플랫폼화 시대 저널리즘 스타트업의 지속가능성과 편집 독립성: 한국 NEWNEEK과 독일 Düsseldorf VierNull의 질적 비교연구*

This study identifies design principles through which journalism start-ups can achieve sustainability and editorial independence concurrently within a platformized news ecosystem. We conduct a qualitative, comparative case analysis of NEWNEEK (South Korea) and VierNull (Germany; Düsseldorf 40/40.000). An extended Business Model Canvas—covering value proposition, channels/platforms, revenue & finance, audience relations & community, key activities, and key resources —is combined with higher-order dimensions of journalistic quality, labeling & transparency, platform rules, and data governance. Semi-structured interviews were coded through rule-based procedures and examined via cross-case analysis. Findings indicate that the simultaneous coupling of relationships, editorial independence, and revenue architecture is essential for performance stabilization; national context primarily modulates the sequencing and difficulty of choices. Editorial independence functions as an endogenous design variable that mediates conversion, retention, and brand trust. Theoretically, this study reconceptualizes editorial independence as a design lever rather than a cost constraint and integrates managerial/product and normative/ systemic dimensions into a unified analytical frame explaining context-specific weighting of common principles. Practically and for policy, the study recommends prioritizing owned touchpoints for relationship infrastructure, embedding labeling and 플랫폼화 시대 저널리즘 스타트업의 지속가능성과 편집 독립성 ┃ 100 transparency at the UX level, coherently aligning advertising and subscription models, and developing lean, networked organizational structures. These measures should be supported by standardized labeling, enhanced data portability, and interoperable payment systems.