flipping the model: a contrarian's strategy for growth in the mobile era
DESCRIPTION
Roger Fidler, RJI Program Director for Digital Publishing, assesses the current journalism business model and proposes how to flip it to monetize high-value enterprise journalism.TRANSCRIPT
The Go-To Place for Ideas, Experiments, and Research • • • www.RJIonline.org
Flipping the ModelA contrarian’s strategy for growth in the mobile era
Roger FidlerRJI Program Director for Digital Publishing
March 27, 2014
donald w.reynolds journalism instituterji
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute 2 of 12 Fidler 3/27/14
● General interest news has become a pervasive, low-value commodity.
● Printed editions continue to decline, but they won’t disappear soon.
● Mobile media will increase the demand for enterprise journalism.
● Printed editions will coexist with mobile media as marketing tools for enterprise journalism products.
● Monetizing enterprise journalism products is essential to the future of newspapers.
“Print journalists will need to change their concept of what a newspaper is.” — Roger Fidler, 1991
The State of Newspapers in the Mobile Era
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute 3 of 12 Fidler 3/27/14
● Enterprise journalism includes investigative, explanatory, informative, interactive and all other types of in-depth, non-fiction story telling on single topics.
● When done well, this is high-value content with potential to attract new readers as well as significant new revenue.
● Some news organizations, journalists, and journalism educators have already begun to publish enterprise journalism stories as eBooks (and other forms of niche content products) for mobile media.
● Monetizing these products will require changes to the traditional print model for processing content, and the creation of a global marketplace for enterprise journalism.
● This is what I refer to as “Flipping the Model.”
Monetizing Enterprise Journalism
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TYPICAL PROCESS
1. Assign reporters to gather information and write stories.
2. Assign photographers and artists to create art elements.
3. Edit and lay out single-topic enterprise stories for printed editions as special sections or multi-part series.
4. Repurpose enterprise stories for websites after editing and laying out pages for printed editions.
5. Optional: Repurpose enterprise stories for mobile apps after repurposing content for websites.
6. Optional: Repackage enterprise stories as eBooks some time after stories are published in print and on the Web.
The Traditional Print Model Based on 100 Years of Enterprise Print Journalism
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PLUSES
● Can provide competitive advantages.
● Can enhance a news organization’s reputation.
● Can make a difference in the community, nation, or world.
● Can win awards.
MINUSES
● Difficult, time consuming, and expensive to produce.
● Little or no direct monetary return on investment.
● Time consuming and inconvenient for readers.
Pluses and Minuses of Traditional Print Model Based on 100 Years of Enterprise Print Journalism
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NEW PROCESS
1. Assign reporters to gather information and write stories.
2. Assign photographers and artists to create art elements.
3. Edit and lay out high-value enterprise stories as eBooks before they are published in print and on the Web.
4. Make eBooks ready to sell through online stores.
5. Produce promotional materials to appear on websites, in social media, in print, and on radio and television.
6. Publish key points and brief excerpts from the enterprise stories over a period of several days in printed editions and on websites along with linked promos for the eBooks.
Flipping the Model To monetize high-value enterprise journalism
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PLUSES
● Can provide competitive advantages.
● Can enhance a news organization’s reputation.
● Can make a difference in the community, nation, or world.
● Can win awards.
● Can provide direct monetary return on investments.
● Can be more compelling and convenient for readers.
MINUSES
● Just as difficult, time consuming, and expensive to produce.
Pluses and Minuses of Flipping the Model To monetize high-value enterprise journalism
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute 8 of 12 Fidler 3/27/14
● Few people know news organizations, journalists and journalism educators are producing eBooks.
● Even fewer people know what eBooks are available or where to find them.
● Little or no promotion.
● No coordinated marketing efforts.
● No shared data on the sales of eBooks.
● Most news organizations, journalists and journalism educators lack the skills and resources to produce and market eBooks for mobile media.
What Are the Obstacles to Monetizing eBooks?
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● Build and manage a comprehensive database of eBooks produced by news organizations, journalists, and journalism educators.
● Drive traffic to these eBooks by developing, implementing, managing, and promoting a website and mobile apps that would provide free public access to the database.
● Offer alternative services for production, hosting, distribution, e-commerce, marketing, and promotion.
● Capture relevant analytics on searches and accesses.
Proposed Enterprise Journalism Marketplace
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What Will It Take to Make It Happen?
● Partnering with news organizations, associations, journalism schools, and vendors.
● Securing investments from partners.
● Forming a non-profit entity.
● Recruiting a development team.
● About one year to develop and launch.
● Agreements to actively promote the marketplace within news organizations’ printed editions, websites and apps.
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute 11 of 12 Fidler 3/27/14
Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Proposed Role
● Identify and contact potential partners.
● Assess level of interest.
● Go/No Go decision. If Go:
● Work with partners to create a business plan and the initial specifications for database, website and apps.
● Help to secure investments.
● Assemble the development team.
● Serve as the marketplace incubator.
The Go-To Place for Ideas, Experiments, and Research
www.RJIonline.org
Flipping the ModelRoger Fidler
Program Director for Digital Publishing
donald w.reynolds journalism instituterji