This chapter discusses certain issues that have to be addressed both by news organisations and by individuals responsible for the financial and legal soundness of online news work, namely journalists, advertising and management personnel. These include ways of financing websites through subscription and advertising, and the ethical and legal issues involved in online news publishing.

Financing Online Journalism

Most internet users are accustomed to reading news from websites that are online editions of newspapers, magazines, or radio and television channels. Though the cost of producing these sites is usually borne by the parent media outlets, they have to stand on their own feet in the long run. For web-only publications, such as India's Tehelka.com (until it launched its print edition some time ago) or rediff.com, or the US-based Salon.com, the struggle for survival starts from the first day.

For both types of online media, it is important to earn revenue to sustain themselves and to grow. As with the older media, there are basically two ways of doing this – subscription and advertising.

Revenue from Subscription

As we have noted earlier, the internet came into existence as a tool for sharing information among geographically dispersed researchers. When it was confined to the ARPAnet, this sharing was limited to scientists working in different US laboratories within the ambit of US defence projects. With networks like Usenet joining it, the internet soon became a network of the US university community as a whole (not yet a public network) and was infused with its communitarian ethos and hostility towards commercialism.