The future of national news agencies in Europe case study 2: the survival challenges for news agencies in a small market: News agencies in the Baltic countries
This case study provides complementary explanatory information for understanding the current state and future prospects of European national news agencies. It focuses on the Baltic news agencies, BNS (Estonian and Lithuanian branches) LETA (Latvia) and ELTA (Lithuania) as examples of news services in small markets. Our purpose was to investigate how news agencies in small markets respond to the challenges of the internet, digitalisation and the social media era, which has altered their formerly indispensable position in the news ecosystem. All the news agencies in the Baltic countries declare as their primary role the serving of society with reliable and diverse information. In order to survive competition, news agencies, especially small ones, need to be innovative, creative and able to adapt and improve their services and products. This Baltic case study draws on available documentation and on ten interviews with editors in chief, CEOs and journalists.