The document discusses various strategies for premium publishers to generate revenue from digital content, including subscriptions, advertising, and experimenting with new platforms and payment methods. It analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and notes the need to reinvent content delivery and monetization as consumer behaviors change. Sources are cited throughout relating to these topics.
9. “ If you have an idea, get out there and do it … there are no excuses” Suzanne Stefanac, AFI Digital Content Lab director
10. Made for consumption No Flash Multitasking Few pay for for news apps Apps Growth of mobile Reinvent content Reinvent advertising Frictionless payments Portable Print qualities New experience Production processes Price Browser Class-based news STRENGTHS WEAKNESS OPPORTUNITY THREATS
In the media business, high-quality journalism and content matter. It is everything that supports and surrounds it – the business model – that is changing and creating a challenge
Users are willing to pay for content if it is considerably better quality than what is available elsewhere Content they are most willing to pay for is professionally produced at relatively high cost
Some publishers are creating new, original content that is online only. At the FT things like the Long Room and Lex are premium products targetting niche readers
The NYT has transformed itself from an information company into a technology company. It has 100 technical staff that sit alongside reporters to create digital stories
At Reuters, Nic Fulton runs a department that is allowed to fail. He successfully sent two reporters into second life but no-so-successfully put news stories to dance music.
This is something that needs to be instilled in students. Suzanne gave several examples of young people with ideas who got in their cars and hit the road to record stories, or worked and worked at perfecting a technical skill. She says we are in an era of perpetual beta – don’t wait until it is perfect – get it out there.
Most online news sites are using a combination of these
Online people are less willing to pay for a whole package
That said, the FT and the WSJ have successful online subscriptions models. At the FT online now makes up 73 per cent of group revenue. At the WSJ the success of the paid model changed Murdoch’s thinking on the issue. WSJ editors had to convince the new owner not to open it up
At the WSJ, like the FT, some content is free. General news, which is now a commodity, is freely available. What you pay for is the premium content.
At the NYT the plan is to give some content away for free, and to ensure access by search engines and social networks. But to charge heavier users
The Times has just put up a paywall: £1 a day or £2 a week.
Will it pay? Frederic Filloux maintains that the business model is unable to sustain quality journalism and that newspapers are selling their inventory on the cheap through ad networks. Washington post is arpu per reader (not buyer) Sites such as TechCrunch and the Huffington Post generate less than $1 per user
One of the challengers to traditional publishers is the volume of competition online. And among those hundreds of millions of sites competing for audience and revenue, the small, niche sites are the biggest threat. That is because readers trust the advertising on these sites as much as they trust it on bigger, premium sites. The way around this is to embrace these publishers