Individual indicators for the IDI coefficient on Albania are shown in detail in the
Individual
following
chart: indicators for the IDI coefficient on Albania are shown in
detail in the following chart:
9
International Telecommunication Union, Measuring Information Society, 2013
9
International Telecommunication Union, Measuring Information Society, 2013
11
Detailed
forthe
theIDI
IDIcoefficient
coefficient
Albania,
– 2012
Detailedindicators
indicators for
on on
Albania,
20112011
– 2012
Source:ITU,
ITU,
Measuring
Information
Burimi:
Measuring
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Society,Society,
2013 2013
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Grafika e rritjes së numrit të përdoruesve të internetit në Shqipëri
Burimi: ITU, Measuring Information Society, 2013
Source:ITU,
ITU,Measuring
MeasuringInformation
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2013
Source:
Society,
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12
The number of ISPs has increased considerably, with as many as
116 operating in 2012.10 According to ITU, the number of Albanians
with access to internet has increased from 15 % in 2007, to 55% of the
population by the end of 2012. At the same time, broadband internet
penetration increased from 17% in 2011, to 21% in 2012.11 Cell phone
companies Vodafone, AMC, and Eagle have had a significant impact on the
accessibility and the increase in the use of broadband internet, as they
offered, soon after 2010, the 3G technology for over 90% of their clients.
However, a report of AKEP (Postal and Electronic Communications
Authority) showed that the number of clients with broadband internet
access in land-line and cell phones (3G with smart cards, USB/modem)
stood at 210,000 by the end of first semester of 2013, as compared to
some 215,000 by the end of 2012, with a slide of near 3%.
The number of clients with broadband access in landline telephone
networks at the end of the first semester of 2013 reached 168,000, an
increase of 5% as compared to the end of 2012 and 20% when compared
to 2011. In the meantime the number of clients with cellular broadband
access (3G with smart cards USB/modem for use in computers) by the
end of the first six months of 2013 amounted to some 42,000, as opposed
to 55,000 at the end of 2012, with a reduction of 31%.12
The surge in the number of internet users in the last decade has
affected the development of the online media. In general we can identify
two main categories of online media in Albania. In the first group are
listed the websites of traditional media (print, radio, television), while
the second group gathers independent individual websites, otherwise
known as “digital native media”, which are original web creations that
have no relations with any traditional media. But, what kind of approach
has each of these two media groups used to establish itself on the internet
and what is their online profile?
10. International Telecommunication Union, Strategies for the promotion of broadband
services and infrastructure: a case study on Albania, September 2012.
11. International Telecommunication Union, Measuring Information Society, 2013
12. AKEP, Statistical indicators in the electronic communications market, the first semester
2013, http://www.akep.al/images/stories/AKEP/statistika/TREGUESIT-STATISTIKORE_6-MUJORI-I-2013.pdf
13
The approach of traditional media on the web
A
s it was mentioned earlier the traditional media were the first
to get involved with the web. In their midst, the first to get
online and start their websites were the newspapers. There
were several reasons for this: First, considering they are media based
mainly on text, they didn’t have any major technical difficulties to
continue publishing their information on the web. While TV and radio,
by comparison found it more difficult, for in its beginnings internet
had huge problems with opening and streaming of videos and audio
files and their quality.
Second, print media organisations didn’t need much time to realise
that they were threatened the most from the web, as the new medium
possessed extraordinary capabilities and capacities of collecting,
disseminating and publishing of the information, by doing this much
faster than the newspapers that in general were printed once in 24 hours.
For this reason, because they felt more threatened, newspapers rushed to
establish a shelter on the web, with the reasoning that ignoring the new
medium was not the best idea. Rather on the contrary, taking it under
consideration and using it to keep in touch with the audience through the
web, it could also prepare the conditions for survival.
Alongside the newspapers (in some cases sooner) among the first
to anchor on the web were the news agencies. But, by comparison to
the print, it was easier for them to adapt to the internet environment,
because, to some extent, their existence and work practice up to
that moment was based on wire reporting. Apparently this was the
reason why the first Albanian media to go online was ATSH (Albanian
Telegraphic Agency). In 1996, at a time when there were no ISPs in
the country as yet, the agency offered for the first time internationally
14
online news on Albania, thanks to cooperation with TelPress in Italy
and HR-Net in Greece.13
Amongst the newspapers and magazines, the first ones to create their
online websites were Shekulli, Koha Jonë, Gazeta Shqiptare newspapers
and Klan magazine, all of them in the span of one year, from January to
December 1999. In February 2000, Carlo Bollino, the manager of daily
Gazeta Shqiptare, established the first Albanian portal of online news with
the name BalkanWeb. This website was special, as it was conceived as an
authentic web-based media, that had no direct link with any traditional
media and would have its own staff and would produce its own stories
to complement the information and stories it would carry from the other
media outlets of its mother organization.
The first TV stations to open their websites were Top Channel and
Vizion Plus, both in 2001. On the other hand, radios would go online
several years later, but their websites have not yet managed to attract
enough clicks. For this reason, the list of the monitored websites in this
study does not include any radio website, as not a single one is included in
the top 300 most visited Albanian websites according to Alexa statistical
search engine.
In their approach to the web the traditional media have followed
different paths and models, and this can be seen in other countries as well,
not only in Albania. Regardless of these different paths taken, scholars
(such as John Pavlik in 2001, Pablo Boczkowski in 2004) distinguish
three phases of evolution in this approach:
In the first phase, the traditional media have used just a transfer online
of their content produced for their traditional format – newspapers for
print, and television stations for TV screens. This kind of approach is also
called the “copy-paste” model, because the website publishes only stories
and materials produced for the print edition or the programming of the
mother media organisation. This approach totally ignores the specifics
and capacities of the web. They don’t take advantage of the immediacy
of the web to publish early any breaking news, as the content is updated
every 24 hours. No use is made of the interactivity of the new medium.
There are no hypertext links in the text and no advantage is taken of its
capabilities to enrich the published information with context. Also there
is no multimedia to speak of.
13. Tartari, Alban, Internet in Albania and its use by the media –history and the present, Studime
Albanologjike, Issue 5 “History of the media and mediatisation of history”, Tirana 2012
15
It must be said that most of the Albanian traditional media have used
this model for several years in the beginning of their online presence.
The websites of daily newspapers Shekulli, Koha Jonë, Gazeta Shqiptare
and at a later stage Korrieri, Panorama, but also other newspapers in
the market before 2000 or those published after 2000, during this phase
carried online only stories and materials published in print. The updating
of stories was done only once in 24 hours, without any possibility to
report properly or update breaking news stories.
With the passing of time, made aware that this way of doing things
had nothing to do with the online environment, most of the websites of
newspapers, radio and TV would enter a second phase which took more
into consideration the specifics of the web and makes the approach of the
online media more dynamic.
In this second phase, news websites, alongside news content from
the traditional media, start to produce original content for the web.
The information is updated from several times a day, to once every 10
minutes. More human resources are hired to work exclusively for the
online edition and there is more ambition and effort in chasing and
publishing breaking stories in real time, more options are included in the
website with increased interactivity and multimedia, added context, etc.
Slowly, the nucleus of the online newsroom starts to grow and to
establish a certain degree of independence from the mother newsroom
in the editorial decision-making and the content being published. It must
be said, that most traditional media websites are presently in this stage
or are heading towards a transition to a third stage, which is the preferred
station of all the media that aspire to a long-lasting future online.
In this third stage the website functions as a unit apart in human
resources, management and the published content. All the published
material is original product of the web and for the web. Stories that are
written for the print version, in the case of newspapers, are either offered
in the PDF version, or are not accessible from the website at all, with an
aim at directing readers to keep buying the newspaper.
In other cases there is a tendency to stop publishing the print version
altogether, and to go on publishing only the web version, as is the case
of Republika newspaper. This third phase is still in its infancy, and some
renowned media in Albania aim to adopt this model, however it seems it
will take some more time for the website to function independently from
the mother media and be a business entity on its own. In this stage specific
features and capacities of the web start to find a wider use, even though
16
in general we are still a long way from the full use of these capacities.
Some of the questions in the questionnaire-interviews carried out by
the Albanian Media Institute, circle around these approaches and the
answers to these questions offer an overview of present practices acted
upon from each website of the traditional media; later in this report we
websajte të kanaleve
websajte të agjensive të
will discuss in detail elements of this
overview when we’ll present the
të TV
lajmeve
zetash
websajte të revistave
websajte origjinale
profiles
of
all
the
monitored
media.
15
9
1
1
1 1 1
However, it must be said that regardless of the applied approach, the
websites of traditional media continue to remain the most important
and sought-after sources of information for the online audience. This is
9
pointed out also by the fact that out of 45 monitored websites (also the
most visited websites) 27 are websites of traditional media and 18 are
individual websites.
As the following chart shows, 15 out of 27 websites of traditional
media are newspaper websites, nine of them are TV station websites, one
is a magazine website, one is a news agency website (ATSH), and one is
an original website established by a traditional media company but not
an offshoot of a pre-existing media (BalkanWeb).
1 1
1
websites
ebsites TV channel websites
ebsites magazine
i websites
b it
15
9
ajmesh
1
9
ne s agency
news
agenc websites
ebsites
1
15
newspaper
p p websites
original
i i l websites
b it
TV channel
websites
1
1
magazine websites
news agency websites
original websites
websajte lajmesh
4
webzine
3
blogje lajmesh
2
agjensi lajmesh online
2
3
17
Individual websites or “digital native media”
A
longside the establishment of news websites from traditional media
companies, many experienced and inexperienced individuals in
the field of journalism joined the online news market, started their
news websites, by becoming part of the Albanian online media ecosystem.
These are websites that were born solely for the web, and for this reason
they are often called “digital native media”. Four of these individual
websites are among the top ten most visited websites from the Albanian
online audience, namely: ikub.al, noa.al, albeu.com and lajmifundit.al.
The following table shows a list of the most visited individual websites
and their ranking according to data collected from the statistical search
engine Alexa, published on March 23, 2014.
A list of most visited individual websites and their ranking
Media online
ikub.al
noa.al
albeu.com
lajmifundit.al
gazetaidea.com
anabel.al
respublica.al
lajmepolitike.com
dielli.al
opozita.com
Ranking of 45 most visited
news websites
4
8
9
10
15
18
20
21
24
25
18
Alexa general ranking
for Albania
14
21
23
28
41
61
69
71
81
89
grid.al
31110
shqiperia.com33 117
living.al 35130
gazetastart.com36
140
peshkupauje.com37
149
ama-news.al39 166
bota.al
40180
ladyalbania.al41 185
Source: Alexa.com, accessed March 23, 2014
The fact that 18 out of 45 most visited news websites in Albania are
individual websites shows that this group of online media plays a very
important role in the online media ecosystem and provides an important
contribution in keeping the internet audience informed.
Individual websites in this list are wide-ranging when it comes to
the kind of publication and the kind of information they publish. As it
is shown in the following table, out of a total of 18 monitored individual
websites, seven of them are news portals; four are news websites, three
webzines (online magazines), 2 news blogging sites and two online news
agencies.
The profile of individual websites and the number for each kind
2
news portals
2
7
online news agencies
2
news websites
webzines
bi
news blogs
3
4
20
18
16
14
12
10
Individual websites also represent interesting business models for
online media, as the most successful of them aside from a growing public
19 have growing revenues, as shown from the monitoring or interviews
also
with their managers. In this context, the case of IKUB.al deserves special
attention for the
13model it offers. The website is a combination of useful
19
8
6
4
No answer
3
2
2
information of the “buy-sell” kind and e-commerce with journalism and
news, by functioning according to a model known as “news supermarket,”
where alongside the latest news they offer services or goods, marketing
or personalised PR, etc. It is not a coincidence that this online media has
more sales and marketing people (five people) than journalists (four) in
its staff, as a confirmation that the offering of the news is only part of the
general multifaceted package offered by this portal. 14
In most cases, individual websites have started as one-person
operations or with a staff of two-three people without any external
financial support. But with the passing of time, they have managed to
accumulate revenues, they have hired more people and they have managed
to have more visitors than the majority of traditional media (such is the
case of IKUB.al, noa.al, albeu.com, lajmifundit.al, gazetaidea.com, etc.).
When it comes to the web approach, individual websites, being
“digital born media”, are closer to the model of authentic online media.
They don’t have close ties to any traditional media and the content they
generate is totally web-related. Depending on the human resources at
their disposal, they update the content quite often or in moderation and
are always timely when it comes to report on day’s main events. In the
most successful models, the speed with which they report on the latest
events is quite high, there are a lot of interactivity options and there are
here-and-there elements of multimedia or the use of hypertext.
In general, individual websites use quite successfully online marketing
channels such as social media, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube to increase
visitor traffic to their homepage or individual pages and that in part
explains their high number of visitors, even though they mostly carry
stories, articles, comments or editorials published first by other websites.
Some of the individual websites are continuously contested and accused
of running these stories often without respecting intellectual property
rights and without permission for the use of written materials, videos or
other items taken from other online media.
14. The data have been collected from a questionnaire-interview with Albert Tollkuci,
website manager, on 15.04.2014. He was interviewed by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the
Albanian Media Institute.
20
Elements and traits of the Albanian online media
T
he cycle of questionnaire-interviews with managers or
representatives of online media, organised by the Albanian Media
Institute, provide a wide range of data relating to the traits, profiles,
specific elements and other aspects of the functioning of Albanian online
media.
General profile and types of publications
One of the initial conclusions deriving from these interviews relating
to their general profile is that most Albanian news websites are of a
general interest nature.
Profiles of Albanian online media
General
interest
31
Targeted audience
Sports
Economy
Lifestyle
3
2
2
Politics
1
So, out of 39 interviewed media, 31 of them declare they are general
interest publications and only eight of them have specialised to target a
specific audience. As many as three of them specialise in covering sports,
two specialise in business reporting, two media sites report on VIPs,
celebrities and lifestyle and one covers politics.
To some extent this does not match with the forecasts and the prognosis
of online media scholars which foresee a tendency towards specialinterest publications and towards hyper-local and hyper-topical news
when it comes to the web journalism. This predominance of the general
interest model in Albania’s case, but not only here, can be explained also
21
with the influence the traditional media profile has on the creation of
the profile of the new media. This is evident, among other things, in the
naming of categories or website sections: politics, sports, art and culture,
lifestyle, crime and courts, business and economy, world news, etc.
The Albanian media are also diverse and multifaceted from the point of
view of the kind of publication they represent. In general, the dominant
model is the “news websites” format, followed by the “news portal”, and
the “online news agency” format; but there are also webzines and news
blogging sites.
However, if one analyses these formats, as stated from the managers of
these online media, according to professional models and criteria, one can
notice that some of the portals list more towards news websites and viceversa, while some news websites are considered online news agencies.
This goes to show that the terminology connected with the models and
formats of online publications is still unclear and evasive.
The production of online content
Regarding the online media product, its contributors and its
authenticity, the interviews provide data that create an overview of the
methods used to produce the news information and the actors involved.
Here are the alternatives selected from the interviewees on the following
question:
The content published on your website …
A
It is entirely produced by the staff of your online media
5
B
It is partly produced by the staff of your online media and
some of it is created by the staff of the partner
20
traditional media
C
It is partly produced by the staff of your online media
and some of it is carried over from other online media
12
D
It is entirely produced by the staff of traditional media
4
A closer look at the selected alternatives reveals that alternatives A
and C have been selected mainly from the managers of individual media,
while answers B and D have been selected from the managers of websites
of traditional media. Three of the latter have also opted for alternative C.
A detailed analysis of these answers leads to these conclusions:
22
1 – Only five out of 14 individual online media that were interviewed
produce all their content from their own staff, while the other
nine publish original work from their staff but also carry some
items from other online media. As it was mentioned earlier, the
problem in this case remains respecting of intellectual property
rights, because often the publication of stories or video footage
taken from other websites is done without authorisation and
sometimes they don’t even mention the source.
2 – From a total of 25 traditional media, four of them have no staff for
the web and everything they publish online has been created by
the staff of the traditional media, so they publish only the works
produced for the print or TV, a continuation of the early “copypaste” stage. The rest, the remaining 21 other media, declare that
the content of their media is produced in part from the web staff
and in part from the staff of the traditional medium/media of the
mother company. Furthermore, in three cases they also publish
materials from other online media.
Even the most visited websites, such as top-channel.tv or balkanweb.
com, a good portion of the materials they publish has been produced for
the traditional media owned by the mother company and then carried
over on the website. So, most of the shots and videos on BalkanWeb, are
footage or excerpts taken from shows or stories from TV station News24,
even though the site they are re-published is called BalkanWebTV. Also,
on top-channel.tv, most of the video shots are excerpts of shows from TV
station Top Channel. Of course, this also happens with websites of many
prestigious TV stations in the world, however it must be said that this
format resembles a lot to the “copy-paste” model of the early stage of
online media, as we are dealing with a simple transfer of the material
from a TV screen into a computer’s, without taking into consideration the
specific characteristics of the web.
The monitoring of the online media shows that the journalists or the
editors of the websites are primarily occupied with following the latest
developments of breaking news or day’s main events. However, this
monitoring of events is done from the newsroom.
Only eight online media have or may deploy reporters in the field to
closely monitor events, as is revealed from the answers to the question
“Your news website, does it have reporters in the field?” Questionnaireinterviews results show that 31 other media have no reporters in the
field. This lack of presence in the field is compensated with information
23
they may retrieve from the odd source at the scene or from colleagues of
traditional media that work as reporters.
So, in conclusion we may say that, despite the fact that 35 of the 39
online media we interviewed have human resources that work exclusively
for the web, the contribution of these human resources on the online
content is scarce and a good portion of the published material has been
produced by the colleagues of the traditional medium/media, or is taken
from other online media. This state of things shows that the Albanian
online media still don’t have the capacities or resources to function as
independent media entities, and it will take some time to reach the ideal
model of a media that produces itself everything it publishes.
8
disa herë në ditë
The speed in reporting and publishing breaking news
1
çdo 1 orë
minuta
2
An important indicator of the functioning of the online media is the
çdo 30 minuta
çdo 1 orë a herë në ditë
reporting44 and publishing
of breaking
stories. Scholars
1
8
value the element of performing instantaneously as one of the genuine
4
characteristics
of web journalism. The data collected from the
çdo 20 minuta
interviewees during the course of interviews from the Albanian Media
çdo 10 minuta
Institute
represent an optimistic picture in this field, as shown22in this
table:
çdo 20 minuta
swiftness
çdo430 minutaof
0
5
10
15
20
25
At an approximate average your website is updated (publishes a story or fresh
information)…
8
several times a day
minutes
ak
every 1 hour
1 every 1 hour
several times a day
1
8
every 30 minutes
i
4
every 20 minutes
4
every 10 minutes
22
0
5
10
15
20
25
The interviews show that the number of the media publishing a story
or fresh updates every 10 minutes, according to the interviewees, is 22,
a considerable number. But, a monitoring carried out by the author of
these lines of these 22 media over the period of a week (April 12, 2014
Disi
16
Shumë
22
24
– April 18, 2014) showed that at least eight of these media updated their
information in average once every 30 minutes or less often. In this case
statements of interviewees may be interpreted as wishful thinking or
aspirations of standards on their part, as yet not achieved, or may refer to
the best moments of their media’s work.
The audience and the role of social media
In relation to the audience of the Albanian online media, the local
trend matches the global trend: this audience increases year after year.
This is also confirmed by the managers or the representatives of online
media interviewed through questionnaire-interviews. Thus, when asked
on the number of visitors to the site for the year 2013, as compared to the
year 2012, as many as 38 of the interviewees answered “is growing”, and
only one answered “is dropping”.
Also, a comparative study for the four most visited news websites
carried out by the author of these lines by referring to the data coming
from www.trafficestimate.com proves that this increase is a common
denominator for the audience of Albanian online media...
Number of visits in one month. Comparison of 2013 and 2014.
Total number of visits in one month
Website
www.top-channel.tv
www.balkanweb.com
www.gazetatema.net
www.shekulli.com.al
January 15, 2013 –
February 15, 2013
2 098 700
1 736 500
1 278 100
1 173 400
January 15, 2014 –
February 15, 2014
2 413 600
2 103 500
1 554 100
1 546 200
Source: www.trafficestimate.com
By emulating the best global practices, the Albanian online media are
more and more appreciative of the role of the social media as an important
conduit to increase their audience, through an increase of referral traffic
streaming from these media. All the media that were interviewed say
they have their official accounts in Facebook and Twitter, and some have
accounts on other social media such as YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn or
Flickr. During the interviews we asked: “How helpful have social media
been in increasing the number of visitors to your website?” and the
25
1
Pak
0
Aspak
answers show that in most of these media the effect of the social media
has been great,
as shown
from the
following15chart:
0
5
10
20
25
How helpful have social media been in increasing the number of visitors to
your website?
22
A lot
16
Somehow
1
A little
0
Not at all
0
5
10
15
20
25
Interactivity and readers feedback
Social media are being used for their ability to “share,” “like,” or
“follow” websites, stories or different authors. A monitoring shows that
most news websites have included these options in their homepage or
for individual stories or video footage, by establishing opportunities to
have interaction from their audience or with their audience. Besides
these elements, they also have “share” options through email. They
also offer other interaction opportunities with a comment a visitor may
submit at the end of a story or a video footage, offering of channels of
communication with the news desk or the authors through email, chat,
or through Skype or Hangouts and lately even through Viber, WhatsApp,
or through other channels of cellular telephony.
The availability of so many options and channels of interactions
from the audience have increased the intensity of feedback. This is also
revealed from the answers of the interviewed on the question relating to
feedback from readers.
26
m readers
ga lexuesit
4
The feedback from readers, sent to the online news desk (reporters, editors and
other online staff) is:
20
19
18
16
13
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
3
No answer
2
2
2
No feedback from
readers
No answer
0
Frequent
Occasional
Rare
So, 19 of the interviewees said they frequently receive feedbacks, 13
20
19
9
said
they receive some, three – very few, and only two said they don’t get
18
feedback.
Clearly, this situation can be explained with web’s capacities
16
13
to14 offer numerous chances
for interaction, reaction and feedback, by
12
contrast to traditional media where these capacities and capabilities
10
have
been very limited.
8
The use of the comment options from readers has caused a debate on
6
3 especially serious ethical problems
the4 managing of the websites, and the
2
2
2
that appear in this section of the news websites. Albanian online media
0 several methods in managing of the comments and their publishing.
use
Të shpeshta Të herë pas hershme
rralla
Nuk ka reagime nga
Pa përgjigje
Interviews
with the managers of theTëonline
media
shed light on
methods
lexuesit
usedPainpërgjigje
dealing with comments:
Regarding the publishing of comments do you apply …
A
immediate automatic publishing without moderating
5
B
immediate automatic publishing followed
by moderating12
C
publishing only after reading and approval
from moderator or editor18
D
we don’t have a comment section
4
As it can clearly be seen, methods and practices vary, but most of these
media apply editing and moderating of comments and only five media
don’t apply moderating, while four others don’t have a comment section.
However, it must be mentioned that despite of moderating, ethical
27
problems such as hate speech, verbal violence, personal attacks, insults
and name calling, etc. are present almost every day in most of Albanian
news websites.
Reasons for this situation are as follows:
- First, some of the newsrooms don’t have human resources
engaged exclusively to moderate comments.
- Second, most of the online newsrooms have not yet established
any code of ethics or self-regulating outlines for their website.
- Third, some are conscious in allowing this situation, by arguing
that these comments increase the number of visitors on the
website. But this argument does not stand, taking into account
the fact that the most visited news website from Albanians, topchannel.tv, has no comment section at all.
The online media and citizen journalism
The democratisation and the opening to the masses of the process
of gathering, producing and disseminating of the information has
augmented the contribution of citizens in this process, thus giving birth
of a special kind of journalism, that it is called “citizen journalism.” After
some kind of initial reluctance in legitimising this kind of journalism,
based on the argumentvizitorëve
thattëcitizen
journalists
do
meet
standards
ofi
websajtit. Por
ky argument i fundit
bie,not
po të kemi
parasysh
faktin se websajti
lajmeve
më
i
vizituar
nga
shqiptarët,
top-channel.tv,
nuk
ka
fare
hapësirë
për
koment.
professional journalism, some online media have changed their approach
and are creating some space devoted to citizens’ works and contributions
Mediat online dhe gazetaria e qytetarëve
on their websites,
Demokratizimi dhe masivizimi i procesit të mbledhjes, prodhimit dhe shpërndarjes së
Interviews on this matter
show
15 eofqytetarëve
the 39
Albanian
online
media
informacionit,
ka rriturthat
kontributin
në këtë
process, duke
sjellë lindjen
e njëlloj
gazetarie të veçantë që njihet me emrin “gazetaria e qytetarëve”. Pas njëfarë ngurrimi
have created some sections
for
works
submitted
by
citizen
journalists,
fillestar për ta legjitimuar këtë lloj gazetarie, duke u bazuar tek argumenti se gazetarët
qytetarë
and some of these works
arenuk
zotërojnë
accepted and published.
So, e
standardet
gazetarisë
for example, shqiptarja.com,
profesioniste
një pjesë e
has a separate section,mediave
titled
online kanë
“Raportoni ju”, (You report)
ndryshuar
where citizens are invited
topo krijojnë hapësirë për kontributet e qytetarëve brenda websajteve të tyre. Nga
qasje dhe
intervistat në këtë drejtim rezulton se 15 nga 39 media shqiptare online kanë krijuar
publish stories, photoshapësirë
or videos.
më vete për gazetarinë e qytetarëve ose pranojnë dhe botojnë here pas here
News on cell phones
kontribute që vijnë prej tyre. Kështu, për shembull, shqiptarja.com, ka një seksion më vete
që emërtohet “Raportoni ju”, (në foto) ku ftohen qytetarët që të publikojnë shkrimet, fotot
apo videot e tyre.
Lajmi përmes telefonisë celulare
After 2010, when the cell phone company Vodafone launched their 3G
Pas vitit 2010, kur kompania celulare Vodafone futi shërbimin 3G të internetit përmes
internet service through
cell phones which was followed soon after
celularëve dhe u ndoq më pas edhe nga AMC dhe Eagle, mediat online filluan të aksesohen
përmes
smartphone-ëve.
pse mungojnë
trendi i aksesimit
të lajmeve
from AMC and Eagle, edhe
the
online
mediaEdhe
started
tostatistikat,
be accessed
through
përmes
pajisjeve we don’t have data and statistics, the trend to
smartphones. Even though
mobile
sidomos për
grupmoshat
e reja është
tashmë
i
mirënjohur.
Për
t’iu
përgjigjur
këtyre zhvillimeve, mediat më të suksesshme kanë ofruar për lexuesit zgjidhje të ndryshme
28
ndryshuar
qasje dhe po krijojnë hapësirë për kontributet e qytetarëve brenda websajteve të tyre. Nga
intervistat në këtë drejtim rezulton se 15 nga 39 media shqiptare online kanë krijuar
hapësirë më vete për gazetarinë e qytetarëve ose pranojnë dhe botojnë here pas here
kontribute që vijnë prej tyre. Kështu, për shembull, shqiptarja.com, ka një seksion më vete
që emërtohet “Raportoni ju”, (në foto) ku ftohen qytetarët që të publikojnë shkrimet, fotot
apo videot e tyre.
access news through mobile phone devices, especially among young age
groups is well established and well-known.
Lajmi përmes telefonisë celulare
To meet these developments,
the most successful media have offered
Pas vitit 2010,
kur kompania solutions
celulare Vodafoneor
futi special
shërbimin 3Gapplications
të internetit përmes
their readers and visitors
different
celularëve dhe u ndoq më pas edhe nga AMC dhe Eagle, mediat online filluan të aksesohen
to comfortably access
website on
phone
a i tablet.
So,
edhetheir
përmes smartphone-ëve.
Edhe a
psecell
mungojnë
statistikat,or
trendi
aksesimit të lajmeve
përmes
balkanweb.com has created
pajisjeve
two apps, one for mobile
iPhone
sidomos për
and one for Android,grupmoshat
which
reja është
can be downloadedetashmë
fromi
mirënjohur.
App Store or from Google.
Për
t’iu
The same thing was done
përgjigjurby
këtyre zhvillimeve, mediat më të suksesshme kanë ofruar për lexuesit zgjidhje të ndryshme
top-channel.tv. Also, BalkanWeb
has created
version
their
site
apo aplikacione të posaçme
për aksesiminanother
komfort të websajtit
të tyreof
edhe
në celular
apo
në tablete.
Kështu
balkanweb.com
ka krijuar dy
apps-e,
një
për iPhone dhe
një për telefonat
with “responsive design”
for
those
who
prefer
a
web
browser
instead
of
mund tëjanë
shkarkohen
nga App prapa
Store apo nga
gjë ka bërë
hënë se shumica e mediave tëAndroid
tjeratë cilat
online
shumë
nëGoogle.
këtëTë njëjtën
drejtim,
një
apps. However, it must
noted that
most
of the
online
media
lag
edhebe
top-channel.tv.
Gjithashtu,
Balkanweb
ka other
krijuar edhe
një version
të sajtit
me
ër mungesë vizioni dhe pjesa tjetër
për
mungesa
të
natyrës
financiare.
për ata që parapëlqejnë web browser në vend të apps-eve. Gjithsesi
behind in this aspect;“responsive
some design”
of them
may lack vision while the rest may
lack financial resources.
imi, dizajniRegistration,
dhe arkivimi design and archiving
ervistat-pyetësor
dhe nga monitorimi
edhe të dhëna
që kanë
tëdata
bëjnë
me
Questionnaire-interviews
anddalin
the monitoring
have also
yielded
that
-in e regjistrimit
apo
me
dizajnimin
e
websajteve
të
mediave
online.
Tabela
relate to domain registration or the designing of online media websites. e
htme paraqet
e shows
domainit
që janë
sot that
në përdorim
45from
mediat
The prapashtesat
following table
domain
suffixes
are in usenga
today
the e
ruara dhe numrin
për secilin
domain.
Siçrespective
shihet mbizotëron
domain-i
lokal
45 monitored
media
and the
number for
each. As
you.al.
can see
the local domain .al is prevalent.
mediave online sipas prapashtesës së domain-it
The number of online media grouped by domain suffix
4
4
11
20
15
.al
.com
.com.al
.tv
.net
.gov.al
29
imi i websajteve shqiptare me domain-in vendor
.al, ka një rëndësi të madhe për
simin dhe njëkohësisht identitetin e hapësirës shqiptare online, si dhe për
min nga motorët e kërkimit të informacionit të shkruar në gjuhën shqipe. Për këtë
drejtuesit e mediave online, nuk duhet ta trajtojnë këtë thjesht si një çështje
The registration of Albanian websites with the local domain .al is of
significant importance in representing and sharing of the identity of Albanian
space online, but also being localised and identified from search engines
of information written in Albanian. For this reason, managers of Albanian
online media should not consider their internet domain suffix just as a matter
of one more choice of domain, but they should look further than that.
When it comes to the applied design the data show that 16 of these
websites have applied genuine original design, 20 were created using
CMS (such as WordPress, Joomla, etc), while five have a mixed design.
The kind of design they have applied is of significant importance for the
degree of interactivity applied by the online media, effective exchange
of communication with web databases and ease of navigation and
information retrieval. Even though they are cheaper to create and easy
to manage design models created with CMS pose limitations in creating
and adding of new applications or dynamic options, and their dominance
may be viewed as a problem that deserves attention and special studying.
Another advantage of the web, according to the scholars of the new
media, is its extraordinary capacity to store information. But, in real life,
this capacity generates problems in managing and administering of the
stored fund. So, one of the problems that the Albanian online media has
faced, from the technical and managerial points of view, is the storing and
the archiving of the published material and its retrieval from the website’s
search engine. The data from the questionnaire-interviews show that
only 22 of the 39 interviewed media have stored all the material they
have published since the first day their website went online. The other 16
websites claim they haven’t stored everything for the following reasons
a – changes of the website design (12 cases)
b – change of URL (online address), server or hosting company (4
cases)
c – lack of experience in storing information online (1 case)
d – other technical problems (such as; server capacities, technical
malfunctions, etc.), (5 cases)
It may have happened that some of the media were faced with more
than one of the abovementioned problems. The situation is even more
serious and critical for those media that go bankrupt and shut down,
such as the case of korrieri.com, where all the fund of online material
is no longer accessible after the shut down, and in a way has vanished.
Such a situation calls for foresight and a more effective management
of the information fund produced by each website, to guarantee the
preservation of this valuable wealth of information for the society.
30
Human resources and the economics
of the online media in Albania
T
he hiring of human resources exclusively for the web and the
filling of all the necessary positions in the structure of the online
newsroom is of vital importance for the future of the online media.
Even though there is tardiness in this direction, still from year to year, the
human resources employed for the online newsrooms have increased.
Only four out of 39 interviewed media have no human resources
dedicated to the web, and the uploading online of material is done by
the staff of the traditional media. On the other hand, 35 of them have a
nucleus of online newsroom working for the web, or have established a full
newsroom, as is the case with some independent websites. These media
today employ as many as 276, with an average of nearly 7 employees per
online media.
The following table presents the data on the human resources involved
and their work positions:
Human resources of 39 online media
Editor in
chief, editors,
reporters
Copy
editors
Web
master
180
4
33
Sales,
Administration
Marketing
21
28
Total
276
If we analyse these statistics on a case by case basis, it is revealed that
the most visited websites also have a greater number of human resources.
The number of people employed on an online newsroom varies from two
to 16, with the exception of ATSH, which is a media organisation of a
specific nature, and the number they employ is 39.
31
Regarding human resources we must distinguish between the
individual media and the websites of traditional media, because in
producing the content for the websites of the traditional media the online
staff dedicated to the web is assisted by the staff of the mother media,
while the individual media complete the cycle of operating and managing
within one single structure of human resources.
With the passing of time the online media have tried to create a
business model for their enterprise. It is well known that the success of
a business model for any industry depends to a considerable degree on
the sources of revenue generated by this industry. In the case of online
media the main sources of revenue are:
1 – Online advertising
2 – Revenues from e-commerce
3 – Income from selling of the media product
Research and survey carried out in Albania and other countries reveal
that advertising remains the main source of revenue for the online
media. This is a paradox, as a new media is practically being feed and
nourished from an old source of wealth. But even though advertising is
the main source of revenue for news websites, still this source of income
is surrounded and veiled by an array of uncertainties and question marks.
The first uncertainty regarding advertising is related to the question
whether they may generate enough revenues to guarantee survival and
success. Susan Smith and John Allen Hendricks in their book New Media,
New Technology, New Ideas or New Headaches, note that “business models
supported by online advertising remain questionable… An advertising
model can work at a break-even or slightly profitable level.”
This opinion is also shared by Gillian Doyle, who points out that
“advertising simply is not generating enough money to cover the costs of
offering free services online.”
This comes mainly due to the fact that advertisers pay for online ads
and commercials a lot less than they would pay for the same ads in the
traditional media, even though their advertising stays on 24 hours a day
for many months and years on the website. In the meantime, another
specific problem for the web is the distribution and the sharing of the
advertising fund by many online media and channels, thus diminishing
the portion that each media receives from this fund.
The second quandary is related to the question of how long it will last
this practice of advertising on news websites. In the traditional world of
advertising the media have served as conduits and middlemen between
the advertisers and the consumers. But, in the age of internet the
advertisers can establish their own media and may not need middlemen,
32
as they may create, or have already launched, their web channels, on
YouTube, social networks, on the blogosphere, etc.
Another source of generating revenue is e-commerce. Some online
media apply, besides advertising, the offering of goods or services on
their website, while offering their media content for free all along. This
model is being successfully used in Albania by some individual websites,
which carry advertising but also have separate sections offering services
or goods. It is not by pure chance that these website are ranked among
the most visited Albanian online media, and they make a profit at the end
of the month.
When it comes to revenues from the selling of the media product it
turns out that this source of income is still not generating any revenues
worth mentioning. It is well-known that the internet started life as a
non-profit project, financed by public funds from the US Department of
Defense, and this “non-profit” genesis, accompanied by the offering of
news and news-media related information for free, has been stalking and
will continue to haunt the online media industry.
This kind of tradition has changed the consumers’ behavior towards
news information products. Several efforts to offer media content to
paying customers have failed. Attempts at building a subscription base
have failed, so have pay-per-article formats; nor have there been many
success stories with micro-payment and aggregated micro-accounting
schemes that function and depend on the selling of individual units of the
online content.
The paradox here is that even though the online audience increases
year after year there is still no sign that this increase in audience may be
converted to a boost in revenues any time soon.
Besides the three sources of income mentioned here there are other
revenue-generating methods on the internet, including making profits
from the so-called “referral traffic” otherwise known as the “pay-perclick” method. Big advertising companies, such as Google, share with
other online media “banner-ads” and pay these media a certain amount
for each referral or click that comes from the online media website to
the product website or the advertiser’s page. However, this method
of “Google ads,” and in general the model of referral traffic, has mostly
created and it is still creating income for global search engines and their
aggregators, and global social media networks; but very little is going to
local websites, except in cases when these websites are clearly leading
the pack in their respective countries regarding the number of unique
visitors.
33
Është regjistruar si biznes më
6
6
vete
What is the business and the financial situation
of the Albanian online
media? To produce a clear picture of the business plans of some of the
përfshirë brenda biznesit
Është i p
online media in Albania we require the help and
the assistancetuaja
of the data
të medias/mediave
collected from the questionnaire-interviews tradicionale
conducted by the Albanian
Media Institute.
25
Është regjistruar si aktivitet i OJF
One of the questions posed to the managers of Albanian online media
was related to the establishment of their businesses and their operation
as a unit apart. Here are the data that come out of the answers to these
questions:
As a business unit, your website…
6
6
Is registered as a separate
business unit
Is included in the business
unit of the traditional media
25
Is registered as an NGO
activity
The processing of this information reveals that only six out of a total
of 39 media that were interviewed were registered as business entities
in their own right; six other media operate as non-profit organisations
(NPO), while two media offered no answers. The websites that operate
as NPOs are individual websites (digital native); they don’t have any
nga të ardhurat personale të
relations or partnership
to any traditional media.3
pronarit/pronarëve
On the other hand, most news websites in Albania (25) have not
registered
as business
nga të ardhurat
e bizneseve entities
të tjera të but operate in the framework of the media
4
kompanisë
business or as part of a traditional media. Clearly when we consider
the creation of a special business model for the online media here we
nga të ardhurat e biznesit të mediave
7
encounter the
first major hurdle.
tradicionale
This model of operating this business makes it almost impossible to
clearly distinguish the contribution
and
the
0
1
2 productivity
3
4
5 of the
6 human
7
8
resources employed by the traditional media from the contribution
and the productivity of the human resources employed exclusively for
the web. This model makes it more difficult to estimate, also from an
accounting point of view, the identification and allocation of respective
costs and revenues.
However, despite this model of doing business, when it comes to draw
a general conclusion on the profitability of the business activity of their
34
online media, the interviewees do come up with an answer, which goes
to show that at least they are interested or have some idea on the level of
profitability. Here are their answers:
As a business activity, your website…
13
Makes a
profit
10 - Breaks
even
3
13
Loses
money
No answer
As shown from the chart, only 13 of the 39 online media that were
interviewed result as making a profit in their business activity. The rest
collect enough revenue to survive or lose money.
On the other hand, the online media that lose money cover their
expenses and losses from three sources:
a – money is channelled in from the traditional media business
b – funds are transferred from other businesses their company owns
c – from the personal wealth of owner or owners, or from donations
The numbers of the media that use these sources of revenue are shown
in the table below:
When losing money, how do you secure funds to keep going with your website?
from the personal wealth of owner or
owners, or from donations
3
funds are transferred from other businesses
that company owns
4
money is channelled in from the traditional
media business
7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
As a matter of fact making up for losses with funds from the other
23the supporting company applies not only to the online media,
businesses
of
25
but also to the majority of the traditional media, especially newspapers,
20
which are presently grappled by an irreversible financial crisis. The
15
number
of copies they sell is not enough to secure their survival, but
10
10
35
5
0
-5
Janë në rritje
Janë afërsisht të
4
2
Janë në rënie
Pa përgjigje
th of
om
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
even though they should have shut down a long time ago they are still
23
25
operating thanks to other resources at their owners’ disposal.
20Regardless of the level of profitability of the online media, the
interviews
show that the overwhelming majority of these websites
15
succeed in generating some10
revenue. So, 35 out of 39 online media we
10
interviewed
manage to bring in some money, no matter how much they
4
collect
or to what percentage it covers their costs.
5
2
Also, interviews reveal another trend: Most of the websites collected
0
more revenue during 2013 that the previous year. So, even though only 13
Janë në
rritje
Janë in
afërsisht
Janëactivity,
në rënie this ratio
Pa përgjigje
of-539 media
are
profitable
their të
business
is reversed
njëjta
when we compare the number of media making more money by the year,
as shown in the following chart.
As compared to the previous year, revenues for your website …
25
23
20
15
10
10
4
5
2
0
-5
Are growing
Are approximately
the same
Are reducing
No answer
This chart shows that 23 online media have collected more money than
the previous year, while 10 have generated the same amount of revenue
and only two of them say they made less money.
On the other hand, when the interviewees are asked how optimistic
they are about the future of their online media finances, the ratio is
reversed even further, and almost all of them rank on the “optimistic” and
“very optimistic” side of the following chart:
On a scale from 1 to 10, how optimistic are you on the future
of your online media business?
36
33
35
30
25
Regarding
the sources of revenue, the Albanian media do not differ
20
15 global trend. As many as 33 media we interviewed collect most
from the
7
0
10 money from advertising, while
of their
subscriptions or other forms of
selling 5of the media product amount close to zero. On the other hand,
0
seven online
media, namely, top-channel.tv, ikub.al, panorama.com.al,
Reklamat në website
Pagesat e abonimeve
E-commerce, trafiku
albeu.com, lajmifundit.al, living.al,
and gazetastart.com,
online
referal, etj. have added to
their arsenal revenues from e-commerce or referral traffic.
Revenue on your website (whatever they may be) is generated from…
33
35
30
25
20
15
0
10
7
5
0
Advertising
Online subscriptions
E-commerce, referral
traffic, etc.
To generate revenue from advertising several techniques have been
used and are still being employed today. In addition to banner ads
displayed on websites’ homepage, some media have also applied recently
introduced techniques such as commercials leading up to video footage
or audio material, as is the case of top-channel.tv. Is this technique
welcomed by users? Scholars Susan Smith and John Allen Hendricks
believe that in these cases there is a risk that “consumers may revolt
when ads start appearing in videos”.
In the meantime, some of the websites place so many ads in the
upper part of their homepage that very little room is left is this section
for breaking news stories or updated information on the day’s events.
Among other things this is contravening the “iceberg” rule in homepage
design, and also is a nuisance to consumers. This problem is evident on
balkanweb.com, gazetatema.net, panorama.com.al, etc.
Another feature of the advertising-supported model is that it practises
methods of charging based on air time and homepage square-inches,
routines that are borrowed from the traditional media and are used
almost verbatim, following the same logic and by using the same visual
techniques for the online media. Being too tired and fatigued from the
37
advertising and commercials on the traditional media, the visitor in these
cases has the tendency to get annoyed and even leave these websites.
In conclusion, we can say that, in Albania’s case the business model of
the online media is evolving very slowly. Even though the audience if on
the increase, this is not being translated into more cash adding to their
meagre finances.
Some of the toughest challenges they will face in their future in this
regard are putting into use the full potentials and capacities of the web
in packaging and presenting the media product, and the identification
of business models and solutions that work and adapt better to the
mentality of the functioning of the new media. An important challenge
remains the functioning of the online media as a separate business unit,
independent from the decision-making and the finances of the traditional
media or other satellite businesses of the mother company.
38
Profile of Albanian online media
I
n order to get a clearer picture on the landscape of the Albanian online
media, let us take a look at the profiles and the characteristics of the 45
media we monitored, listed here according to their ranking by Alexa.
top-channel.tv
Established on December 2001, top-channel.tv is
the property of Top Media company and it was launched online as the
news portal of one of the most popular television stations in Albania: Top
Channel TV. The large number of online visitors comes as a direct result
of the reputation and the large audience this TV station enjoys.
For several years this website has been one of the two most visited
websites in the country, competing with the other Albanian successful
portal balkanweb.com. The online newsroom has a staff of 11
employees: 10 journalists or editors, and one webmaster.15 Supporting
and administrative activities or needs are covered by the staff of the
traditional media.
The portal has a general-interest profile, and covers a wide range of
information and stories from politics to entertainment. The content they
publish is mostly what is being produced for the programming of Top
Channel, which means that most of the fund is made of news stories and
video shots or excerpts from their TV shows.
For example, the Web TV page of this portal contains only shows of Top
Channel TV uploaded on the web through YouTube or Vimeo. The stories
15. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with webmaster Igli Gjelishti, on
March 31.2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of questionnaireinterviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the Albanian Media
Institute.
39
or the data produced by the online staff are not separated or branded
differently from the rest of the material as after all every piece of material
is tagged only as Top Channel. The information is updated continuously
and quite often, but there have been cases when breaking news or
updates have been published simultaneously with the TV channel or even
after their initial broadcasting in regular newscasts, deciding not to take
advantage of the speed and immediacy of the publication of information
on the web.
The stories that are produced daily are categorised according to
relevance or importance, or in sections depending on their topics. Video
materials are marked with the video symbol. The elements of multimedia
in this portal derive for the publication of stories and shows in different
formats, video or audio, but it must be mentioned that there are very
few cases of genuine multimedia storytelling on any particular event.
The portal does not have a comment section on stories, but there is a
“share” option through e-mail and several social media networks or other
aggregators.
The portal places at the disposal of its readers apps for Android and
iPhone, to comfortably access the website from those who visit the site
through cell phones. The newsroom is successful in using social media
networks to add to its audience. Top Channel’s page on Facebook, up to
June 2014 had accumulated some 656,000 likes, which shows an effective
use of social networks. Top Channel also has its own YouTube channel,
and until June 10, 2014 as many as 11,581 videos were uploaded, and
some of them have reached a record online audience for Albania, such
as an episode from the Portokalli comedy show of October 13, 2013 that
was watched by 124,671 people.
balkanweb.com
It started on February 2000 as an online news
agency. This website is one of the best examples of a success story and
originality in the history of the Albanian online media. Balkanweb.
com was founded by Edisud company as an original website that did
not directly depend from any of the traditional media owned by the
company such as Gazeta Shqiptare newspaper, TV News24, or Radio
Rash, even though it was carrying and publishing a lot of materials
and stories produced from and for these media. The goal was to
establish an online news agency to report breaking news faster than
the traditional media. Starting from 2007 this media, as well as the
other media of the Mediasud company, are under the ownership of the
Focus Group.
40
The website has a general interest profile. The media it uses range
from text and still pictures, to video footage and audio tracks, making
use of multimedia elements, even though there are very cases of genuine
multimedia storytelling. The video shots published in the BalkanWeb TV
section are mainly excerpts from television News 24 shows. On the other
hand, Fotogaleria contains news in pictures taken from other media or
the internet.
In some cases the website has used live-streaming for breaking news,
such as for example a live reporting on the strike of taxi-van drivers or
the opposition parties protest against drug trafficking, but in general this
has been a live-streaming of what was being broadcasted on News24 TV.
The core of the balkanweb.com newsroom is comprised of 5 journalists,
one copy editor, and two webmasters.16 The monitoring of this website
reveals that the staff of the online newsroom is very dedicated in reporting
latest news and updates.
The news items and stories produced by this staff is tagged Balkan
Web and the initials of the journalist that worked on the story. When
news articles, video or audio materials are taken from the other media
of the company the source is identified, for example Gazeta Shqiptare,
News 24, etc. On the other hand when there is cooperation between the
online staff and the traditional media in producing a story, both sources
are identified, for example, Gazeta Shqiptare/Balkan Web, etc.
This website is renowned for speed in reporting breaking news and
continuous updating of the information. However, the lack of journalists
in the field reporting only for the web is still a big problem and in general
there is not enough staff engaged with the online newsroom operations.
BalkanWeb also uses social media networks Facebook and Twitter as
additional channels to connect with their audience, but they don’t seem to
be very effective. So, BalkanWeb page on Facebook has a total of 29,000
likes. In order to facilitate interaction with the audience, the website has
a comment section and several options for feedback, also to “share” or
“like” on any story they publish.
shekulli.com.al is the website of Shekulli newspaper, which has been
and still is one of the most important publications in Albania. Established
in 1999 shekulli.com.al is considered one of the pioneers of the Albanian
16. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Daniela Agushi, on April 1.
2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of questionnaire-interviews
organised from the author of this study, with the support of the Albanian Media Institute.
41
online media. In the beginning, for several years, the website published
only stories produced for the print version, updating the information once
every 24 hours, same as the print edition. Later, while continuing the
publishing of newspaper stories, the newsroom hired human resources
that would report and publish online in real time breaking news stories,
taking more and more into consideration the characteristics of the web,
its capacities and advantages.
Presently, as shown by
the data collected from the
monitoring of the website
during
April-May
2014,
the pace of updating the
information is quite high.
There are cases when there
were updates or new stories
posted every minute, as shown
on the right.
“Minuta e fundit” (Last
Minute) section reports in real
time and the work is carried
out by the staff of the online
newsroom, as well as all the
data and the information
related to breaking or last news.
For the print version, the website has a special button marked “Shekulli
Print” showing print-screens of front pages of several of the latest issues
of the newspaper. The monitoring data clearly show a tendency to
separate the newspaper production from the online stories and material
and to prioritize the web. Online staff stories are tagged “Shekulli online”
and the initials of the reporter.
The preference for the online format is confirmed by the hiring of more
human resources involved with the web newsroom. At the present this
newsroom employs a personnel of 10 people, made up of six journalists,
one copy editor, one webmaster, one sales agent and one person to deal
with logistical and administrative support.17 Practically, such a structure
of human resources constitutes a nucleus to kick start and keep an on line
media walking on its own feet.
17. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Florenc Stafa, online
content editor, on April 7. 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
42
This website as well has a general interest profile, same as its mother
media company Shekulli newspaper. Its homepage categorizes the data
and the information in two general directories:
The first one is similar to a newspaper traditional division of
sections: politics, bussiness, crime, etc.
The second one, sections stories and informations in different
groups such as In depth, Life, Radar, etc. This categorization does not
fit very well with the online environment and the context is unclear.
The video gallery and the photo gallery contain videos and pictures
taken mainly from the internet. Videos and audio tracks uploaded
on the website to supplement a story are rare, a lack of multimedia
elements, endemic to the Albanian online media. The website has
interactive options to “share” or “like” stories, as well as comment
sections at the bottom of each story. In order to avoid ethical problems
the newsroom has placed a note in the comment section: “Shekulli
newspaper asks from all its readers to refrain from using insults
and verbal abuse in these comments. Instead, facts and your sound
arguments may prove much more effective without the use of foul
language.” However ethical violations with comments on individual
stories abound.
ikub.al is one of most visited websites in the category of individual
websites born for the web without any relation or partnership with
any traditional media. It is ranked fourth in the general standing of the
Albanian online media according to Alexa. Established in 2006 from
ikub.al s.r.l., at first with
the address www.ikub.com
and later
www.ikub.al,
this portal deserves special
attention on its original
approach, its special profile
and the novelty it brings
especially with a regard to
the business model of an
online media.
The portal’s newsroom
has a staff of 16, including
four journalists, two copy
editors, two web masters,
five sales agents, and three
43
logistics and support personnel.18 This organizational chart of human
resources is imposed by the multifaceted profile of the portal.
The offering of news stories to its visitors is only one part of the
activity of this portal that presents a wide range of elements. News is
packaged and presented in several ways; through its subpage time.al this
website serves as an aggregator in collecting and publishing the latest
news stories published by other Albanian online media. They even offer
subscriptions deals in order to have full access to this aggregated package.
On the other hand there are very few news stories and very little original
material produced from the staff of ikub.al.
The rest of the portal is dedicated to e-commerce, classified ads, buyand-sell, business information and marketing that generate revenue to
keep this online business functioning.
This portal offers advertising, services and goods for sale, useful
information on several fields, etc., by adjusting its mode of operation to
fit web dynamics and the specific nature of the online business. Subpages
of this portal: punaime.al, njoftime, tag.al, gis.al, ebuy.al emulate the
best global models of online businesses and service websites.
Many scholars that have studied in depth business models and practices
of online media, point out that it is very difficult for the web-based media
to make a profit with news, especially in this present environment when
it is expected to get the news for free from the internet. For this reason
similar models and methods must be further explored, in using news as a
means to channel and increase the number of visitors to the website and
then put to use other business tools and methods to make money from
these visitors. Ikub is experimenting with this approach and so far they
have been successful, but that may be controversial in the media circles,
especially conservative ones.
gazetatema.net started operations as the website of the daily
newspaper Tema and grew stronger as a media outlet in its own right
when its publisher Mero Baze temporarily cancelled the print edition
and focused entirely on the web version. The website was established
in 2006, first at tema.al and later switched address to gazetatema.
net.
18. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Albert Tollkuçi, general
manager, on April 15. 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
44
The website managed to attract a large audience especially thanks
to its strong opposition to the government at the time. Apparently this
opposition stance forced the management to switch domain and drop the
suffix .al which is administered from a local government entity, and get
the new domain name it still uses today.
The website has a newsroom of 10, and is presently a profitable
business mainly due to advertising it carries on its homepage19. This
online media has a general interest profile; the data and the news stories
are sectioned more or less according to a newspaper style. Gazetatema.
net is renowned for frequently updating its content, reporting and timely
publishing of main daily events. Most of the news stories on the website
are original products of the Tema newsroom, and the contribution of the
online staff in this process of gathering and processing of the information
is significant.
This website offers several opportunities to its readers to give feedback
through a “Letter to the editor” section, “share” options and comment
sections. The monitoring of this website reveals that the comment
section is not filtered or edited, and regularly you’ll find expressions of
hate speech, verbal violence, personal attacks, etc.
Recently the website was equipped with its own web television called
Tema TV, with video footage shot and edited from the online staff of Tema.
In some cases video shots accompany the text of a story, thus producing
a multimedia package, but however this method of work is still in its
infancy.
panorama.com.al was established in 2003 from Panorama Group,
to serve as the website of the bestselling newspaper in Albania in recent
years, Panorama newspaper. Presently it is ranked sixth on the list of
the most visited Albanian websites, according to statistical search engine
Alexa.
Similar to most other newspaper websites, panorama.com.al, also
adopted the so-called “copy-paste” approach when it first started, by
publishing only stories and other material printed by the newspaper.
However, at the moment the print edition is separate from the online
publication, even though some of the stories and materials printed on the
newspaper continue to be published on its website.
19. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Bledar Lumani, deputy
editor-in-chief, on April 7, 2014. Interview conducted by Erion Habilaj, as part of a series
of questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the
45
The web newsroom for Panorama has not enough staff (a total of five
people)20 but it still manages to report and publish in time breaking news
stories or updates of main events. A one-week monitoring of “Latest
news” section, from June 5 to June 11, produced the results shown on this
table.
Date
Day
Number of news stories
June 5, 2014
Thursday
21
June 6, 2014
Friday
19
June 7, 2014
Saturday
15
June 8, 2014
Sunday
10
June 9, 2014
Monday
20
June 10, 2014
Tuesday
22
June 11, 2014
Wednesday
19
In average, some 20 stories are published daily on any given week-day,
with the exception of Saturday and Sunday, thus assuring the coverage
of the day’s main events. On the main page (homepage), breaking news
stories are also listed on the news slider on the center of the page where
news story headlines are displayed one after the other and also on the
Flash section of the website.
Panorama.com.al is also active on social media networks. On Facebook,
this media outlet has some 181,000 likes. Also, the website offers “share”
options and comment sections to urge readers to provide feedback and
increase interactivity.
shqiptarja.com
In less than two years, this online media has
succeeded to rank itself among the most visited news websites in Albania.
It was established in October 2012 by FREE & FAIR MEDIA GROUP.
Shqiptarja.com started operations as an online news agency and the
website of the newspaper by that same name. After the purchase by
FREE & FAIR MEDIA GROUP of TV channel A1 Report, the website also
publishes stories and video excerpts from shows produced by that TV
station. Meanwhile, the television station has a website of its own.
20. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Çlirim Hallaçi, editor for
the website content, on April 8, 2014. Interview conducted by Erion Habilaj, as part of a
series of questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of this study, with the support
of the Albanian Media Institute.
46
Shqiptarja.com is a dynamic and interactive website tailor-built to
maximize web’s full potential, taking full advantage of the characteristics
and benefits than the new technology provides. This online media,
was one of the first to use genuine multimedia reporting, such as the
case of a student bus crash near the south Albanian town of Himara,
reporting on the confiscation by the police of a drug traffickers villa in
Mamurras, north of Tirana, etc., where these events are reported with
the use of several media, video, audio, text, still pictures, animatronics,
etc. Shqiptarja.com and the website of A1Report have a joint staff for
the web. The online newsroom is composed of six reporters or editors,
one webmaster and two sales agents. The company that owns these
media also employs five more people that are involved with logistics
and administrative tasks.21
Stories and other content produced by the web staff are tagged “Online
newsroom.” But, it must be said that the staffs of the newspaper and the
TV station provide a sizeable contribution for both websites, shedding
light on the general situation of traditional media websites, where human
resources, the work load and contributions are not clearly defined.
The website shqiptarja.com has a button that takes its visitors to the
print edition format, PDF, and recently, through an app and subscription,
website customers are granted access to other materials: video, audio,
etc. and options to personalize its content. The website has also a page
for news reporting by citizens, titled “You report”.
In addition to sections similar to the print format, the website also
has a blog rubric, one page to upload videos or still pictures, and also a
special section for lifestyle and gossip.
noa.al The online news agency NOA (News of Albania) was established
in 2006 as a “digital native media”. The website ranks eighth among the
most visited news websites in Albania, and 21-st in the general ranking
for Albania as issued by Alexa, on March 23, 2014. It is a general interest
media that gives priority to the latest news from Albania, but also Kosovo
and Macedonia. The website strives to publish original content, but they
also carry material they get from other media on the internet.
21. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Greta Malaj, editor-inchief for the web content, on April 15, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part
of a series of questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of this study, with the
support of the Albanian Media Institute.
47
Following the general worldwide
trend of the online media, NOA also
publishes “soft news” or VIP gossip,
as shown from this list of “top ranked
stories” from June 12, 2014.
At the NOA TV section, the agency
offers live-streaming of broadcasting
of some Albanian TV stations such as
public TV station RTSH, Vizion Plus,
News24, OraNews, Agon, etc. NOA
has distinguished itself in covering
of breaking stories and major events
with intensive and vibrant reporting.
The news agency is very active on
social media networks. Its Facebook
page had more than 336,000 likes by
early June 2014. Another example
of imaginative and effective use of etësor me Greta Malaj, kryeredaktore për webin, realizuar më datë
Facebook was the creation of a special uadër të intervistave-pyetësor të organizuara nga autori i këtyre
NOA page for the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
albeu.com
This news portal is one of a series of individual websites
and is considered one of the most successful sites in the Albanian online
community. It was founded on July 4, 2003 by Idaver Sherifi, renowned for
his passion and the willingness to invest in the new media, an investment
that proved to be a successful one 11 years on.
Albeu.com is presently a
profitable enterprise while
its number of employees has
jumped from three to a staff
of 11.22 The portal has several
advertisements on its main
page, which make for most of
the revenue collected by this
media.
Under the slogan “The
portal of all Albanians” the
22. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Idaver Sherifi, general
manager of the portal, on March 3. 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a
48
website has established three main sections covering daily events from
Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. The news stories published on this
portal are mainly original products, reported and packaged by the Albeu
staff. On the other hand, most of the editorials or news analysis stories
are taken from other online media, by attributing the source the story is
taken from.
This portal publishes many pictures or video shots taken from
the internet, especially to complement sensational stories related to
celebrities or important world news events.
Even though its profile is one of general interest publication, a sizeable
part of the information published on this portal is “soft news” separated
in several categories: sports, showbiz, technology, curious facts and
figures, lifestyle, entertainment, humour, etc. As it turns out this kind of
information is the most popular on the web, and embracing it has been
a tendency not only for the Albanian media but for websites all over the
world.
Similar to NOA, the website Albeu offers live-streaming of some TV
stations that operate in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia.
lajmifundit.al was established by DARTA Group on June 4, 2009.
It is an individual website, and the translation of its name into English
means “latest news.” Less than a year from its creation the portal had
a large following and ranked as one of the most visited Albanian online
media, also thanks to a successful promotional campaign on social media
networks and other web channels. As of early June 2014, the Facebook
page of lajmifundit.al had more than 253,000 likes.
Lajmifundit.al is a general interest publication. The information and
the content of the website are updated in average every 20 minutes. The
published content is in part produced by the staff of the online media and
some of it is taken from other online media.
The website employs eight people: four are reporters or editors,
one webmaster, two sales agents and one is taking care of logistics or
administrative issues.23
From the business point of view this media is making a profit. The
revenues are chiefly from coming from advertising and advertising
23. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Taulant Manaj, editor for
49
services, but also from e-commerce, and the distribution of several hard
copy publications in Albanian through this portal.
gazetadita.al
This is the website of Dita newspaper, established in
November 2012, at the same time the newspaper went to print. Both,
the newspaper and its website are owned by a new media company
Publikime Shqiptare (Albanian publications). Riding the wave of success
following the newspaper’s publication, the website attracted a relatively
large following on the web, and after a year and a half it is ranked 11th
among the most visited Albanian news websites and is ranked 29th in
Alexa’s general ranking for Albania.
Dita newspaper and its website entered the Albanian media market
by presenting a special profile with a very strong opposition stance to the
then government and a modern graphic design.
As a commercial unit, the website is a part of the business block of the
traditional media. The staff of the web is comprised of four reporters,
one webmaster and one sales agent.24 Besides the staff hired exclusively
for the web, other human resources that work for the newspaper are
involved with website operations. In other words, the content published
on the website is in part produced by the staff of the online media and
some of it has been produced by the staff working for the print edition.
oranews.tv
is the website of a TV station with the same name,
Ora News TV. Founded on March 2011 from Yldon Media Group, this
website is ranked second among the most visited websites of TV stations
in Albania, leaving behind many of the websites of several national and
local TV stations. The example of oranews.tv reveals that websites of the
traditional media succeed only when they take upon themselves to report
on breaking and latest news, adapting to the web and taking advantage of
all of its characteristics.
The staff of the web is made up of five people – four reporters and one
webmaster25 – but, since Ora News is a 24-hour-news TV station, most of
24. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Adrian Thano, editorin-chief, on April 14, 2014. Interview conducted by Erion Habilaj, as part of a series of
25. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Ervin Bahiti, editor for the
website content, on April 8, 2014. Interview conducted by Erion Habilaj, as part of a series
50
the news stories and materials prepared from the staff of the traditional
media are published and adapted for the web. The website is also one of
the first to offer live-streaming of its TV shows.
gazeta-shqip.com
was established on 2007 from Top Media
Group. Gazeta-shqip.com is the website of the daily newspaper Shqip.
The web newsroom is small, only five people, however they manage to
stay on top of things in reporting breaking news or latest news updates –
in average every 30 minutes.26 The published content is partly produced
by the online staff and part of it is taken from the print edition, but they
also publish world stories pulled from the internet and translated. This
online media is successful in its use of social networks to distribute
news stories and to boost its audience. The page of gazeta-shqip.com on
Facebook had some 264,000 likes in early June 2014.
mapo.al
is the website of Mapo daily newspaper, founded in 2010.27
Unlike other successful websites which invest in covering and reporting
breaking or latest news mapo.al is mostly preoccupied with news
analysis and editorials that are also published in the newspaper in the OP
ED section, this category also occupies center field in the website. The
newspaper is a general-interest publication, so is the website.
From a managing and an operational point of view mapo.al is
incorporated in the business and organizational structure of the
traditional media, namely Mapo newspaper.
gazetaidea.com
was founded by journalist Mentor Kikia in
September 2011 as an individual media. This news website is registered
as a mouthpiece for a non-profit organization Alternative Civile (Civic
Alternative). It offers a new model of establishing and operating an
online media. The staff is comprised of 11 people – 10 are journalists
working full time or part time and one webmaster. 28
26. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Gjergj Erebara, deputy
editor-in-chief, on April 3, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
27. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mapo.al/
28. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Kliti Topalli, editor for the
51
The main page of gazetaidea.com has an effective design and structure,
as it places to the forefront the latest news stories posted on the website,
as well as the latest news or postings for each category or section. The
website is dynamic and offers several opportunities for interaction and
feedback through comments, the “Denounce” section, “share” options, etc.
abcnews.al is the website of an all-news TV station with the same name
ABC News, founded on October 25, 2010 by the Albanian Broadcasting
Corporation. It publishes mainly stories produced for the television, but
it also carries other content such as videos or still pictures taken from the
internet. The website gives precedence to the latest news by following the
model of ABC News television station, but usually the latest news stories
broadcasted on TV newscasts are also the latest stories published on the
website. Even more so, they are first broadcasted on TV and then uploaded
on the website, and the accompanying text is the script written by reporters
and producers for the story or anchors lead-in.
The nucleus of the online newsroom is tiny – four people in all, three
of them are journalists/editors and one webmaster.29
sot.com.al was conceived as an online news agency, and it was
established in 2003 by the publisher of Sot newspaper, Arian Prodani.
This agency is managed as a segment of a larger business group that
includes the company’s traditional media. Human resources for the web
and print are not separated.30 However, the website reports on the latest
news of the day and a good portion of the published content is different
from the material published in the newspaper. In order to promote the
print edition, the website has a section where visitors can read issues of
the newspaper on the PDF format.
The agency has a general-interest profile. There is a video section
on the website and they are trying to include elements of multimedia in
reporting, even though some of the video shots published in there are not
produced by the agency but are taken from social media networks and
the internet.
29. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Entela Kaloti, editor for
the website content, on April 8, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a
30. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Blerina Luli, editor for the
website content, on April 6, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series
52
ata.gov.al is the website of the Albanian state-run news agency ATSH
and the first news website in Albanian, established in 1996. Even though
it is financed by the state budget and has a large staff (39 people), and has
inherited a huge infrastructure the agency and its website have lost their
leading role amongst the news agencies in the country.
For a period of time the agency charged a fee to allow access to its
online news products, but this didn’t work and now all of its web content
is offered free of charge.
anabel.com is Albania’s most visited online magazine (webzine), and
it is an example of innovation and a success story for new web publications.
It started in 2010, and the magazine has an original configuration and
approach. The content they publish is rich and colorful and is aimed
mainly at the female audience, but this webzine has also other stories
and materials that may appeal to a larger audience. Prevailing topics are
soft news stories, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, VIP gossip, etc.
kohajone.com Established in November 1999, kohajone.com is one of
the first websites of the Albanian traditional media, founded by the publisher
of Koha Jonë daily newspaper, Nikollë Lesi. Presently the website publishes
the latest news of the day and some news stories produced for the print
edition.
The online newsroom has a staff of six – three journalists, two
webmasters and one sales agent.31 Even though it is one of the pioneers
of the Albanian online media, the website now ranks 20th among
news websites in Albania, due to the change in ownership and lack of
investments.
respublica.al
was founded on January 1, 2010 by the well-known
media analyst and editorial writer Mustafa Nano. It is an individual
website, and formally the website operates as a branch of the NPO
Respublica. Overgrowing its blog phase, the website presently reports
and publishes stories on breaking and latest news events. However
most of the visits and comments focus on news analyses, opinion stories,
31. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Saimir Kola, editor for the
53
and op-ed articles. The newsroom has five journalists/editors, one
webmaster, one sales agent and one administrative staff.32
lajmepolitike.com
is one of the first attempts to establish a
special interest medium. As the name of the site reveals the website deals
exclusively with political news stories. This is a digital native media and it
was founded in September 2012 by the Union of Journalists and Political
Analysts, and it serves as a branch of this NPO. The newsroom has six
journalists and one webmaster.33
panorama-sport.com is the website of the Panorama Sport
newspaper, established on November 27, 2011 by Panorama Group.
It usually publishes stories that run in the newspaper but sometimes
they also publish breaking news from sporting events. The online staff
has only two people: one journalist and one webmaster.34
tvklan.al
is the website of Klan national TV station, established in
2008. The online newsroom employs seven reporters/editors and one
webmaster. The news stories and the data they put out on the site are
produced with the contribution of both newsrooms: the online media
staff and the television workforce. Since the start of 2014, the website
has improved; it is becoming more dynamic and is being more aggressive
in reporting and updating latest news stories. TV news stories, video
shots they publish on the web are chiefly productions of TV Klan.
dielli.al is a newcomer in the Albanian web journalism club. It was
established in September 2013 by AML Group, and in only nine months the
website has managed to rank 25th among the most visited news websites
in Albania. The website is very aggressive in reporting on the latest news.
32. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Endri Meksi, manager, on
April 6, 2014. Interview conducted by Erion Habilaj, as part of a series of questionnaireinterviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the Albanian Media
Institute.
33. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Luljeta Progni, general
manager/editor-in-chief, on March 29, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part
of a series of questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of this study, with the
support of the Albanian Media Institute.
34. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Alfred Lleshi, editor, on
March 31, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of questionnaireinterviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the Albanian Media
Institute.
54
However, some of the content they carry on the website is taken from
other online media, and only a part of its content has been produced from
its own staff. The website has also apps for cell phone access to the site.
The staff is made up of eight employs – six are journalists, one webmaster
and one sales agent.35
opozita.com is one of the fastest growing websites, especially after
June 20013 political elections in Albania. It is one of the strongest online
advocates of opposition to the left-wing government. It publishes news
stories and editorials produced by the staff of opozita.com, but it also
carries scores of press articles and other items taken from other online
media. On Facebook, opozita.com had some 111,000 likes as of June
2014. There is no data or information on the founders of the website or
its staff.
albanianscreen.tv
is the website of the television station by that
same name Albanian Screen TV. It usually publishes stories and items
broadcasted on the TV station, and mostly they just transfer the TV
product online. The latest news stories they publish on the website are
usually the latest stories broadcasted on the TV newscasts. The website
was created in 2004 by Alsat TV Group. Presently, the online newsroom
is composed of four people – three journalists and one webmaster.
sportekspres.com is the website of Sport Ekspres newspaper,
dedicated to sports reporting, same as the newspaper. They mainly
publish the latest news from sports and also stories produced for the
newspaper. The website was established in December 2011 and employs
a staff of five – four journalists and one webmaster.36
vizionplus.al
it was set up in 2001, and it was one of the first
websites of Albanian television stations. It publishes mainly the content
produced by the staff of the television station Vizion Plus but also video
35. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Manuela Kau, administrator,
on April 4, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of questionnaireinterviews organised from the author of this study, with the support of the Albanian Media
Institute.
36. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Arbi Laçi, deputy editorin-chief, on March 3, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
55
shots or news stories taken from the internet. The latest news stories
are either produced by the online staff or taken from TV newscasts. The
website offers live-streaming of shows from Vizion Plus. The newsroom
employs a staff of five – four journalists and one webmaster.37
sportishqiptar.com.al
is ranked 30th among news websites
in Albania. Its content is updated several times a day, to make possible
extensive coverage of the latest news from the world of sports. The online
newsroom has three reporters and one webmaster.
a1report.tv is the website of A1 Report television station owned
by FREE & FAIR MEDIA GROUP. As it was mentioned earlier, a1report.
tv and shqiptarja.com, which are owned by the same company share
one staff working for the web. This website publishes mainly the content
produced by A1 Report television, its newscasts and several TV shows
produced by this television station.
grid.al
is an online news portal, it was established in March 2012. It
is an individual website. It publishes latest news stories from Albania,
Kosovo and Macedonia, mostly taken from other Albanian online news
media, by functioning as a news aggregator. This method of aggregating
is controversial, especially regarding the violation of intellectual property
rights by these websites.
shqiperia.com
is one of the first Albanian individual news media
on the web. It was established in 1999, by Armand Brahaj, one of the
pioneers and founders of the Albanian cyberspace. The portal shqipëria.
com publishes some news stories and other news items that are produced
from its staff and the rest is taken from other online media. At the present
the staff of the newsroom is composed of three journalists/editors.38
37. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Ilir Dyrmishi, manager of
the website, on March 31, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series of
38. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Erald Hoxha, editor for the
website content, on April 2, 2014. Interview conducted by Matilda Alku, as part of a series
56
gazetatelegraf.com
Established in 2006 gazetatelegraf.com is
the website of the daily newspaper Telegraf under the ownership of Hekla
sh.p.k. The news stories and the other items that are published online
are in part produced by the staff of the web and some are written by the
newspaper staff. The content is updated several times a day, reporting
and updating news stories on a day’s main events. The online newsroom
employs two journalists and one webmaster.39
living.al is the website of Living magazine, established in August 2012
by Tring Communications company. The stories they publish focus on
lifestyle, home and garden, making Living the only magazine specialized
in this profile. This webzine updates its content several times a day. The
newsroom employs a staff of four.
gazetastart.com
is a digital native medium. Even though it
contains the term gazette in its name, this medium was never published
in print. It was published in April 2006 by Vala sh.p.k., as a general
interest publication. Most of the news stories and items published by the
website are original products. But they also carry news articles, video
material or other items taken from other online media. Gazetastart.com
employs much more staff than most of the other online media: 10 in total,
of which seven are reporters, one webmaster and two people in sales and
administrative duties. Sources of revenue are advertising on the site and
Google ads.40 However they do not cover all the expenses, and to survive
the website is injected funds from the other businesses of the company.
peshkupauje.com is one of the first blogging sites in Albanian
establishing the foundations of the Albanian blogosphere. It was founded
in December 2003 by Penar Musaraj and Blendi Salaj. Some of the content
published on the website has been created by the staff of the blog site, but
it also contains many news articles or news editorials from other online
39. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Anjeza Gjuzi, head of the
sales department and supervisor for the web, on April 4, 2014. Interview conducted by
Matilda Alku, as part of a series of questionnaire-interviews organised from the author of
this study, with the support of the Albanian Media Institute.
40. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Saimir Lleshi, editor for
57
media. At the present the newsroom is composed of six people who are
mostly engaged as part-time contributors or blog moderators.41
scan-tv.com is the website of a television station by that same name
Scan TV, established in 2008. This medium has no human resources
exclusive to the web and the online publishing of news stories is being
done by the staff of the television station. Most off the online content is
produced for the programming of the TV station. However, there are also
news items taken from the internet. It specializes on business reporting.
ama-news.al is an individual website. This portal was established
by the non-profit organization AKI in September 2010. Its full-time and
part-time staff includes three journalists and one webmaster. It publishes
some original work, but also news stories, video, photos, etc taken from
other media or the internet.
bota.al is one of the more recent entries in the list of special interest
news media. It was established in 2013, and the website publishes mainly
news stories related to international events, thus contributing at filling a
void in world news reporting in Albania. Some of the content is original
work, while the rest of the stories or news items are taken from other
online media.
ladyalbania.al is one of the newest Albanian online magazines,
which covers topics and issues relating to the female world. This
website was established in June 2012 by Rediona Curaj and presently
it employs a staff of three. As professed on its About us section, Lady
Albania is a modern online informative platform that provides counsel
and entertainment to all Albanian-speaking women.
gazetarepublika.al
was established as a website for the
Republika newspaper. The content published in this website is updated
several times a day, but in some cases less frequently due to a lack of
staff devoted to the web. It is a general-interest publication, with a bias
41. The data were collected from the questionnaire-interview with Blendi Salaj, co-founder
and moderator, on April 15, 2014. Interview conducted by Rrapo Zguri, as part of a series
58
towards covering of political events. Starting from 2013 Republika has
closed its print edition and is now an online-only publication.
monitor.al
is the website of Monitor magazine, established in 2006
by Media Union. This webzine specializes in business reporting. It
publishes mainly stories and news items contained in its print edition,
while updating its content once in a while with information and data on
the latest developments in the fields of business and economy. Presently
they have no staff committed to the web. They have advertising, but some
of the revenue is also generated by subscriptions or charges applied for
some stories.
channel-one.al is the website of the local television station Channel
One, established in March 2011. The website publishes mainly content
produced for the television station, but it also contains other items
produced by the online staff or taken from the internet.
tiranaobserver.al
was established on March 25, 2005 as the
website of Tirana Observer newspaper. The content published on the
website is partly produced by a staff of three working for this online
medium, and the rest is a contribution of the staff of the traditional media.
59
Summary
I
n general we can distinguish between two main groups of online media
in Albania: In the first group we list the websites of traditional media
(press, radio, television), while the second group collects individual or
independent websites, otherwise known as “digital native media”, which
are original web creations that have no relations to any traditional media.
The traditional media were among the first institutions to move
towards the web. In their approach to the web, the Albanian traditional
media went through three phases:
During the first phase the traditional media applied just a transfer
online of the content that they had prepared for their traditional format –
newspapers for print and television stations to broadcast for TV screens.
During the second phase news websites start to produce original
content for the web in conjunction with publishing the traditional media
product.
In the third phase the website functions as a unit apart with regard to
human resources, management and production. All the content that is
published in the website is original product, of the web and for the web.
Alongside the establishment of news websites from the traditional
media companies the online news media circle was joined by individuals,
experienced or with no experience at all in the field of journalism, that
started their news websites thus becoming a part of the Albanian online
media eco-system. Among the 45 most visited news websites in Albania,
18 are individual websites unaffiliated with any traditional media.
The majority of the Albanian news websites (31 out of 45) are general
interest publications. Almost all of them, 35 out of 39 online media that
were interviewed have human resources working exclusively for the web,
but the contribution of these human resources on the online content
remains insufficient and a good portion of the published content is being
produced by their colleagues of the traditional medium/media, is pulled
60
from the internet or is taken from other online media. Such a snapshot of
the Albanian online media shows that they still do not have the capacities
or the resources to function as independent media entities and it will take
some time until they become a media that publishes only original material.
The audience of the Albanian online media has matched the global
trend as it is on the rise year after year. In the meantime, web operators
are trying to apply and use to the best of their abilities the interactive
qualities of the web and its capacities for hypertext and multimediality,
even though in this respect the Albanian online media are only now taking
their first steps.
The most successful media have created apps to access their websites
through cell phones and other mobile devices. Also, they are using with
relative success social media networks as means to enlarge their audience.
The online media have tried to develop business models that best
fit their needs. However, the data from the interviews reveal that the
majority of news websites in Albania (25) have not registered as a separate
business entity, but operate within the bounds of their traditional medium
or media businesses. Obviously, this is the first major hurdle when it
comes to develop e business strategy for an online media. This way of
running a business makes it almost impossible to clearly distinguish
the contribution coming from the human resources employed in the
traditional media from the contribution of human resources engaged
exclusively to the web. It also makes it very difficult to estimate costs and
revenues for each party.
Research and surveys carried out in Albania reveal that advertising
remains the main source of revenue for the online media as well. However,
little revenue is also generated from paid subscriptions, e-commerce and
Google ads.
Despite achievements and the road so far, the adjustment and the
improvement of the business model of the online media in Albania is
advancing very slowly. Even though their audience is on the increase
this is not being translated into more money for these cash-strapped
media. One of the toughest challenges they will face for their future is a
more effective use of internet tools and features that make a difference in
reporting, packaging and the presentation of the media products. They
also need to find business models and solutions that work for them and suit
better the way the new media ought to function. An important challenge
ahead remains the functioning of the online media as a lone-standing
business unit, independent in their decision-making or indifferent to the
revenues and wealth of the traditional media or other businesses of their
mother company.
61
Bibliography
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Boczkowski, Pablo J., Digitizing the news: Innovation in online
newspapers. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004
Doyle, Gillian, Understanding media economics, SAGE Publications,
London, 2002
Hall, Jim, Online journalism: a critical primer. London: Pluto Press,
2001
Negroponte, Nicholas, Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995
Pavlik, John V. Journalism and new media. New York: Columbia
University Press, 2001
Tartari, Alban, Internet in Albania and its use by the media –history
and the present, Studime Albanologjike, Issue 5 “History of the media
and mediatisation of history”, Tirana 2012
Smith, Susan and Hendricks, John Allen, New Media, New Technology,
New Ideas or New Headaches, published by “The twenty - first century
media industry”, Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Inc. 2010
Webliography
• ALEXA, www.alexa.com
• AKEP, http://www.akep.al
• COMPENDIUM, Cultural policies and trends in Europe, Albania,
http://www.culturalpolicies.net/web/albania.php?aid=423
• ITU, http://www.itu.int
• TRAFFIC ESTIMATE, www.trafficestimate.com
62

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Guide to Page 1″ poster

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CoreMedia Case Study: Nation Media Group

No. 13, July 1979

APPS GAMES WEBSITES

PERFORMANCE OF WEBSITES OF MEXICO`S TOURISM

BudgetAir, CheapTickets, Vayama, Vliegwinkel, Flugladen

Enver Hoxha