Posts tagged with 'the big thaw'
New Business Models
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How to structure media organizations to capture value?
As the sources of value and the competitive landscape have changed, so have the business models that are mostly likely to succeed. Underpinning the dissonance between old and new media is a imbalance between traditional revenue models and their ability to cover the high costs of original content production—particularly for investigative reporting. The financial crisis accelerated this shift, forcing quicker adaptation and shortening the runway for new models to prove themselves.
Organizations cannot merely create value; they must eventually capture enough value to sustain themselves, whether it is directly from those who benefit or from third parties such as philanthropists. Ventures that make a play for audience first, such as Twitter and YouTube, must eventually capture value. In fact, YouTube is still far short of making enough money: Its costs are nearly three times more than its revenue, as one analyst reported in April 2009. Furthermore, the collapse of the print industry and economic crisis cannot be blamed as the sole cause of magazines’ troubles. Some have continued to grow due to their ability to capture value. Of the 100 magazines with the highest circulations in 2005, 21 were able to increase their print advertising pages from 2005 to 2008. (more…)
From Audiences to Communities
Everyone who participated in this project said that building audiences as communities was the biggest new source of value in media. Some viewed the term “audience” as an anachronism because it still puts too much emphasis on content as the primary product.
Since communities are formed in multiple and co-existing ways, people interviewed for this project varied in their opinions about how best to build communities and capture enough value from them to run a media organization. Audiences can grow in two different directions simultaneously: Broader and deeper. (more…)
From Using Users to a Conversation Economy
“I think the idea that (journalism) organizations can go away because now everybody is a journalist is ridiculous. It takes time, it takes investment, and it adheres to certain standards for it to be credible.” – Vivian Schiller
With the proliferation of inexpensive production and publishing tools and do-it-yourself movements, everyone can consider themselves an expert. This trend gets mixed reactions from professionals, yet it will have increasing value as “net native” platforms evolve.
For more on crowdsourcing, co-creation, and citizen journalism, download Vol. 2 of The Big Thaw.
This blog is an excerpt from The Big Thaw, a guide to the evolution of independent media, written by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs and produced by The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets. Learn how your organization can use this report. For more information and recommendations from the study, click here.
Solving Filter Failure
Publishers are increasingly concerned about “information overload,” and some believe that technology has made this worse. In an Economist.com debate, Richard Szafranski argued that technology has created “over-choice,” which he described as a “human response to alternatives and variations so numerous, so potentially satisfying and so complex that humans can no longer decide easily.” Our time is limited and the more choices we have, the more time it takes to choose.
However, Clay Shirky claims that information overload has been a problem long before the digital age, as anyone has experienced entering a library or bookshop. Ever since the amount of available books exceeded a person’s ability to read them, the central problem has been filter failure. “We had a set of filters that we were used to, but are now broken,” Shirky points out. The media organizations that help solve filter failure by making information more relevant will control the new decentralized online distribution channels. Independent media has more power to solve this problem by sharing data and working together. (more…)
Now is the Time for Immediacy
Everything about the web is becoming more “live,” from activity feeds, micro blogging, live streaming video to real-time analytics. Consumers’ demand for accessing news, in particular, has become more immediate and granular. Publishers work hard at adapting to this demand while maintaining the value of content that requires time and synthesis to produce.
While many journalism organizations have succeeded with shorter cycles of reporting (e.g. daily versus monthly), much of today’s digital media is still prepackaged. In the future, demand for immediacy will become greater and push the limits of reporting and analysis even further. Micro-blogging and live online videos are leading this trend. (For more on micro-blogging and live online video, download Vol. 2 of The Big Thaw.) (more…)
Progressive Ideas Vs. “My Ideas”
Progressive publishers have brought to light many important issues, including the implosion of the housing market and predictions about the Iraq War before the invasion. Independent media’s greatest value is often helping underserved communities address unmet needs.
The new political environment has shifted the context in which progressive publishers operate. In the Bush era, being in opposition had underpinned the identity and tactics of “progressives.” Despite euphoria regarding Barack Obama’s presidency, the new administration will inevitably have its share of disappointments, keeping the role of watchdog important. However, the political shift also affects how progressive publishers generate value. For example, Jay Harris believed that interest in Mother Jones, a member of The Media Consortium (TMC), might have been strengthened due to readers’ concerns about the Bush administration. Many others in progressive media have expressed a similar belief. A clear enemy can help build funders’ and audiences’ perceived value for editorial content with a strong oppositional viewpoint. In the new political context, publishers may generate more value by promoting progressive values of inclusivity and fairness through politically diverse conversations. As a result, the definition of “progressive” may broaden, and the label itself may become an anachronism.
The new political and media environment has caused progressive media organizations to reevaluate their identity and tactics. At a TMC annual meeting in February 2009, members discussed whether the consortium’s work no longer falls within the traditional label of “progressive.” They debated what notions independent media might need to give up if this were true.
One group believed independent media needed to give up one-dimensional political stances and in favor of more broadly inclusive values such as human rights and global perspectives in storytelling. Another group believed that independent media must go even farther by giving up the need to articulate political stances altogether. They believed publishers should look more pragmatically at what works and what people want to know by focusing more on being a trusted source of quality journalism. Identifying where the greatest value lies will help independent media resolve this debate and move forward more powerfully.
“My Ideas”
Whether content is mainstream or alternative, its value is increasingly determined by how it relates to “my ideas,” a mélange of concepts and interests that an individual has accumulated. The personal expression of my ideas, mixing of other people’s content to fit my ideas, filtering content to reflect my ideas—all are an evolution of what Nicholas Negroponte of MIT’s Media Lab coined, “The Daily Me.”
The proliferation of blogs and user-generated content is already a clichéd example of the demand for personal expressions, but Motoko Rich of the New York Times predicted a more interesting sea change: “The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them.” To be sure, many forms of media could pass this threshold of a greater demand for expression than consumption, and this dynamic creates opportunities that publishers are beginning to tap as well. For example, Hewlett-Packard’s MagCloud makes it easy for anyone to make his or her own slick print magazines, produced on-demand.
This blog is an excerpt from The Big Thaw, a guide to the evolution of independent media, written by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs and produced by The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets. Learn how your organization can use this report. For more information and recommendations from the study, click here.
New Sources of Value
What needs can be met, problems solved or desires fulfilled?
In the old paradigm, the content that created the greatest value for mainstream media centered on the most popular and noncontroversial ideas. For independent media, the value stemmed from alternative ideas. Today, popular and alternative ideas are intertwined. The greatest value comes from how these ideas relate to “my ideas,” a combination of consumers’ growing personal expression, remixing and filtering.
This chapter covers the emerging sources of value that media organizations can capture, including:
- Progressive Ideas and “My Ideas”
- Solving Filter Failure
- A Conversation Economy
- From Audiences to Communities
To read more, download Vol. 2, Chapter 3 of The Big Thaw.
This blog is an excerpt from The Big Thaw, a guide to the evolution of independent media, written by Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs and produced by The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets. Learn how your organization can use this report. For more information and recommendations from the study, click here.
Shifting Roles
The new competencies outlined in Chapter 2 will help media organizations succeed in the new competitive environment. As a result, traditional roles will shift and overlap. (To read more of Chapter 2 and see charts of the shifting roles, download The Big Thaw.)
These changes threaten many people’s jobs, pensions and familiar ways of working. Yet, organizations that can successfully make the transition will succeed. One of the reasons for the Boston Globe’s troubles stemmed, in part, from a lifetime job guarantee to advertising employees that prevent it from making staff changes necessary to survive. (more…)
Counterintuitive Ways of Working
Funders and investors are already cautious of funding experiments since most fail. Counterintuitive ways of doing business and producing content may seem even more risky, but they can also be the biggest game changers.
Counterintuitive Ways of Doing Business
Many organizations in both the for-profit and non-profit world view competition for resources as a “zero sum” game rather than a way to lift the tide for everyone. As a result, organizations have embraced the idea of “co-opetition.” Instead of competing in all aspects of their business, organizations cooperate in areas where they do not have competitive advantage.
For a long time, publishers avoided including hyperlinks to other websites for fear that they would simply lead readers away. However, publishers now see how important these links are to improving search engine optimization.
The secret to co-opetition is for organizations to define very clearly where they are competing and where they should work together. New ways of working that now seem counterintuitive will emerge. (more…)
Strategic Technology
Taking community seriously requires a greater allocation of resources toward both technology and the personnel who can use it effectively. “Many organizations only see one piece of the puzzle and want to do small experiments—hire an intern and a few people here and there—without seeing how that impacts the rest of the media,” says Ashish Soni, who directs the Information Technology Program at the University of Southern California. “People who do have knowledge of the other pieces of the puzzle can do real systemic innovation, and this is the highest area to impact.” (more…)
