Our Liechtenstein media model: creator economy meets journalism

TL;DR

• Save resources on infrastructure, compete on reporting and perspective, and grow diverse, independent voices. Complement with tax allocation, philanthropy, and innovation funds.

Money isn't the fix. A new model is.

Liechtenstein spends 4.4 million Swiss francs a year on media support—about 0.5% of its budget. Yet in October 2024, 55.4% of voters chose to defund Radio Liechtenstein, which had been receiving roughly 70% of those subsidies. The result: the station shuts down, most subsidy money goes unspent, and a country of 40,000 people is left with a thinner information ecosystem.

Put in U.S. terms, this would be like the United States spending about $4.5 billion a year on media—and voters still shutting down the public broadcaster while local news deserts keep spreading. The takeaway: more money alone doesn't solve media sustainability in tiny markets. The model itself needs rethinking.

Gerald Hosp's study at Stiftung Zukunft.li mapped 16 potential funding models for Liechtenstein. We contributed one—Gazzetta's information ecosystem approach—that integrates the creator economy with shared infrastructure so multiple voices can thrive without every outlet duplicating expensive fixed costs.

Our solution: integrate the creator economy with shared infrastructure

In a 40,000-person market, traditional media economics break. Instead of asking small outlets to replicate full-stack news operations, we propose a model that lets them compete on reporting and perspective while collaborating on costly backbone functions.

• Shared investigative capacity: A foundation- and impact-funded unit produces in-depth research that all outlets and independent creators can build on. This raises the quality floor while lowering per-outlet costs.
• Common services, independent voices: Pool legal support, security, CMS, analytics, ad operations, and membership tools. Outlets and creators keep full editorial independence but stop burning scarce money on parallel infrastructure.
• Open information infrastructure: Proactive disclosure and an open data portal reduce the cost of basic reporting. Journalists and creators spend more time on analysis and accountability, less on chasing documents.
• Quality standards that reward utility: An independent board sets criteria for access to public support. Funding follows quality, not politics, and applies equally to legacy newsrooms and creator-led ventures that meet the bar.
• Civic participation by design: Structured public forums, participatory formats, and media literacy turn audiences into contributors—crucial in a small democracy where trust and proximity cut both ways.

Why money without a model fails

Even the government warned that privatization would not work at this scale. Voters rejected subsidies anyway. Now allocation decisions stall while the information gap widens. The lesson isn't to spend more for the sake of spending, but to rethink how spending translates into lasting capacity and diverse voices.

In micro-markets, competition on fixed costs hollows out the field. Shared infrastructure flips the logic: save resources on the back end so you can diversify on the front end—more beats, more perspectives, more scrutiny.

How this fits with the broader study

Beyond our proposal, the study highlights complementary levers:

• Tax-return allocations where residents direct public funds to eligible outlets
• Philanthropic media foundations that professionalize long-term support
• Innovation funds that bring in new and underrepresented voices

These can be combined. But the backbone matters: without common infrastructure and accountability mechanisms, money disperses without compounding impact.

The exportable lesson

Liechtenstein is an extreme case, but that's exactly why it's instructive. When "everyone knows everyone," you can't copy big-market dynamics and expect them to work. The answer isn't simply more money. It's building an information ecosystem where shared infrastructure sustains independent, competing editorial voices—legacy and creator alike.

Access the complete study in German on the Stiftung Zukunft.li website.