Framework

It’s a strategic model developed by the Center for News, Technology & Innovation to help news organizations build sustainable businesses. Drawn from cross-industry research, it guides newsrooms through eight stages, from assessing their market to scaling what works, and is designed to be applied continuously rather than once.

The initiative is led by the Center for News, Technology & Innovation, an independent global research center that works to foster sustainable, independent journalism, open digital ecosystems, and informed public policy. The project team includes Amy Mitchell, CNTI’s founding executive director, Dr. William Towns, and Prabhat Mishra, with guidance from an advisory group of leaders across the news industry.

There are several ways to get started, so you can choose what fits your goals and budget. You can purchase individual case studies, save with bundles of case studies and resources, buy passes to workshops and events, or book one-on-one coaching sessions. Pricing for each option is listed in the Store.

Most toolkits focus on restoring or optimizing existing revenue streams. The Business Success Framework starts from a different premise: that lasting sustainability comes from redesigning your organization around the value your community needs now. It’s also built on research from outside journalism, giving news leaders a wider lens on how organizations survive disruption.

Disruption isn’t unique to news. Studying how organizations in entertainment, retail, fitness, and public services responded to structural change reveals patterns that are easy to miss when you only look at your own industry, including lessons from those that didn’t adapt.

Yes. The framework is designed for news organizations of every kind, whether nonprofit or for-profit, local or national, print, digital, or broadcast, new or long-established. The eight stages stay the same for everyone; how you apply them depends on your market, your mission, and your resources. If you’re not sure where to begin, building your curriculum will point you to the tools and case studies that best fit your organization.

The stages build on one another, so most organizations benefit from working through them in sequence. But because the framework is a continuous cycle, you can begin where your newsroom is today and return to earlier stages as your market changes.

There are several ways to take part: as a pilot news organization, a coach, a curriculum developer, or a financial supporter.