The business model is no longer a simple one that involves a stranglehold on communications with the public. Today, the major publishers need to source revenue from:
Martin says the print culture is entrenched in Fairfax and News, with the status centring on print, and the front-page story. “They have had huge change management and they have been working really hard. It is not easy to change the cultures of organisations overnight, when money is so tight for research and development training.”
Among the new models of media are:
Owner-operated content.
The content is funded by a group of universities, who pay for staff to source daily stories contributed by academic specialists across topics such as business, health, economics, environment, politics and science. AFL News is another example. The Australian Football League started its own news service last year, with 40 sports journalists operating with ostensible independence, a significant challenge for one of the last bastion of money making for the media. The model can lead to conflicts of interest, with lack of independence an issue.
Authentic, specialist and timely content combined with shopping.
Started as a blog by journalist and former editor of Cosmopolitan magazine, Mia Freeman, when she “left traditional media and didn’t know what to do,” MammaMia now gets 520,000 unique browsers a month. Freedman recently won the licence to an American women’s site, iVillage, reportedly adding another 367,000 Australian unique browsers who are already visitors to the site, which is paid for by advertisers, although Freedman has not disclosed revenue.
Internet service provider-owned content.
AOL online is trialling a local news service, called Patch, and bought the online-only blog site, The Huffington Post, last year. Telstra’s Bigpond news service has attracted criticism for lacking independence.
Philanthropically-funded content.
Funded by Rich List member, Graeme Wood, the founder of web-based travel booking service, Wotif, The Global Mail is a not-for-profit news service along the lines of the US site, ProPublica, although this is moving to a crowd-funding model.
Online only, crowd-sourced content.
Crikey (a sister publication to LeadingCompany) is a born-online mass media publication that has thrived on encouraging its readers to contribute tips, leads and ideas to journalists through the website. It is a paid subscription model, while the other six titles owned by its publisher, Private Media, are free subscription, born-online and specialist.
This article first appeared on LeadingCompany.
