Archives for “business model”

The business model is still the elephant model in the room, as Ryan Sholin writes.

All the new media in the world won’t save the media, if they can’t figure out how to make money off of it. Will advertising be enough? At the very least there’s a deep chasm to cross, according to some analysis Mark Potts did.

And so since social networks and Web 2.0 companies can serve up page views far cheaper than media companies, it’s time to look at some alternate business models.

1. Merchandising


CNN already does it. Web comics do it. Randall Munroe writer of xkcd and his roommate make a living purely off of merchandising, according to his New York Times profile. xkcd attracts a huge audience but runs no advertising. So sell some t-shirts and sweatshirts with a masthead or a logo on it. Or with headlines. Or let people custom order t-shirts with photos from the paper on it. Or framed copies of stories about them or that they were quoted in. Okay, lots of papers do sell photos, but they’re mostly impossible to find unless you’re specifically looking for them so most readers never find it. There should at least be a link by every photo that runs. The Harvard Crimson does this.

2. Consulting

Among journalists’ skills is the ability to ferret out and synthesize a lot of information and then package it succinctly. Hey, that sounds like exactly the skills needed for a corporate report or to do background research on a new business proposal. Beyond that, they are supposed to be experts in the fields they cover. So let companies or individuals hire journalists as consultants to provide advice or do research for an hourly rate. a HIGH hourly rate.

3. Briefings

Similar to number two, journalists are supposed to be good at presenting a lot of information in an easy to digest format. How then, did they give up the ENTIRE market analysis field. GigaOm is getting into it with a briefing on cloud computing priced at $250 a copy. So is paidContent.org with reports on Social Media and Online Gaming in China for $399. Look at MarketResearch.com. They have reports (information) on a huge range of topics that people are buying at prices from several hundred dollars, to several thousand! Think about all the extra information that’s routinely gathered in the course of reporting a big story. While it’s cut to make the final piece easier to read for a mass audience, there’s also an audience that will pay for a much more in depth look.

Every local newspaper should have a “How to open a retail franchise in X” with information on the retail climate, traffic patterns and other local knowledge. There should be an “Area private schools: where to send your kid”. And more. Compile that information, make it easy to digest, and sell it. But of course, if you’re going to charge it better be damn good.

4. Sell Timeliness

For some people timeliness of information is absolutely crucial. Think professional investors, politicians, corporate executives.
So set up a system to let them see any news that is being broken first. Even just a few hours. Let’s say some news organization got a scoop that Steve Jobs’ cancer is returning. That information would be priceless to someone investing in Apple stock. Or if a strike is brewing at XYZ company, or congressman is taking bribes. There are all sorts of information where getting it even a tiny margin sooner than others is invaluable. Or just to brag to friends. Of course, this only works if the newspaper is regularly breaking news.

5. Deeper sponsorships

There are certain kinds of stories that happen regularly. Crime statistics. Holiday shopping numbers. Weather. So sell advertising tied into it. “This crime report brought to you by Mace” “This consumer spending report brought to you by Target”.

6. Get serious about local communities

Don’t just sponsor events, organize them. Conferences for local businesses. Food tastings from local restaurants. Reading in the park with local authors. Meet local sports stars. Reunion concert for musical acts that got their start locally. Movie screenings. Class action lawsuits. Debates and townhall meetings. Then sell sponsorships and tickets.

GigaOm is a great example of this again. They sponsor three conferences in the area they cover to which tickets are quite expensive. But they are good, well produced events that not only generate a ton of buzz for them, but serve an important function in the community. The Wall Street Journal is getting into it too with their All Things D conference.

7. Get serious about your online community


Look at how Ars Technica does it. They have an amazing online community that has thrived for years and produced millions of posts. The participants on their forums discuss every topic, related to their articles and not. They have classifieds, technical talk, sex, all sorts of random things. People consider the Ars forums their HOME on the internet. That’s because it’s community moderated and idiots get thrown out. Those interested in building online communities would do well to look to the online forums that have been around for so long as a good model. With as much good will as they have from their community, Ars can sell subscriptions giving things that cost Ars NOTHING. Like adding “et Subscriptor” to the end of a profile name. Or posting privileges in a private forum. Or the ability to post in html. People are paying $50 for status symbols in the community.

8. Pay what you will model

Like Radiohead famously did for their album In Rainbows. “Sell” your subscriptions for online (or Mobile or Kindle or heck, even print) for however much customers decide they want to pay.

9. Remember customer service

Who are your customers? Advertisers. What service are you providing to them? Reaching their customers. Selling more display ads isn’t always the best way of doing that. If you can help your advertisers succeed you will too.

Some of these may be infeasible, or even unethical so tear em apart and come up with better ones.

Or a Newspaper!

Let me put this one to all of you.

Newspaper’s doing video seems to be the latest greatest trend. Every paper imaginable is doing it now that you can buy a $120 camera that plugs into your computer and then send it off to YouTube. Even those staid old business rags the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have prominent video players displayed on their sites. In fact, the Journal is hiring a video editor.

But it seems like there is a lot of reinventing the wheel going on. Newspaper video people are falling overthemselves trying to get newspapers to do more video and do it better, but more importantly, to NOT be like TV.

And of course, there’s the backlash from TV news shooters who have been doing what newspapers are just no trying to do for years and doing it at a much higher level. Of course, newspapers can learn a lot about video from TV stations.

But does it really make sense in an industry with declining revenues to get into the acquisition of expensive equipment (cheaper than before, and cheaper than TV, but still expensive) and expensive and intensive training for neophytes to video, when just down the street is a building full of video experts?

True, many of the criticisms newspapery people level at TV news are fair and valid points. The coverage is often shallow and flashy and too focused on overly made up news anchors and staged shots. TV’s weaknesses in investigative reporting and in depth coverage are exactly newspapers strenghts!

And now, as the distribution channels for both print and TV are being quickly or slowly obsoleted by the internet, both have to adapt and adjust to a medium where print and video coexist. Just like Newspaper.com’s have videos, websites for local TV stations have to have text. Usually wire stories, or poorly written copy or even worse, transcripts of news programs. If most newspapers are clueless about how to adapt to the web, most TV stations are even more clueless.

Now, usually putting together two clueless people doesn’t give you one person with a clue, but this is a case where with the right injection of innovative thinking, it might. That’s why I was glad to see this story about the editorial staffs of a local newspaper and TV station actually merging. I’m surprised that it’s taken this long, and I fully expect to see more mergers like this in the future.

So go buy yourself a TV station!

Or tell me why I’m wrong.