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
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!