Who’s going to pay for media?
The audience is straying from traditional media and citizen journalism, mostly done pro bono is proliferating. So where is the money going to come from to maintain huge news organizations and how will those that do media from their heart be paid?
Stephanie Flanders of the BBC led the Business Forum, discussing this issue with Rafat Ali (paidContent), Sebastian Grigg (Goldman Sachs), Carolyn McCall (Guardian), Shoba Purushothaman (TheNewsMarket), Dave Sifry (Technorati) and Chris Ahearn (Reuters Media). Below are the main points of their discussion.
– We need to stop talking about “the business model.” There will be multiple models that will work (McCall).
– Media organizations have to be agnostic about the medium. McCall used the example of the Guardian. If it still exists and is influential in 10 years but is no longer a newspaper in the traditional sense, the paper will have won.
– Anyone who creates content should be paid. Now, with current media business models, paying Citizen Journalists doesn’t make sense. But those models will arise eventually so embrace them now and prepare yourselves.
– We will always need the established media we can trust and with the plethora of information, trust becomes key.
– Editors become more important in sifting through the information for their audience; the editor/audience relationship will also be based on trust.
– You need to be big or you need to get specific (Ahearn). The middle will die.
– Old media are venerable franchises. But we have no idea where they are going. Investors are wary. The idea of brand is changing. It depends on the trust you create with your audience.
– There is a huge shift of power to the consumers who are also becoming creators. In ten years we may look back and say “Why did we call ourselves consumers?” Consumers are passive. And we can no longer describe the public as passive. (Sifry)
TAG: wemedia
Previous Comments
So … pretty vacuuous then.
Didn’t any actual ideas or deep understanding come out of this discussion?
The problem with newspapers isn’t the supposed threat from citizen journalism efforts–the problem is loss of revenue from advertising. When the S.F. Chronicle’s circulation drops 15%, and citizen journalism efforts have had mixed results, it’s pretty easy to see that there’s more to the loss of revenue than cit. j. (Dan Gilmor recently wrote about loss of revenue, and where it was coming from, for the BBC.)
Sifry is right about people creating–but what exactly is it that people are creating? Dave should know from a survey of the Magic Middle that what people are creating is conversation about the news. If that’s what journalists want to call citizen journalism, then perhaps they’re over-estimating what it is for alot of people and under-estimating what it is for people doing solid cit. j. efforts.
If paper’s are losing revenue, they’d be better off looking at who’s taking their ad revenue, look at the popularity of their on-line offerings, and take it from there. Don’t blame citizen journalism and “the people” other more serious factors.
The question assumes that someone has to pay for media.
Information ‘wants’ to be free.
There are those who will say there is no such thing as a free lunch. There are those who will say that you get what you pay for.
I haven’t paid for news journalism for 10 years. The news I have heard/read was:
– in libraries;
– free at the point of distribution (e.g. Metro)
– Taxpayer paid (e.g. BBC);
– loaned or given (e.g. paper on train, or friend wanted my view so gave me a copy); and
– Net.
With time-shifting and concentration I have avoided 95% of advertising.
By far the most interesting, informative, and engaging journalism is Net – particularly bloggers. They pay to tell me what they know, and why. There is a marginal cost to me to receive Net journalism. I need a PC to post my tax return, make a medical appointment, write to my MP, pay my bills, etc., etc., etc. – so my PC and broadband are paid for. News and information is a bonus.
Participatory Media [or: Chip-In Media (CHIM)] does not require a business model – QED.
The possibility of global reach in specific subjects, i.e., butterflies, birds, creators of new social interactions et. al., is one of the strengths of the new order. Especially for people living in the less treaded Southern Hemisphere. So much to do in cross Equator exchange!