free media enterprise 2.0

Free Media Enterprise 2.0Citizen media, business model and financing.

By Sunit Shrestha, TRN Institute

Information is the currency of democracy \\ Thomas Jefferson

We all know how internet-enabled citizen journalism/media is emerging and could change everything.

financial SUSTAINABILITYis yet still a big issue.

No sustainabilityNo real growthNo partnershipNo long-term impactJust an insignificant niche ? Just another hype in the dead-pool ?

Spectrum of citizen media...No-time Part-time Full-time Over-time

typical bloggers / podcasters

hard-core bloggers / podcasters

Free media enterprise

Area of interest

High expected quality / capital requirement

Low expected quality / capital requirement

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

?

Especially those emerging

in developing countries.

Business model development

Product & service

Cost structure

Revenue / funding

Product & ServiceBASICS

Uniquely competitive content (faster, different, agenda-setting, insight, gossip, etc.)

Robust delivery format (website, e-newsletters, podcasts, printed media, mobile, etc.)

Product & Service

•Capacity service optionLeverage unique media capacity to service others with strategic fit.

• Reality-check growth

• More sustainable

• Lower startup risk

• CAUTION: Distraction & time to market

Product & ServiceCapacity service option:Emerging Cases

Center for Independent Journalism, Malaysia

Community journalism capacity

DuoCore, Thailand

Podcasting capacity

Siam Intelligence Unit, Thailand

Data management & communication capacity

Cost structure Assuming low delivery cost, the worrying cost is in the content generation model.

Editorial team

Crowd / community

sourcingHybridHigh control

High costDifficult to scale

Low controlLow/medium costHighly scalable

Editorial team approachPrachatai.com

Malaysiakini.com

User-generated media enterpriseCrowd / community sourcing as long tail aggregator & facilitator.

iss. +

Beyond bricks and mortar there are two main

retail models — one that gets halfway down

the Long Tail and another that goes all the

way. The first is the familiar hybrid model

of Amazon and Netflix, companies that sell

physical goods online. Digital catalogs allow

them to o!er unlimited selection along with

search, reviews, and recommendations, while

the cost savings of massive warehouses and

no walk-in customers greatly expands the

number of products they can sell profitably.

Pushing this even further are pure digital

services, such as iTunes, which o!er the addi-

tional savings of delivering their digital goods

online at virtually no marginal cost. Since an

extra database entry and a few megabytes of

storage on a server cost e!ectively nothing,

these retailers have no economic reason not to

carry everything available.

Profit threshold for

physical stores (like

Tower Records)

Profit threshold for stores

with no retail overhead

(like Amazon.com)

Profit threshold

for stores with no

physical goods (like

Rhapsody)

Media creation incentive spectrum

Money

Recognition, belonging, non-monetary

Manage monetary & non-monetary incentives along the tail.

Open source approachNowPublic.com: 12 million USD funding

(Open source approach).in.thBlognone.com

DuoCore.tv

Palawat.com

Hybrid approachPoliticalBase.com

OhmyNews.com (Korea)37,000+ citizen reporters

48 staff reporters

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.

Investment funding

Friedrich Naumann Foundation | Open Society Institute Media Development Loan Fund | SEAPA

ResponAbility | SIDA | YSEI

Grants

Loans Equityhybrid

Scale-up funding case in point Media Development Loan Fund

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.