News Aggregators Influence on the Internet Media Market

This research paper is devoted to the impact of news aggregators on the Russian online media market. To collect empirical evidence, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with top managers of Russian media holdings and news aggregators. In this study we hypothesize: news aggregators bring a significant amount of visitors to online media, and this determines their economic success. The refusal to use this technology leads mainly to negative consequences for outlets, for example, loss of traffic, reduction of income from Internet advertising, etc. According to the results of the research, we concluded that the research hypotheses is confirmed, but with certain limitations. The work of news aggregators leads to the erosion of the target audience of online media. Visitors coming from the aggregators have negative media consumption patterns: they leave the site quickly, what lowers the engagement rate and advertiser confidence. When using aggregators, the average visitor often does not pay attention to the sources of news. That works against media with strong brands with a loyal audience. Many media outlets in Russia have become seriously dependent on news aggregators. The share of aggregators in the total media traffic can range from 10% to 90%. In case of loss of this source of traffic, the majority of market participants will not survive. The competition between the media inside the aggregators led to the spread of clickbate and fake news. The desire to get traffic to the site turns out to be more significant than journalistic ethics and professional standards.