This document discusses business models and financing for citizen media enterprises. It notes that financial sustainability is a major challenge without which citizen media cannot grow or partner effectively. It explores different models for generating content, from editorial teams to crowd-sourcing, and different cost structures. Revenue options discussed include subscriptions, advertising, capacity services, events, and various forms of funding support from grants, loans, equity investments, and foundations. The goal is to develop micro venture capital and funding partnerships to help free media enterprises scale up.

1. Free Media Enterprise 2.0
Citizen media, business model and financing.
By Sunit Shrestha, TRN Institute

2. Information is the
currency of
democracy
Thomas Jefferson

3. We all know how internet-enabled
citizen journalism/media is emerging
and could change everything.
financial
SUSTAINABILITY
is yet still a big issue.

4. No sustainability
No real growth
No partnership
No long-term impact
Just an insignificant niche ?
Just another hype in the dead-pool ?

5. Spectrum of citizen media...
No-time Part-time Full-time Over-time
High expected quality /
capital requirement
Free media
enterprise
hard-core bloggers /
podcasters
Area of interest
typical bloggers / podcasters
Low expected quality /
capital requirement

6. {}
+ citizen media
What to do for ?
+ supporters
investors
donors

7. Especially those emerging
in developing countries.

8. Business model
development
Product & service
Cost structure
Revenue / funding

9. Product & Service
BASICS
Uniquely competitive
content (faster, different,
agenda-setting, insight,
gossip, etc.)
Robust delivery format
(website, e-newsletters,
podcasts, printed
media, mobile, etc.)

10. Product & Service
• Capacity service option
Leverage unique media capacity
to service others with strategic fit.
• Reality-check growth
• More sustainable
• Lower startup risk
• CAUTION: Distraction & time to market

11. Product & Service
Capacity service option:
Emerging Cases
Center for Independent Journalism, Malaysia
Community journalism capacity
DuoCore, Thailand
Podcasting capacity
Siam Intelligence Unit, Thailand
Data management & communication capacity

12. Cost structure
Assuming low delivery cost, the worrying cost is in the
content generation model.
Crowd /
Editorial
High control Low control
Hybrid community
High cost Low/medium cost
team
Difficult to scale Highly scalable
sourcing

13. Editorial team approach
Prachatai.com
Malaysiakini.com

14. User-generated media enterprise
Crowd / community sourcing as long tail aggregator & facilitator.
Manage monetary & non-monetary incentives along the tail.
Recognition,
Media creation incentive spectrum
belonging,
Money
non-monetary
Profit threshold for Profit threshold for stores
physical stores (like with no retail overhead Profit threshold
Tower Records) (like Amazon.com) for stores with no
physical goods (like
Rhapsody)
Beyond bricks and mortar there are two main number of products they can sell profitably.
retail models — one that gets halfway down Pushing this even further are pure digital
the Long Tail and another that goes all the services, such as iTunes, which o!er the addi-
way. The first is the familiar hybrid model tional savings of delivering their digital goods
of Amazon and Netflix, companies that sell online at virtually no marginal cost. Since an

15. Open source approach
NowPublic.com: 12 million USD funding

16. (Open source approach).in.th
Blognone.com
Palawat.com
DuoCore.tv

17. Hybrid approach
PoliticalBase.com
OhmyNews.com (Korea)
37,000+ citizen reporters
48 staff reporters

18. REVENUE
COMBINATIONS
Subscription (with large enough audience first)
Content provider to other media intermediary such as cable
network, mobile, etc.
Publication & physical media release
Events / seminars / work-shops
Capacity service such as research, podcasting, training, data
analysis, etc.

19. Investment funding
Grants
hybrid
Loans Equity
Friedrich Naumann Foundation | Open Society Institute
Media Development Loan Fund | SEAPA
ResponAbility | SIDA | YSEI

20. Scale-up funding case in point
Media Development Loan Fund

21. What investors/donors/
supporters should do?
Share investment information & develop partnership
Micro venture capital focusing on free media enterprise.
Consolidate funding.
Explore innovative funding instrument such as loan-like
grant, equity-like grant and equity-like loan.
Guarantee instrument for collateral option.