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JOU0010.1177/1464884914554177JournalismHarnischmacher

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Journalism

Journalism after all:

1­–23
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DOI: 10.1177/1464884914554177
performance – A comparison jou.sagepub.com

between alternative news

websites and websites of
traditional newspapers in
German local media markets

Michael Harnischmacher
University of Trier, Germany

Abstract
In light of the problems traditional news organizations are facing in many countries,
it has been suggested that journalism’s relevance as the sole provider of news in an
increasingly networked society is decreasing and that the Internet has given rise to new
kinds of amateur, citizen, and participatory forms of content production, changing the
nature of traditional journalism and threatening its institutions. The study presented
here suggests otherwise. Taking a look at the German local news market and presenting
a survey of the alternative news websites that have entered this market in recent years,
it suggests that it is not so much journalism’s standards and practices – its institutional
characteristics – that are changing, but its organizational framework.

Keywords
Change, neo-institutional theory, hyperlocal media, local journalism, online journalism,
content analysis, online survey

Introduction: The changing nature of local news

The changing nature of journalism is one of the dominant topics in the discussion of the
impact of our new media environment. How does ‘traditional’ journalism change with
the introduction of new media, with the possibilities of participatory content production

Corresponding author:
Michael Harnischmacher, Department of Media Studies, University of Trier, Universitätsring 15, 54296
Trier, Germany.
Email: harnischmacher@uni-trier.de

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2 Journalism 

and the appearance of new players in the system? There are worries about the diminish-
ing role of traditional journalism or, more precisely, traditional journalistic virtues in the
process of content production.
‘Journalism appears to have reached some historical juncture, and we are justified in
being troubled by these developments’, Dahlgren (2009: 146) writes in his article sum-
marizing the ‘The changing faces of journalism’. He gives various reasons why we
should be troubled, not least because a ‘rise of an array of news genres in the media that
in various ways compete with journalism also contributes to putting mainstream journal-
ism in a defensive position, hemmed in by threatening forces’ (p. 147).
One of those forces in many countries is the intrusion of alternative news websites on a
local level, which are challenging newspapers’ monopoly on local and regional informa-
tion. The study presented here sets out to analyze the local online news environment in
Germany in which traditional newspapers are faced with these new, independent news
providers. Using a mixed-method approach combining survey and content analyses, the
study assessed mission, self-concept, and audience image of alternative local news web-
sites (ALNWs) and tested the performance of traditional media and their alternative peers
in a number of case studies in local news environments. The aim was to (1) examine the
relationship between traditional and alternative media and (2) determine whether these
new alternatives pose a threat to traditional journalism. This article will make the point that
in order to assess the latter, it is important to distinguish between the institutions of journal-
ism (professional norms and standards) and the organizational forms and practices. It will
propose a model based on neo-institutionalist theory in this regard (see section ‘Definitions
and theoretical approaches to alternative local media in the age of the Internet’).

The local news market in Germany: Characteristics and

developments
So, what are the defining features of the current local media system in Germany, and why
does it provide an interesting field for examining the dynamics of traditional journalism
being faced with new alternative competitors on the web?
‘Local news’ has certainly not been among the prime research subjects in our field in
the past decade. In fact, it appears to be a kind of neglected stepchild of both journalism
and journalism research. Even in countries like Germany – with a still ‘healthy’ local
news market, local papers with high circulation, and a majority of professional journal-
ists working in this field – local news tends to be seen as secondary to the national print
and broadcasting sector in terms of quality and status. This can even be observed in the
way we talk about our newspapers: In Germany, we colloquially distinguish between
‘Lokalzeitungen’ (local papers), on one hand, and ‘Qualitätszeitungen’ (quality papers),
on the other hand, the latter referring to all papers with a nationwide circulation (with the
exception of the decidedly tabloid BILD-Zeitung).
In the same vein, our research in the past decade has often focused on what was per-
ceived as bigger and more important themes: the general media system and its develop-
ment,1 international comparative research on media systems and journalism cultures (e.g.
Hanitzsch et al., 2010), or the development of online journalism (e.g. Neuberger et al.,
2009; Neuberger and Nuernbergk, 2010; Quandt, 2005). Although there were studies on

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Harnischmacher 3

local journalism until the early 1990s, and some research interest in local broadcasting
afterward (Arnold, 2009; Kretzschmar et al., 2009; Weischenberg et al., 2005), the subject
has only recently been rediscovered (e.g. Pöttker and Vehmeier, 2013; Sehl, 2013). Still,
there are yet very few studies in Germany regarding the importance of the Internet as a
local and regional information tool (Oehmichen and Schröter, 2011: 182; exceptions
include Hasebrink and Schmidt, 2012; Hölig and Hasebrink, 2013; Röper, 2012b).
These long years of research neglect are unfortunate because the local media system
in Germany has a variety of characteristics that make it an area well worth our research
attention. First, local news(papers) are not only an important but also an essential part of
the German media system. As a recent international survey by the Reuters Institute
showed, German audiences attach greater importance to regional news than any other
country analyzed (Hölig and Hasebrink, 2013: 522).
Second, local and regional newspapers are still the number one source for local infor-
mation in Germany (Arnold, 2009: 267; Hasebrink and Schmidt, 2012; Röper, 2012b).
As Schütz (2009) observed, most local papers were the sole provider of local news for
their audiences, making them what he called a sort of ‘utility service’ for news (p. 255).
This situation still has not changed much, as we will see below.
Third, the German newspaper market has traditionally been a predominantly local and
regional one, with every city, town, and region still having at least one local newspaper
(or regional newspaper with a specialized local or metro section). The recent, 2010 wave
of the most comprehensive longitudinal study on mass communication in Germany
shows that the printed paper still reaches 44 percent of all Germans on a daily basis (van
Eimeren and Ridder, 2011: 8). At the moment, there are 130 newspapers with 1532 local
or regional editions (Schütz, 2012: 571) and a total circulation of approximately 20 mil-
lion papers (Röper, 2014: 254).
Fourth, although newspaper circulation is declining, the newspaper crisis has not hit
the German market as much as other countries, and revenues are still relatively stable
(Röper, 2010). Over the last two decades, publishers were able to compensate at least
part of their losses through different measures, such as generating additional revenues
through local advertising papers, rising subscription fees and cutting costs by reducing
their staff, merging local editions and editorial offices, and generally paying less for
freelancers. So, while the economic concentration in the newspaper market reached an
all-time high in 2012 and again in 2014 (Röper, 2012a, 2014), the traditional newspapers
still maintain a firm grip on the local news market. Not only are they still bought and read
by many Germans on a daily basis, they were also able to reinforce their local informa-
tion power by buying competitors and expanding their publishing portfolios in new areas
such as the aforementioned free advertising papers and especially the Internet.
Although the traditional media are still the exclusive or most important source of
news for more than half of German audiences (Hölig and Hasebrink, 2013: 525), the
Internet is becoming more important on a local level. In 2010, already close to 45 percent
of Internet users2 said they occasionally or regularly get news and information about
their local communities from the Internet (Oehmichen and Schröter, 2011: 187). The
development of readership over the past decades in relationship to age clearly shows that
particularly the generations born after 1960 have been increasingly turning away from
reading the printed paper (Best and Engel, 2011: 529).3

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4 Journalism 

However, this does not mean that the traditional papers have lost their local informa-
tion monopolies in Germany. The local online market is clearly dominated by the legacy
news media: As Röper (2012b: 652) showed, traditional newspaper publishers on aver-
age are involved in 7.9 local online portals. That is, all regional and local newspapers run
at least one local news website, and some of them hold interests in up to 30 (Koblenz) or
35 (Düsseldorf) different websites. For local and regional audiences, the local newspa-
pers, local radio stations, and their respective websites are the dominant source of infor-
mation, as Hasebrink and Schmidt (2012: 41) showed in a representative survey of news
repertoires. Not surprisingly, only a few years ago, more than half of the German chief
editors did not regard independent online news sources, user-generated content, or par-
ticipatory journalism as a serious competition for traditional journalism, nor were they
expecting it to become one in the near future (Harnischmacher, 2010: 200).
Still, in some local markets, the traditional local press faces a new competitive envi-
ronment. In addition to the websites of the legacy media, independently produced news
sites can be found, with a wide array of appearances from weblogs to community-based
forums to semiprofessional and professional online ‘newspapers’.

Definitions and theoretical approaches to alternative local

media in the age of the Internet
What do we know about these websites and their role in the German local online environ-
ment? The term ‘hyperlocals’, often used to describe independent local news websites
(Riefler, 2008), is slightly problematic in the context of the German system, if taken liter-
ally. Although there is one successful ‘hyperlocal’ news organization specialized in pub-
lishing user-generated local content – the participatory journalism portal ‘myheimat’ (see
Fröhlich et al., 2012) – with the exception of Berlin and – to a lesser degree – Hamburg,
Munich, and Cologne,4 there are no metropolitan areas where what Bruns et al. (2008) call
‘hyperlocal specialism’ could hold an advantage over what the traditional local print media
has already been covering. That is, there are very few places where ‘hyperlocal’ niches
exist within the German local news market: small geographical regions that were previ-
ously overlooked or deemed too specific by the traditional media. This article will follow
the broader definition by Metzgar et al. (2011) who define ‘hyperlocal media’ as ‘intended
to fill perceived gaps in coverage of an issue or region and to promote civic engagement’
(p. 774). This seems to be a more suitable approach by adding the variables ‘issue gaps’ and
‘civic engagement’ instead of just concentrating on the (hyper)locality of news reporting.
However, the term ‘ALNWs’ will be used throughout this article instead of ‘hyperlocals’ as
a more fitting description for new independent online media in Germany.
ALNWs carry some promises that have been applied to new media since the first rise
of radio (see, for example, Bertold Brecht’s radio theory; Brecht, 1998 [1932]). They
have been described as an example of civic journalism (Bruns and Schmidt, 2011), the
democratization of news through the web, or a competition to traditional local newspa-
pers and local broadcasting (Riefler, 2008: 166).
In journalism study’s discussion of what is happening to professional journalism
online, the ecosystem of online news is often seen as being determined by the addition of
two new approaches to news gathering, production, and distribution: participatory news

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Harnischmacher 5

production, mainly realized by amateur communicators (but as part of a network or com-

munity), mostly outside the system of professional journalism, communicating news of
special and individual interest to them (blogs, amateur podcasts/vodcasts, civic journal-
ism, like the aforementioned ‘myheimat’), and new technological news services (aggre-
gators such as GoogleNews), which also challenge traditional news organizations’
monopoly on news distribution.
There has been a strong focus in journalism studies on examining the participatory
potential of online journalism and on regarding professional journalism as ‘under attack’
by collaborative, amateur, or citizen journalism (for a detailed analysis, see Engesser,
2008; Fröhlich et al., 2012), subjected to change because of its loss of communication
hegemony in an increasingly participatory news culture (e.g. Dahlgren, 2009; Deuze,
2007; Jenkins, 2006). However, there are ‘empirical signs of a very limited acceptance
of participatory forms throughout many Western countries’ (e.g. Paulussen et al., 2007;
Quandt and Singer, 2009: 132; Singer et al., 2011) – an observation that was also sup-
ported by our look at alternative websites in Germany, as we will see later on.
Regardless of features like professionalism or participation, what are the possible
relationships between old and new media in a local online environment? We can turn to
Neuberger and Quandt (2010: 71f.) for this question. They describe three basic types of
relationship between traditional and new forms of online journalism: identity, comple-
mentarity, or integration. ‘Identity’ means that there are established, professional media
and new media in a certain market which use the same technologies (channels) for reach-
ing the same audiences: They offer substitutable services for their audiences and are
therefore in direct competition with one another. ‘Complementarity’ means there are
professional, established media and new media reaching the same audiences but comple-
menting each other as sources of information. Competition is not a necessity in this
regard because both sources can benefit from each other: They can use each other as
sources for topics, opinion, and information. Last but not least, ‘integration’ refers to
integrative formats that include, for example, new participatory elements into traditional,
professional editorial news work. Neuberger and Quandt see two possibilities for this
kind of integration: Either users have the chance to directly participate in the editorial
work, for example, as reporters or newspapers offer a moderated forum for users which
is relatively independent from the editorial content of their websites. This distinction will
be applied to the study of ALNWs in the following study. However, before discussing the
research project, there is one more theoretical issue that needs to be addressed.

A neo-institutional model of journalism

What do we mean when we talk about ‘journalism’ – especially in the context of ‘jour-
nalistic change’? In the debate, two different definitions of what ‘journalism’ is supposed
to mean are used (and are frequently mixed up). On one hand, we refer to a set of profes-
sional practices, norms, and beliefs. These are, among others, journalistic research prac-
tices, truth and objectivity, the separation of news and opinion, and the use of journalistic
formats and language. On the other hand, ‘journalism’ refers to a set of organizational
practices: media companies, newsrooms, and types of employment such as full-time,
part-time, freelance, participatory, or ‘amateur’. When we speak of ‘journalism’, it is

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6 Journalism 

very important to distinguish between these two definitions, especially when we are
analyzing its development.
Neo-institutionalism offers a great theoretical framework in this regard because it
makes the necessary distinctions. From a neo-institutional standpoint, social systems are
made up of three levels of structuring agents: institutions, organizations, and actors.
Institutions can be regarded not only as the highest level but also as the most abstract
level of a system’s structure. Contrary to colloquial language, the term ‘institutions’ does
not refer to tangible, real-life structures – that would be ‘organizations’ – but to norms,
beliefs, and ideas. Scott (1995) distinguishes three forms of institutions with regard to
their societal functions: regulative institutions (distinct guidelines such as laws, policies,
and contracts), normative institutions (norms and ideas), and cognitive institutions,
which are basic beliefs – the principles that are the very foundation of a societal system.
Journalistic institutions could be, for example, editorial guidelines, media law and poli-
cies (regulative institutions), objectivity, the separation of news and opinion (normative
institutions), the belief in freedom of speech, and a free press (cognitive institutions) –
the very ideas that define journalism (for a more thorough systemization of journalism in
light of institutional theory, see Harnischmacher, 2010).
Organizations are the structural manifestations of institutions: corporations, different
media, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), associations, and so on. Their structure
is influenced not only by the system’s institutions but also by individual actors within the
system. Actors are part of organizations and restrained by them and the system’s institu-
tions – they have to respect the law, their company’s policies, the formats of the medium
they are working for, and so on – but they are also free to influence both the organiza-
tional and the institutional level: through decision-making, innovation, adaptation, intro-
duction, and implementation of new ideas.
The relationship between the different levels of this system is defined by legitimacy.
Institutions (journalistic values, media law, etc.) lend legitimacy to what organizations
(newspapers, broadcasting stations, journalism associations, etc.) are doing, and organi-
zations lend legitimacy to the activities of their employees. They, in turn, legitimize
organizations and institutions through acting according to their rules. Thus, legitimacy
can be seen as a form of acceptance of the different levels of the system, and it is a sign
that the elements of the system ‘make sense’ or, as Suchman (1995) put it, ‘are desirable,
proper or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs,
and definitions’ (p. 574). Legitimacy can be understood as communicated consent.

Communicating consent and changing the system

This view offers a very good way to analyze how a system changes. Much in the same
way Scott (1995) identified three types of institutions, Suchman (1995) distinguished
three kinds of legitimacy found in institutional systems: pragmatic, moral, and cognitive
legitimacy. Pragmatic legitimacy is the most direct form of communicating consent:
buying a newspaper, watching a show, and listening to a program. Moral legitimacy is
more indirect, and it is the positive evaluation of an organization: Do audiences perceive
a media organization as ‘good’ or its actions as ‘the right thing to do’ (Suchman, 1995:
579)? Moral legitimacy is even more passive, and it refers to the basic acceptance of an

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Harnischmacher 7

1. Precipitang Jolts 2. Deinstuonalizaon 3. Preinstuonalizaon

• Social • Emergence of new • Independent

• Technological players innovaon
• Regulatory • Ascendance of Actors • Technical viability
• Instuonal paramount
Entrepeneurship

6. Reinstuonalizaon 5. Diffusion 4. Theorizaon

• Cognive legimacy • Increasing • Specificaon of general

objecficaon organizaonal failing
• Pragmac • Jusficaon of abstract
legimacy possible soluon
• Moral and/or
pragmac legimacy

Figure 1.  A model of institutional change.

Based on Greenwood et al. (2002: 60).

organization or institution as ‘necessary’. In this regard, pragmatic legitimacy can be

subject to change much easier than cognitive legitimacy. In the same vein, regulative
institutions are much easier to change than cognitive institutions.
So, how do systems change? Greenwood et al. (2002) have proposed a model of insti-
tutional change which will be applied to the field of journalism in this study (Figure 1). As
a first step for institutional change, they see social, technological, or regulatory changes
that act as ‘precipitating jolts’, destabilizing the system. In the case of journalism, we can
identify a number of these developments: digitalization, media convergence, globalization,
and individualization. These jolts trigger a process of deinstitutionalization marked by the
emergence of new players and institutional entrepreneurship within the system (e.g. our
ALNWs). The next two steps, preinstitutionalization and theorization, see the failing of
traditional organizational forms and the change of pragmatic and moral legitimacy or, in
other words, the shifting of audiences’ consent. In the fifth step, ‘diffusion’, this new prag-
matic legitimacy stabilizes the changed organization system. It is important to note that
cognitive legitimacy and with it the cognitive institutions of the system – the belief in the
necessity of the underlying principles of the system – remain unchanged up to this point.
Greenwood et al. (2002) point out that this foundation of a system may also change over
time (step 6), thereby completing a full institutional change, basically creating a new sys-
tem. However, in the case of the journalism system, it is more likely to assume that new
precipitating jolts will occur that trigger a new cycle of pragmatic, organizational change,
leaving the underlying cognitive principles unchanged. This is especially the case for sys-
tems in a perpetual state of innovation (i.e. technology-driven systems like the new media
sector) where new ‘precipitating jolts’ hit the system so frequently it practically has no time
to change its underlying principles (Harnischmacher, 2010).

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8 Journalism 

Method and research questions

Based on the theoretical ideas and the focus of previous research on online journalism
described above, three hypotheses were tested:

H1. ALNWs in Germany differ from traditional editorial journalism in terms of

•• professional standards;
•• aims and practices;
•• the process of news production (e.g. participatory news production).

H2. Following Neuberger and Quandt (2010), the relationship between ALNWs and
traditional media could be competitive (with two professional journalism websites
competing in the same market), complementary (with alternative websites comple-
menting traditional journalism), or integrative (with cooperations between alternative
and traditional news websites). With regard to the proposed model of institutional
change, ALNWs, as institutional entrepreneurs, should be aiming to garner pragmatic
and/or moral legitimacy from audiences by strategically positioning themselves
against their traditional counterparts.
H3. In connection with H1 and H2, we also have to assume that ALNWs could pose
a threat to the traditional notion of journalism. With regard to the theoretical neo-
institutionalist model proposed above, we expect ALNWs, the entrepreneurs in the
local news market, to challenge both traditional journalism’s institutions (profes-
sional norms, values, and standards) and organizations (editorial practice, traditional
news production).

In a first step, we searched for the independently produced local news websites in
Germany. The German blog archive ‘kiezblogs.de’ listed a total of 450 regional blogs in
Germany in the beginning of 2012. However, a majority of these blogs included web-
sites by traditional news organizations, regional administrations, politicians, public
relation (PR) companies, local sports fan clubs, committees, and so on. The aim was to
identify websites with a focus on providing alternative news for a local community –
websites sharing the same habitat as the local newspapers but not financed by them – in
order to study their relationship to the papers. Therefore, we considered openly acces-
sible websites

•• that were not affiliated with the local or regional paper or publisher, local TV or
radio stations;
•• that provided local or regional news and/or opinion – that is, we excluded web-
sites that only provided advertising space, classifieds, or event guides if they did
not include any kind of editorial content;
•• that provided a minimum of generalization by publishing news and/or opinion in/
on local politics and at least one other thematic area (e.g. we excluded monothe-
matic weblogs of local soccer fan clubs).

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Harnischmacher 9

The list was compiled using Google search by combining search phrases for ‘news’
(‘Nachrichten’, ‘Neues’, ‘Neuigkeiten’, etc.) with the names of those cities and regions of
the area of circulation of the – at that time – 135 German newspapers. This approach cov-
ered every single local news market in Germany, since, as described above, there are no
cities, towns, or regions in the country without at least one edition of these 135 papers. It
also allowed us to identify the competitors in the local news markets. The final list identi-
fied 27 alternative news websites (September 2011), situated all over the country, from
major cities to rural regions. This number might strike some readers as low, especially
with regard to the high number of bloggers and hyperlocals found in other countries.
However, we have to keep in mind the unusually strong position local newspaper compa-
nies hold in the German market (see section ‘The local new market in Germany:
Characteristics and developments’) (Table 1).
Table 1.  Study ‘The new alternatives’: approach, methods, and operationalization.

Step Method Hypothesis and Operationalization

research questions
1 Definition and  
search for
ALNWs
2 Qualitative Preliminary typology of
assessment ALNWs
3 Content 30 news items from H1, H3 Analysis regarding
analysis I 5 ALNWs • Themes
• Wording
• Style
• Modalities
• Journalistic formats
• …
4 Survey Online questionnaire H2, H3 Questions regarding
to 27 producers • Content
(187 items) • Identity
• Financing
• Plans for the future
5 Content 80 articles from H1, H2, H3 Comparisons regarding
Analysis II each of the two • Themes
local newspaper’s • Wording
websites and the • Style
corresponding • Modalities
ALNWs • Journalistic formats
• …

ALNWs: alternative local news websites.

In a second step, we took a first qualitative look at our sample. We sorted the sites
using a preliminary typology based on three criteria: the perceived professionalism of the
websites, their emphasis on either participatory or editorial content, and their emphasis

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10 Journalism 

on either news or opinion. This distinction led to four initial types, giving a first over-
view of their characteristics:

1. Professionals, who concentrate on information about local events and politics

and appear to operate by journalistic standards (15 websites)
2. Opinion-based, who also appear to operate by professional journalistic standards
but focus on commentary and opinion (5 websites)
3. Supervised Citizen Journalism, providing an open platform for local audiences to
post information, administered by (professional) journalists (3 websites)
4. Amateur News Websites, appearing to be nonprofessional by journalistic stand-
ards in both presentation and wording, highly subjective and focusing on opinion
(4 websites).

This first overview already pointed toward two interesting aspects: First, a majority of
the ALNWs made the impression that they followed professional journalistic standards
in appearance and editorial content. Second, the websites focusing on editorial content
far outnumbered websites with participatory features.
In a third step, in order to further analyze the websites, we used three methodological
approaches. First, we conducted a survey, asking the operators of all 27 websites to
answer a standardized online questionnaire. This questionnaire covered four thematic
areas: content (such as thematic selection, news values, and research principles), iden-
tity (such as professional roles and standards, self-conception as journalists, and blog-
gers), financing, and plans for the future. Because of the low but exhaustive number of
cases, the questionnaire was rather extensive and contained closed and open questions
with a total of 187 items. Because of the length of the questionnaire, we used mostly
closed questions and a number of first- and second-level filter questions so that not
every participant had to go through all 187 items. A 5-point Likert scale was used
throughout the questionnaire for all items measuring agreement/disagreement and
importance/unimportance. Two pretests of the questionnaire were run in December
2011 in order to determine the technical viability of the design and the comprehensibil-
ity and face validity of the items. The questionnaire was sent out to respondents on 9
January 2012, with a follow-up on 16 January. Of the 27 operators, 23 participated in
the survey, with 21 finishing the complete survey.
In addition, we used two sets of in-depth case studies in order to gain insights into
the content production of the ALNW and to examine the validity of the operators’ self-
perception: We conducted a more detailed content analysis of a sample of five websites,
two from the broad first category (‘Professionals’) and one from each of the remaining
three (‘Opinion-based’, ‘Citizen Journalism’, and ‘Amateur’).5 These websites were
analyzed regarding their appearance (layout) and use of web features (audio/visual
media, commentary functions, navigation, etc.) (21 items). Then, 150 news articles, 30
from each website, and the comment section for each of those articles were analyzed
regarding their content: for example, themes, length of articles, wording, spelling,
sources, and journalistic formats (18 items).
As a final step, a second content analysis was conducted, this time comparing the com-
petitors – one traditional local newspaper and one alternative website – in two different

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Harnischmacher 11

Audience parcipaon 11
Networking 6
Entertainment 14 agree
Invesgaon 22 disagree
Informaon 21
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Figure 2.  Mission: ‘What do you see as the main function of your website?’ (n = 23, multiple
response).

local online markets. In the first case, we compared the reporting of traditional newspaper
Trierischer Volksfreund (http://www.volksfreund.de) with the new local news website
‘16vor’ (http://www.16vor.de) in the city of Trier, Germany (population: 105,000). For
the second case, a more rural local market in the south of Germany was chosen, and the
traditional newspaper (the local edition of Munich’s Münchner Merkur, http://www.
merkur-online.de/lokales/region-tegernsee/) was compared to the local alternative web-
site ‘Tegernseer Stimme’ (http://www.tegernseer-stimme.de). In both cases, a sample of
80 articles from the traditional paper’s website and 80 articles from the alternative com-
petitor’s website over the same period of time were analyzed, again using a standardized
content analysis. The articles were compared regarding themes, wording, style, journalis-
tic formats, and general information (publication frequency, length of articles, etc.).

Results: ALNWs in Germany

The following paragraphs will highlight results from both the content analysis and the
survey. The main focus of the analysis presented here is to determine the level of journal-
istic professionalism of the ALNWs in order to clarify their relationship to the traditional
local media in their respective markets.

Self-concept of ALNWs
First of all, there is a very clear tendency across all participants of the survey to under-
stand their websites as a journalistic endeavor. Of the 23 participants, 16 describe their
websites as ‘journalism’, only 1 as ‘participatory journalism’, and no one as primarily an
aggregator of news. One participant explained in an open question that he regards his
website as ‘a mixture of journalistic and personal/private content’, and one wants it to be
understood simply as a ‘newspaper’.
It is also interesting that a majority of the participants see information and investiga-
tion as the main function of their work (Figure 2). This self-concept, let us call it ‘infor-
mation and research’, can be found in other results of our analysis as well. When asked
about the most important thematic areas or topics they present on their websites, ‘hard’
news – politics, economy, and social topics – as well as cultural news and background
information are at the top of the list (Figure 3). Less important are ‘softer’ subjects (sports
or event notes).

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12 Journalism 

Event note 1 4 3
Social topics 9 10 1 1
Sports 2 6 4 7
Culture 10 6 2 1
Economy 10 8 1
Polics 18 2
Background 15 4 2

0 5 10 15 20 25

very important important

neither important nor unimportant unimportant
very unimportant

Figure 3.  Values given to categories of news content by interviewees (n = 23).

25
20.14 18.7
20 17.26 15.82
15
8.63
10 6.47 5.75
5.03
5 0.7 1.43
0

Figure 4.  Distribution of categories of news content in ALNWs (percentages; n = 150 articles).
ALNWs: alternative local news websites.
*‘Society’: this category included the topics public life, church and religion, education, science, and human
interest.

This focus was also evident in the content analysis of the 150 articles we analyzed
from our sample of five websites (Figure 4). A total of 20 percent of all articles in our
sample dealt with local politics, another 17 percent with cultural themes, and 18.7 percent
with social topics (society, religion, and education). Sports as well as more ‘tabloid’ top-
ics like accidents and crime played a much smaller role.
In the same regard, the emphasis on giving background information (Figure 3) could
also be seen in the results of the content analysis. A total of 40 percent of all articles in
the sample (61 articles) went further than just pointing out the ‘who’, ‘when’, ‘where’,
and ‘what’ of an event by answering the question ‘why’ and giving context and back-
ground information, explanations, and references.
Regarding the importance of news values for choosing suitable topics for their web-
sites, respondents were also leaning toward the more ‘respectable’ factors: They

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Harnischmacher 13

Conflict 5 8 6
Unexpectedness 1 9 8 2
Negavity 2 8 8 2
Personalizaon 1 2 10 7
Local relevance 14 6
Local proximity 14 5 1
Immediacy 13 4 3

0 5 10 15 20 25

very important important

neither important nor unimportant unimportant
very unimportant

Figure 5.  Assessment of the importance of news values by interviewees (n = 23).

especially view local relevance, proximity, and immediacy as important factors, and
more sensationalistic causes like negativity and unexpectedness (and also personaliza-
tion) are seen as rather unimportant (Figure 5).
A possible explanation for this may be the educational background of the respondents.
Nine participants of the survey stated they have a long-standing practical background in
journalism, three had a Volontariat, the respected German vocational education for journal-
ists, two went to journalism school, two more had a university degree in communications,
and six said they participated in a continuing/further education program in journalism.

Journalistic formats and language

Not surprisingly, the most common journalistic format in our content analysis of the
websites was a report or news article.
A total of 44 percent of the articles in our sample (66 articles) were reports and news
pieces; another 13 percent (20 articles) were reports with some commentary/opinion
thrown in the mix. Other formats like interviews, features, portraits, or reviews were far
fewer. It is especially interesting to note that only 8 out of 150 articles were clear opinion
pieces.
The emphasis on news instead of commentary and opinion was also mirrored in the
language used in the articles. Only about one-third of the articles (n = 107) used collo-
quial language, and the general tone of close to 60 percent of all articles in our sample
was objective and neutral. Only six articles in the sample were written in a completely
subjective tone.

Research and sources

The results regarding the self-concept of the website’s operators already pointed toward
an emphasis on information, background, and research. This emphasis is also evident
when we take a look at the sources of the websites’ articles.

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14 Journalism 

25

20 1 1 1
3 2
6 6 never
15 9 4
seldom
9
10 somemes
10
14 13 rather oen
9
5
8 very oen
4
0 2 1
Own local Internet Audience News Other
research research request Agencies media

Figure 6.  Assessment of the use of sources by interviewees (n = 23).

First of all, when asked about the impetus for story ideas, the picture is very clear:
Most topics come from the respondents’ own research, Internet research, or audience
requests. Other media, news agencies in particular, but also other local media, play a
lesser or no role in discovering stories (Figure 6).
It is also important to note that 139 articles discernibly named their sources, and 111
out of them did not show any evidence of using corporate or other PR information. Most
of the time, the individual author was named as the source of reference.

Audience image
At this point, the analysis has already shown that the independent local news websites in
the study show a clear focus: There is an emphasis on traditional journalism, with a focus
on research, an emphasis on objective reporting, information, and background over opin-
ion. Also, participatory elements play only a small role. In this regard, it is interesting to
look at the website operators’ perception of their audience.
The respondents view their audience as relatively educated, having at least a middle
school degree, in most cases also a 12th year degree (Abitur) or a higher education
degree. However, very interesting is the perceived age span of the target audience
(Figure 7). Although the Internet is still a medium used extensively by young people,
the perceived audience of our independent news sites is older – on average between 30
and 50 years. That is, the websites’ operators expect their audience to be very similar
to that of traditional newspapers.

Sharing the same habitat? Competition and cooperation with other local
media
In this regard, how do the respondents see their relationship with other local media? Do
they perceive it as competition or is there even some kind of cooperation within the local
news ecosystem?
The question whether there is competition or complementarity between the media
of the local news system seems to depend strongly on the respective local

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Harnischmacher 15

20
17 16
15
13
10 9 8
5
3
0
under 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 older
20 than 60

Figure 7.  Assessment of ALNW audience’s age by interviewees (n = 23).

environment. Of the 23 respondents, 10 see their website in some competition to the

local paper, but only 3 respondents describe this competition as ‘strong’. Still, the local
papers seem to be the focal point as possible competitors of the independent news
websites. Local radio and TV play a much lesser role. Regardless of not competing
with one another, there is – in the views of the alternative producers – almost no coop-
eration between the local media in our sample. All the more interesting was the last
part of the study, which aimed to compare selected alternative websites with the web-
sites of their local traditional paper.

Inter-media comparison: ALNWs and their traditional counterparts

In addition to the information provided by the producers of the alternative websites
themselves, we tried to analyze the local relationship between ALNWs and traditional
media more closely with two different case studies. The inter-media comparison
between two ALNWs, ‘16vor.de’ (city of Trier) and ‘TegernseerStimme.de’ (rural
region near Munich), and their traditional peers in the respective local markets,
‘Volksfreund.de’ (Trier) and ‘Merkur-online.de’ (Munich), was meant to shed light on
the news and communication strategies the ‘old’ and new medium in two different
regional markets employ. The two regions were chosen because of their geographical
differences: Trier, with 105,000 people, is considered a larger city by German standards.
It is a regional metropolitan center in the north-west of Germany with a University and
a University of Applied Sciences. Tegernsee, on the other hand, is a more rural region
in the south of Germany, close to the Munich metropolitan center, but dominated by
small towns and villages.
The analysis shows that in both case studies, the ALNWs positioned itself very
clearly toward the traditional newspaper’s website, not by imitating the newspaper’s
publishing strategies, but by seeking niches – thematically and in terms of journalism
formats – that supplement what the newspaper does. This was especially interesting
because the traditional paper’s online publishing approaches in both cases were quite
different.

Trier: ‘Volksfreund’ and ‘16vor’. On average, Trier’s traditional newspaper Trierischer

Volksfreund publishes 24 articles per day on its website ‘Volksfreund.de’. These are

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16 Journalism 

Table 2.  General information, websites of Volksfreund and ‘16vor’ (n = 160).

Volksfreund.de (daily 16 Vor.de (ALNW)

newspaper’s website)
Articles per day 24 0.85
Length of article 1400 characters 6100 characters
Pictures per article 0.3 1.6
Links (internal) 0.1 1.1
Links (external) 0.2 0.8
Comments per article 0.03 4.7

ALNW: alternative local news website.

Other
Volksfreund
Report with Commentary 16vor
Review
Column (ironic)
Column
Feature
Portrait
Event Note
Interview
Report/News story

0 10 20 30 40 50

Figure 8.  Journalism formats used by Volksfreund and ‘16vor’ (n = 160).

ALNWs: alternative local news websites.

45
40 16vor
35
30 Volksfreund
25
20
15
10
5
0

Figure 9.  Topics of articles in Volksfreund and ‘16vor’ (n = 160).

ALNWs: alternative local news websites.
*‘Society’: this category included the topics public life, church and religion, education, science, and human
interest.

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Harnischmacher 17

Table 3.  General information, websites of Merkur and ‘Tegernseer Stimme’ (n = 160).

Merkur-online.de (daily TegernseerStimme.de (ALNW)

newspaper’s website)
Articles per day 2.63 4.86
Length of article 1610 characters 2970 characters
Pictures per article 1 1.3
Links (internal) 0.9 0.5
Links (external) 0.2 0.3
Comments per article 0.4 4.0

ALNW: alternative local news website.

primarily rather short articles (1400 characters on average, Table 2), mostly local news
pieces, event notes, and an occasional longer feature. Its news coverage is dominated by
‘society’ topics: news about schools, social life, religion, and human interest stories
(Figures 8 and 9). Its ALNW competitor, ‘16vor’ (meaning ‘16 B.C.’, the alleged year
Trier, Germany’s oldest city, was founded by the Romans) places emphasis on fewer,
much longer articles: They mostly publish only one new article per day, which, averag-
ing 6100 characters, is more than four times as long as the regular Volksfreund article
(in addition, they also run a news-feed with unedited notices from the local police). The
ALNWs use a greater variety of journalism formats ranging from features and longer
reportages to reviews and interviews. The thematic range of ‘16vor’ is also broader,
placing as much emphasis on politics and cultural topics as on society topics. It is also
important to note that 40 percent of all articles on ‘16vor’ contained extensive back-
ground information on the reported subject, but only 26 percent of the articles in the
traditional Volksfreund.

Tegernsee: ‘Merkur’ and ‘Tegernseer Stimme’.  In the south of Germany, things looked a bit
different. Traditional newspaper Merkur’s website for the Tegernsee region only pub-
lished between two and three articles per day, while ALNW ‘Tegernseer Stimme’ was
more active with close to five daily articles. Also, articles of the ‘Stimme’ tended to be
almost twice as long as those of the Merkur (see Table 3).
Thematically, both sources were quite similar, with the exception of the ALNWs
reporting more often on local politics than the traditional Merkur (Figure 10). Nevertheless,
one clear distinction was the use of journalism formats. While the traditional newspaper’s
website published almost entirely short reports and news pieces, the ALNWs used a
greater variety of formats including features and opinion pieces (Figure 11).

Discussion
The most interesting finding regards the self-concept of German ALNWs: What we ini-
tially expected to find was a variety of amateur or participatory formats. What we found,
however, was a number of online news sites with a predominantly professional journal-
ism ethos. They are neither ‘participatory journalism’ nor ‘journalism from the edges’

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18 Journalism 

Other
Münchner Merkur
Report with Commentary
Tegernseer Smme
Column
Feature
Portrait
Event Note
Report/News story

0 20 40 60 80

Figure 10.  Topics of articles in Merkur and ‘Tegernseer Stimme’ (n = 160).

ALNWs: alternative local news websites.
*‘Society’: this category included the topics public life, church and religion, education, science, and human
interest.

40
35 Smme
30
Merkur
25
20
15
10
5
0

Figure 11.  Journalism formats used by Merkur and ‘Tegernseer Stimme’ (n = 160).
ALNWs: alternative local news websites.

(Lasica, 2003) – they provide journalism, plain and simple, and their views on the sub-
ject can often even be described as conservative:

•• Most of the ALNW operators consider themselves journalists.

•• Many have a traditional education in journalism.
•• Only few emphasize participatory elements on their websites.
•• Their reporting has a clear emphasis on information over opinion and relevance
over sensationalism.
•• The tone of reporting is objective rather than subjective and factual rather than
colloquial.
•• On average, they describe their target audience as the same as the traditional local
newspaper’s: older than 30, middle-class, and moderately or well educated.

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Harnischmacher 19

The results show that many ALNWs model themselves as real alternatives to the tra-
ditional media, adhering to the principles of quality journalism (journalism institutions),
but using the low distribution costs of the web as a means to enter the local market domi-
nated by legacy media companies.
Contrary to the first hypothesis ‘H1: ALNWs in Germany differ from traditional edi-
torial journalism in terms of professional standards, aims and practices, and the process
of news production’, which was derived from the dominant themes in journalism study’s
discussion of online journalism, we did not find much difference. ALNWs predomi-
nantly used the same traditional editorial process of news production, while participatory
or ‘bottom up’ processes were only of minor interest to them.
With regard to ‘H2: The relationship between ALNWs and traditional media could be
competitive, complementary, or integrative’, the results show that the complementary
approach dominated the relationship between new and traditional media. ALNWs posi-
tioned themselves to supplement their traditional counterparts thematically and in terms
of formats, while neither cooperation with nor direct competition to the traditional media
played a major role in most of the ALNW’s self-perception. They were carving out a
niche for themselves adhering to the same principles as traditional media. At the same
time, they were targeting the same audiences. Our two case studies emphasized this
complementary approach in two very different local markets. In both cases, the ALNW
used publication strategies that differed from the traditional newspaper’s website, find-
ing niches in terms of themes and formats.
In terms of institutional theory, they are not challenging basic principles of (local)
journalism, but their quest for readership from the same audiences – pragmatic legiti-
macy – may challenge the organizational structure of the local news market they
intrude.
With regard to the notion that ‘ALNWs pose a threat’ (H3), we can thus conclude
that ALNWs seem to challenge the organizational concept of traditional journalism,
but not its institutions. The notion of traditional journalism seems to abide regardless
of the organizational form – legacy or alternative. Returning to the proposed neo-
institutional model of change, we can argue that in the past years, the field of journal-
ism has passed through phases of deinstitutionalization and preinstitutionalization,
with the emergence of new players, taking an entrepreneurial advantage of the techno-
logical changes in the media. Local journalism in Germany now seems to be in the
fourth phase of institutional change, theorization, where the failing of traditional
organizational models may start to be acknowledged and possible solutions are dis-
cussed. In Germany, we can see this in the current public discussion following the
insolvency of national newspapers Frankfurter Rundschau and the German Financial
Times and the introduction of pay walls. On the local level, the relatively small number
of alternative news websites underlines the still powerful position of the legacy news
media. The dominant question is whether new organizational models like ALNW can
achieve pragmatic and moral legitimacy. That is, whether they can find the audiences,
finances, and approval to become a viable organizational model. The results show that,
in accordance with the model of institutional change, the cognitive institutions of jour-
nalism remain untouched at this point.

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20 Journalism 

Conclusion
Our study sets out to identify the alternative local news providers on the German Internet
and to analyze them in terms of their self-perception regarding the institutions of journal-
ism as well as their organizational concept. We provided a comprehensive survey of all
ALNW operators and were then able to confirm their self-concept in a number of case
studies using different comparative content analyses. However, due to practical consid-
erations, we were yet unable to test and confirm the viability of the ALNW’s positions in
all 27 local markets. A comprehensive content analysis should be the next step in
researching the self-concept found in this study. The study also showed that the impor-
tant question arising now is whether ALNWs are able to garner pragmatic and moral
legitimacy. In this sense, it would be interesting to follow up with an audience survey in
the respective markets. Nevertheless, this study already points toward a welcome and
interesting development: Often, the discussion about how online communication will
affect the media system and particularly journalism’s place in it has been dominated by
bleak or at least worried outlooks on what might come (e.g. Pisano, 2006). Looking at
the ALNWs in Germany, we can assert: It seems to be journalism after all.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or
not-for-profit sectors.

Notes
1. Luhmann’s (2004) system theory can be seen as the dominant paradigm in German media
research throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with numerous studies following and expand-
ing his approach (e.g. Blöbaum, 1994; Görke, 1999; Marcinkowski, 1993; Scholl and
Weischenberg, 1998).
2. Internet user in Germany: 72 percent (2010) and 75.9 percent (2012) (van Eimeren and Frees,
2012).
3. The 2011 Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) report confirms similar patterns for
gathering local information for American audiences (Rosenstiel et al., 2011).
4. In 2012, one truly hyperlocal news website (zoom-berlin.com) was started in Berlin, cover-
ing just one street, the cultural hotspot of the Oranienstrasse. However, it is not an alterna-
tive website, but a journalism school project, run by Germany’s biggest publishing house,
Springer. The second example for true hyperlocality in Germany (and the only independent
website in this regard) is the website ‘meine-südstadt.de’, Cologne.
5. ‘Professionals’: Prenzlauer Berg Nachrichten, Berlin (http://www.prenzlauerberg-nachrichten.
de) and Weilburger Nachrichten (http://www.weilburger-nachrichten.de); ‘Opinion-based’:
Heddesheim Blog (http://www.heddesheimblog.de); ‘Citizen Journalism’: Fürther Freiheit
(http://www.fuerther-freiheit.info); ‘Amateur’: Pottblog (http://www.pottblog.de).

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Author biography
Michael Harnischmacher is Research and Teaching Associate at the Department of Media Studies,
University of Trier, Germany.

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