Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave, and Lucas Graves spent close to a year tracking the reporting of on-site news organizations--some of which were founded over a century ago and others established only in the past year or two--and found in their traffic and audience engagement patterns, allocation of resources, and revenue streams ways to increase the profits of digital journalism.

In chapters covering a range of concerns, from advertising models and alternative platforms to the success of paywalls, the benefits and drawbacks to aggregation, and the character of emerging news platforms, this...