Archive for July, 2009

NPR’s Schiller says people won’t pay for news

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Newsweek has an interview with Vivian Schiller, who used to run NYTimes.com and recently moved to NPR.

Part of her strategy at NPR has been to move beyond radio and offer news for free on a redesigned website.

In the interview she offers her views on the news publishing landscape and criticizes some of the models we are exploring.

A lot of media pundits have been saying the salvation for commercial media is to become a not for profit. I laugh when I see that. The notion is that you declare yourself not for profit, and poof, all of your problems go away. Well guess what, if you’re a not for profit, you still have to raise all the money that you’re spending and then some, so you have a surplus when the economy goes off a cliff. It’s incredibly naive.
[...]
I am a staunch believer that people will not in large numbers pay for news content online. [...] News is a commodity; I’m sorry to say.
— NPR’s Digital Makeover Newsweek 27 Jul 2009

Posted in not for profit, state of news | 2 Comments »

Union-Tribune’s support of Watchdog Institute reveals a mixed model

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

The Voice of San Diego was founded because of the shortcomings of The San Diego Union-Tribune, but now the U-T is getting into the non-profit investigative journalism game by funding a new investigative reporting operation, the Watchdog Institute.

Other similar bodies already exist like the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

A top editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune is leaving the paper to start a local non-profit watchdog institute that will provide “data-driven investigative journalism” to media outlets, including the U-T.
[...]
According to Winner, the institute will be supported by donations and grants. It wasn’t immediately clear how the U-T will support the institute, although Winner wrote that the partnership between the two entities shows the paper’s “strong financial commitment to continuing to provide public service work.” Winner said the U-T will be in the institute’s “lead partner.”
— U-T Editor Starts Non-Profit Journalism Project VoS 29 Jun 2009

Reports say the newspaper is in talks with San Diego State University to house the institute. The staffers that will move to the Institute will still work with U-T reporters so, at least some of the proceeds of the investigations will go to the newspaper.

The new head of the Institute Lori Hearn denies control by U-T in quotation in the Voice, “This is not the Union-Tribune’s non-profit. . . . It is my idea for starting a nonprofit, and I approached The San Diego Union-Tribune as partners.”

Regardless of control or details of the relationship, this setup lets the for-profit Union-Tribune realize more value. The newspaper can attract grants and donations to the institute, receive information for new reports from the institute, and then make money from the stories it produces.

This is an example of where traditional operations can benefit from adopting a mixed model that includes alternative business units.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Financial Times editor makes a prediction

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

The editor of the Financial Times Lionel Barber, in a speech last night, predicted that almost all news outlets will be charging for content within the next year.

Barber said building online platforms that could charge readers on an article-by-article or subscription basis was one of the key challenges facing news organisations.

“How these online payment models work and how much revenue they can generate is still up in the air,” Barber said in a speech at at a Media Standards Trust event at the British Academy last night.

“But I confidently predict that within the next 12 months, almost all news organisations will be charging for content.”
— Financial Times editor says most news websites will charge within a year Financial Times 16 Jul 2009

He recognizes, as we do, that there is a need for new business models for news publishing. His perspective is for existing outlets. It is likely that newspapers will first consider charging for content like subscriptions, premium pricing, and micropayment because they are revenue models and do not require the structural changes that non-profit or foundation funding require.

Posted in state of news | 3 Comments »

Shirky predicting big changes in news publishing

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

The operation of news media is not only about organizing and publishing content but also organizing an audience for that audience, writes writer and media theorist Clay Shirky at Cato Unbound (a self-described virtual trading floor in the intellectual marketplace).

The hard truth about the future of journalism is that nobody knows for sure what will happen; the current system is so brittle, and the alternatives are so speculative, that there’s no hope for a simple and orderly transition from State A to State B. Chaos is our lot; the best we can do is identify the various forces at work shaping various possible futures. Two of the most important are the changing natures of the public, and of subsidy.

As Paul Starr, the great sociologist of media, has often noted, journalism isn’t just about uncovering facts and framing stories; it’s also about assembling a public to read and react to those stories.
[...]
We can expect changes in journalism to be linked to changes in subsidy. There are many shifts coming, but three big ones are an increase in direct participation; an increase in the leverage of the professionals working alongside the amateurs; and a second great age of patronage.
— Not an Upgrade — An Upheaval

Posted in state of news | 2 Comments »

Consumer Reports mulls layoffs

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

The not-for-profit Consumer Reports magazine may have to resort to layoffs, the New York post is reporting.

The magazine — perennially profitable from its 9 million subscribers for print and online products — expects an operating loss next year due to the recession’s erosion of its customer base.

The magazine, owned by the not-for-profit Consumers Union, doesn’t accept advertising and isn’t dependent on shrinking ad dollars.
— Bad job reviews and Consumer Reports NY Post 7 Jul 2009

It shows that while not-for-profits do have a cushion in their operations, the stormy waters may sink all kinds of boats.

Posted in bankruptcy watch, not for profit | 1 Comment »

News has already changed — a lot

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Howard Owens (respected new-media thinker, until recently director of digital publishing at GateHouse media) blogs about how poor understanding of the evolution of newspapers make news leaders less able to deal with the challenges news faces now.

Believing that newspapers 150 years ago where the same as they are now can blind people to how they must change now.

The assumption, in my perception, is pervasive, and it colors the view of today’s journalist toward development of online news; in fact, the assumption may have blinded many executives (including online executives, including myself for a time) in their expectations how to build an online news business.
[...]
James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, E.W. Scripps and Joseph Pulitzer were not just earlier versions of Woodward and Bernstein. They were entrepreneurs, visionaries and risk takers who experimented and explored the capabilities of new technologies with a goal of meeting readers needs and growing audience.
— Newspapers started small, cheap and with different standards Howard Owens 24 Jun 2009

Posted in state of news | 2 Comments »

Coyote news at the Beach

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

When I visited the Beach News, I asked what issues were important in the area. They said hot topics included houses being torn down for new developments, the question of whether dogs should be allowed of-leash on the beach, and the coyote.

I could have guessed the first two. Real estate is valuable in this tony neighbourhood and a lot of people have dogs. But the coyote piqued my interest.

A coyote is roaming around Neville Park ravine. Some residents, concerned for their pets and worried for the safety of their children, want the coyote gone; others have named him Neville and hope that he can be left alone.

Bob is in the second group. He lives on Neville Park boulevard. He doesn’t get along with dogs but he is amused at how the wiley animal has eluded capture for so long. Neville runs and roams among the trees on the slope behind Bob’s backyard. While Bob and I were delivering bundles of newspapers around Neville Park, he spotted three animal control vans.

To an outsider Neville Coyote might not seem like a big deal. For those who imagine what harm he might do or those who prefer pristine nature be let live, he can be contentious. In an April issue, Beach News, had a cartoon of the coyote disguised in an Easter bunny costume getting nabbed by police.

It is just one example of how a good community paper covers issues of local importance — even issues that, from outside, may seem trivial.

Posted in Uncategorized, not for profit | 1 Comment »

Volunteer network strengthens Beach News’ relationship with readers

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

One thing I noticed about the publications we have researched is that many of them are similar. They start with some impetus of protest or community need.

The Crier of Port Hope wanted a better newspaper in town. Ward 9 Community News (the earlier name for Beach Metro Community News) was protesting the Scarborough expressway. Voice of San Diego wanted quality investigative journalism to keep city hall responsible.

It’s interesting to consider why Beach News is still publishing while the Crier folded. Port Hope stopped publishing after about a year and a half; at the Beach the founders left after a year or so but were replaced and the paper still publishes today. The manager at the Beach News explained the death of the Crier saying, “Oh, they burned out” — just as the first set of Beach News volunteers had.

That also shows the need to have broad support to keep thing going. When the seed grant for the Beach paper ran out, volunteer carriers canvassed their routes, asking for two dollars from each house. They collected $7,000. That points to one reason the newspaper has such a strong place in the community: its volunteer network.

Distribution costs them little, because they use volunteers (they pay a little to the drivers for gas money). Their distribution network also strengthens their ties to their community. Every person in the Beach is only two degrees from the paper, because it is delivered by their neighbour. That can be strengthening and stabilizing.

That also gives the paper a human face. If I disagree with something, there is someone I know whom I can tell.

There is a great value for a community venture in having a good network.

Posted in not for profit | 2 Comments »

How charging for online news is different from selling digital music

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

I’ve alluded before to the notion that news publishers would love to do what the music industry has done — moving from a free-use, copying Napster era to a low-enough priced, big enough revenue iTunes model.

There are a lot of similarities between digital music and digital news media. They are both infinitely copyable. They take resources to produce but with online distribution the marginal cost of an extra copy is close to zero.

In Napster days, with no alternative, people would share music similar to the way people copy, blog, and share news today.

There are differences, however. People consume news differently than music. It would not be strange for someone to listen to a track several times and enjoy it, perhaps even more than when they first heard it. They might go back and listen to an old favourite or discover music recorded and released decades ago.

News is much different and has rapidly decaying value. It needs currency. Old news reports have residual value, but they are more a historical record and don’t offer the same excitement or enjoyment of hearing it the first time.

News is also more easily replicable than music. To be up on the latest, it’s enough for someone to forward me an e-mail or read me the beginning of a story. Some people want the details, but for many, cursory, current reports that don’t violate copyright may be enough.

If I hear the first ten seconds of a song, or someone tries to hum it for me, it is not the same. I want to hear the full and actual track.

Also, a song from one band may have a similar sound to a song from another, but they will still be very different. But two news reports from different outlets may be much the same.

To move to an iTunes-like model for news, you need some kind of micropayment system. Micropayments sound great. People would pay to read each news story, like they do to get a song.

Because of the differences in consumption, owning the right to read a particular story isn’t as valuable as owning the rights to a song, so a news provider must charge less than a music distributor.

Because of replicability, it is harder to control copying and distribution.

These differences point towards a different model.

First because of differences in consumption it would be better to have a subscription or even a declining balance model (somewhat like micropayments or the using of minutes in a mobile communications plan). Consumers wouldn’t have to decide to purchase individual stories each time they read the news.

Because of the replicability of news, publishers should not try to capture much or any value for commodity news — that is reports of things happening, stuff you get at the beginning of a TV news cast. Those stories may be a vital part of your package, but news organizations need to invest in and sell unique content. Strong local news, investigative reports, and provocative analysis that makes people think are all more differentiated, as are songs from different bands.

The music industry still has many vestigal structures and business models, but in many ways it is way ahead of the news business. We, in the news, should listen to the music, but also know how it is different.

Posted in micropayment, state of news | 2 Comments »

The end of the press baron

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

“This is what God would have built if he had had the money.” That’s what George Bernard Shaw said about St. Donat’s Castle in Wales, after it was bought and renovated by William Randolph Hearst.

Hearst and his ilk are endangered. The 19th- and early-to-mid-20th-century image of the press baron — swaggering, jacket-wearing, cigar-smoking — is a thing of the past. There won’t be any more Ken Thomsons putting millions into Toronto’s art galleries.

Sure, Hollywood’s wealthiest music producer David Geffen suggested he’d buy the New York Times and turn it into a non-profit. We have yet to see any real deal. For all we know, this was nothing but a publicity stunt.

Many in Canada have lamented the brisk sweep of chain newspaper ownership, with its concomitant loss of local independence and its focus on making mountains of cash for wealthy owners. As margins shrink, I think we might just see chains divesting themselves of papers and community-based groups springing up in place of press barons.

As much of newspapers’ content becomes commodified and a wide open distribution system, opportunity for niche and local operators will increase.

Could it be that when the dust settles, the crisis in the news business will lead to more independent, thoughtful, community-based reporting?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »