Business of Journalism Capstone Completed | Tim Robertson, Business of Journalism, 4/5/10
Business of Journalism Capstone Completed
While print journalism and newspapers aren’t dead, subscriptions in the U.S. dropped almost 9 percent in 2009, and, as a recent Pew Research Center study shows, an increasing number of people turn to the Internet to get their news. Along with the recession’s adverse affects on advertising at major print corporations, these trends of increasing Internet usage and a diminishing of traditional advertising revenues give news startups a chance to challenge local news media to create a sustainable method of supporting the expense of conducting journalism in the public interest.
It’s a new frontier and one where there are no blueprints and lots of opinions. How can upstarts compete with comparatively well-financed mainstream publications? Newcomers must use a variety of web tools, create diversified revenue streams and attract an engaged community, experts say.
This thesis investigates three areas for startup media sites to concern themselves with – 1) revenue models, 2) social media and 3) web tools. Finally, the thesis puts this together the reporting on these three to suggest a sustainable – and profitable – business plan.
Here is a summary of each section (italicized links go to capstone articles):
Various models exist for online news, some can work, some will not, and nobody knows which will work, if any. Hot-button ideas include a strict pay wall and micropayment systems. But, few readers have paid the toll for entering existing local news pay walls, and are criticized for charging the same price for a less expensive product. Micropayments are another popular idea, but this system comes under scrutiny from experts for its inability to alter the psychology of Internet users to begin paying a small fee for the product. Grant funding and donations – $24 million has been promised or granted by the Knight Foundation alone between 2007 and 2011 – can get a fledgling journalism organization off the ground. However these can’t be counted on every year. Other revenue-producing models include services and basic display advertising. A site also save money over its print and television counterparts because production costs are much lower.
Will social media play a role in online journalism? That’s asked and answered by The Associated Press’ social manager Lauren McCullough – and it’s a resoundingly ‘yes.’ But how to use those tools and incorporate them into a news site ethically and effectively has yet to become standardized.
Some news outlets, like Syracuse.com, have created their own social networks, while others rely on Twitter and Facebook for their microblogging services and interactions.
A newer thrust from the world of social media and social news world is the concept of creating a community-based hyperlocal social network that charges businesses a fee to join as members, to then market at will and interact with the community.
A big challenge to startup news sites is name recognition and building trust within a community. A site should strive to bring the community into a conversation and to put its name out into the public sphere any way possible, including social media, journalism experts say.
Sites could employ Web tools such as live video services and live blogging tools to bring users into the conversation and feel closer to beat reporters, who participate in the conversations. The sites also should utilize social media as a means to promote, but that doesn’t only include microblogging sites like Facebook and Twitter, but expands to Picasa/Flickr and YouTube and countless others.
It’s not enough to only present a problem, but online journalism needs a solution. A model business plan will suggest how to take social-media techniques, interactive web tools and revenue models to create a viable – and sustainable – online news organization. It will have a full three-year financial projection, an explanation of its purpose and a complete plan for scaling. The goal of the plan is to meld the traditional ethics and standards of solid shoe leather reporting with the new opportunities – and challenges – the Internet provides.