The purpose of this study is to analyse how the digital environment affects the ecosystem of news media in Germany. We explore how the business operations of news organizations, especially newspapers, are changing. This report offers a fresh perspective on new business models and forms of revenue in Germany, which can be utilized by the Finnish news media in developing their own businesses and editorial practices. The study reveals the rather wide variation in the approaches of newspaper publishers in Germany; those who want to learn from the German media industry need to individually determine which approaches are most appropriate for them. In this report, we utilize data about financial performance as well as market data to shape a picture of the overall business environment in German newspapers. This is then combined with qualitative data collected in Germany in the spring and summer of 2018 by interviewing media managers, researchers, industry representatives and media analysts (N=20). We conclude that the German news media is a highly conservative industry characterized by family ownership. It can be considered ripe for the same forces of consolidation that are prevalent in other European countries. German news media companies are slower to adopt new pay models compared with

companies in many other European countries. There are some signs of more radical forms of innovation and creative solutions, but the media industry is mostly reluctant to risk their still profitable print-based business models. The most interesting part of the German media industry is located in Hamburg, and also in Berlin to some extent, where there are concentrations of creative professionals and companies that are not content with the status quo.