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Independent Journalism: Doing good and doing well.

Kevin Anderson
Kevin Anderson

The document discusses the challenges facing independent journalism in the digital age. It notes that the amount of information created has exploded in recent years, making it difficult for news organizations to compete for readers' limited attention. Newspapers in particular are struggling to capture digital advertising dollars. The document advocates for multi-platform business models and argues that the mission of journalism need not be opposed to commercial sustainability through approaches like paid content and membership models.

1 of 33
Independent Journalism: Doing good and doing well 1
Are you suffering from IOS? 2
Are you suffering from IOS? 2
Eric Schmidt of Google Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were 鍖ve exabytes of information created. We [now] create 鍖ve exabytes every two days. See why its so painful to operate in information markets? from an interview at Atmosphere 2010 conference Photo by Charles Haynes, Some Rights Reserved 3
1 exabyte = 1 million terrabytes photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
Library of Congress = 10 terrabytes photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
1 exabyte = 100,000 Libraries of Congress photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
Photo: Joi Ito, quote from News.me 5 Mohamed Nanabhay, former head of Al Jazeera Online, on the competitive challenges that news organisations face in an age of almost limitless content.
Were competing with everybody who puts up a webpage on the internet. And everybody who tweets, or posts on Facebook, or anything. Photo: Joi Ito, quote from News.me 5 Mohamed Nanabhay, former head of Al Jazeera Online, on the competitive challenges that news organisations face in an age of almost limitless content.
The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
From mass to relevance The evolution from numbers to relevance by Mahendra Palsule 7
8 Advertising overload. Online there is simply too much ad inventory. CPMs not just in the US but in markets around the world are declining. During recession, online ad rates plummeted due to oversupply of content Source: PaidContent
Society knows how to react to scarcity. We know how to ration, save, and preserve when we need to do so. Its much harder to set priorities and 鍖nd our path when information abounds. We may drown. We may get side-tracked. We may shut down. But, in any case, abundance confuses and distracts us more than scarcity does.
Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does Photo: Clay making a point by Joi Ito Source: Shirky at NFAIS: How Abundance Breaks Everything by Ann Michael Society knows how to react to scarcity. We know how to ration, save, and preserve when we need to do so. Its much harder to set priorities and 鍖nd our path when information abounds. We may drown. We may get side-tracked. We may shut down. But, in any case, abundance confuses and distracts us more than scarcity does.
US papers failing to capture dollars Digital ad revenues increased by more than four times from 2003-2011 to $31.7 bn. Digital newspaper ad sales increased from only $1.2 bn to $3.2 bn during the same period. Newspapers capture lower percentage of digital ads now than in 2003 10 It is not that there isnt money to be made from digital advertising, the problem is rather that newspapers arent the ones capturing that value. From Alan Mutter, Re鍖ections of a Newsosaur.
Photo from Dan OBrien 11 Real-time bidding. This is already putting further downward pressure on CPM rates. From Lewis Dvorkin at Forbes: Programmatic buying: Welcome to the newest zone of concern for publishers. Think of a Wall Street trading desk manned by advertising agencies or their representatives. Those display ads I talked about above can now be bought at auction on computer exchanges and all it takes is milliseconds. Real-time bidding, as its often called, is fast, efficient and cheap. The biggest challenge for publishers: display ads that are sold by sales people for, say, a $15 CPM (cost per thousand impressions), often trade on the exchanges for a few bucks.
Lloyd Dobler: The patron saint of journalists 12 Just like Lloyd, we dont went to sell anything.
Lloyd Dobler: The patron saint of journalists 12 Just like Lloyd, we dont went to sell anything.
The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission 13 The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission of journalism. It doesnt need to be so, and the belief often holds us back from legitimate, ethical ways to support the mission of independent journalism.
The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission 13 The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission of journalism. It doesnt need to be so, and the belief often holds us back from legitimate, ethical ways to support the mission of independent journalism.
14 Photo by Sourcefabric Entrepreneurial sustainability. MDLF is passionate about the mission of journalism and committed to helping support robust independent media in emerging democracies. Thats why I say that I help news organisations not only do good but also do well. It's why I love my job at MDLF.
Media cannot be truly independent unless it is 鍖nancially viable. 14 Photo by Sourcefabric Entrepreneurial sustainability. MDLF is passionate about the mission of journalism and committed to helping support robust independent media in emerging democracies. Thats why I say that I help news organisations not only do good but also do well. It's why I love my job at MDLF.
Source: thinkpublic from Flickr Raju Narisetti, the managing of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, said on Nieman Lab at the end of last year, Advertising innovation from media companies should become as critical as content innovation. During the 鍖rst phase of the digital transition, we focused almost entirely on editorial innovation. Now, commercial innovation is just as critical if not more critical to a sustainable future.
Multi-platform sustainability Source: Dan Taylor from Flickr 16 We need to move towards multi-platform sustainability - Many of MDLF's clients still have strong traditional businesses. I realised that when we were talking about the digital transition, they thought we were not only calling on them to be digital 鍖rst but to be digital only. In many places where MDLF works, print still has a powerful business model. We realised that the shift was really about multi-platform sustainability.
El Faro: A digital brand does print Case study on Kbridge.org 17 The power of AND - Multiple platforms enhance reach, impact and commercial opportunities. El Faro - the power of multiple platforms. El Faro is an independent digital news service in El Salvador that focuses more on long-form investigations than a daily digital news service. In 2011, an El Salvadoran ad agency came to them wanting to explore the relationship of the the people and the media and government through the lens of social media. This helped launched a novel social-media digital campaign to generate ideas to improve El Salvador and give Salvadorans a voice. They leveraged the power of their political cartoonist and created not just cartoons on their site but a book. They sold out the 鍖rst print run, and then they took that book to El Salvadors leaders as representatives of the people. The ad agency helped deliver a sophisticated multi-channel marketing campaign.
El Faro: A digital brand does print Case study on Kbridge.org 17 The power of AND - Multiple platforms enhance reach, impact and commercial opportunities. El Faro - the power of multiple platforms. El Faro is an independent digital news service in El Salvador that focuses more on long-form investigations than a daily digital news service. In 2011, an El Salvadoran ad agency came to them wanting to explore the relationship of the the people and the media and government through the lens of social media. This helped launched a novel social-media digital campaign to generate ideas to improve El Salvador and give Salvadorans a voice. They leveraged the power of their political cartoonist and created not just cartoons on their site but a book. They sold out the 鍖rst print run, and then they took that book to El Salvadors leaders as representatives of the people. The ad agency helped deliver a sophisticated multi-channel marketing campaign.
.t箪転de: Charging, yes. But what for? Kbridge.org: More about Piano and Tyzden 18 Paid content, yes, but what to charge for? .t箪転de - Slovakian news magazine with a reputation for cutting edge photography. Wanted to create a web presence that was consistent with their brand of high impact visual journalism. Rebuilt their website, added a blogging network and translated their visual stills style into a video style. They now produce a programme in partnership with Slovakian public TV. They have re鍖ned their approach to blogging by having staff and select members of the public blog, and they have become part of Slovakia's national paid content platform Piano. With paid content 2.0, we're seeing much more sophistication and nuance than paid versus ad-supported (It was never 'free'. Someone paid. It was just advertisers not consumers.) You're probably all familiar with metered paywalls due to the New York Times and now Andrew Sullivan. Piano works with clients to analyse their audience behaviour and helps answer: What should news groups charge for?
Malaysiakini: Partnering on paid content Kbridge.org: An interview with M-kini CEO Premesh Chandran on his strategy 19 One of the news organisations that we work with is Malaysiakini. Just as with Dijonscope, they used their independent journalism as a selling point to readers, but a challenge to attracting advertisers in the years immediately after the site launched.Early online advertisers were government-linked companies and would hardly be willing to support an independent news site like Malaysiakini. In 2002, the company realised that it needed to explore other forms of income. Subscribers, they are the ones who want this independent news so lets start charging a fee, he said. Staff were initially sceptical, and the site faced unique challenges, including having to provide an anonymous payment system because the site was seen as politically sensitive. They developed their own pre-paid card and were able to convince a convenience store chain to sell it.
Dijonscope - selling independent journalism Source: Sustainable Business Models for Journalism 20 Piano Media, the New York Times will all tell you how important marketing is. Dijonscope, whose tag line is the price of freedom moved from advertising to subscription only charging (90 euros for two years, 50 for a year or 5 a month.
Kevin Anderson, kevin.anderson@mdlf.org Knowledge Bridge editor and digital strategist Knowledge Bridge http://kbridge.org Twitter: kevglobal (my account) and kbridgeorg 21

More Related Content

Independent Journalism: Doing good and doing well.

  • 1. Independent Journalism: Doing good and doing well 1
  • 2. Are you suffering from IOS? 2
  • 3. Are you suffering from IOS? 2
  • 4. Eric Schmidt of Google Between the birth of the world and 2003, there were 鍖ve exabytes of information created. We [now] create 鍖ve exabytes every two days. See why its so painful to operate in information markets? from an interview at Atmosphere 2010 conference Photo by Charles Haynes, Some Rights Reserved 3
  • 5. 1 exabyte = 1 million terrabytes photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
  • 6. Library of Congress = 10 terrabytes photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
  • 7. 1 exabyte = 100,000 Libraries of Congress photo by Ray Tsang 4 An exabyte is 1 million terabytes The entire printed collection of the US Library of Congress is 10 terabytes So an exabyte is 100,000 Libraries of Congress
  • 8. Photo: Joi Ito, quote from News.me 5 Mohamed Nanabhay, former head of Al Jazeera Online, on the competitive challenges that news organisations face in an age of almost limitless content.
  • 9. Were competing with everybody who puts up a webpage on the internet. And everybody who tweets, or posts on Facebook, or anything. Photo: Joi Ito, quote from News.me 5 Mohamed Nanabhay, former head of Al Jazeera Online, on the competitive challenges that news organisations face in an age of almost limitless content.
  • 10. The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
  • 11. The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
  • 12. The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
  • 13. The battle for attention Average Local US Newspaper New York Times Facebook Source: The Newsonomics of time-on-site, Jan 2010 by Ken Doctor 6 The average news reader spends little time on newspaper-owned sites, from a 20 minutes a month or so on the New York Times site to eight to 12 minutes on most local newspaper sites. Thats minutes per month. Those numbers, as tracked by Nielsen and reported monthly by Editor and Publisher, are steady at best, showing, in fact, some recent decline. They are, literally, stuck in time. Then, take the number of minutes Internet users spend on social sites. Nielsens January tally showed seven hours of usage a month on Facebook alone, in the U.S., blowing away all competition. And of course, that doesnt even come close to the four hours a day(!) that Americans spend watching television.
  • 14. From mass to relevance The evolution from numbers to relevance by Mahendra Palsule 7
  • 15. 8 Advertising overload. Online there is simply too much ad inventory. CPMs not just in the US but in markets around the world are declining. During recession, online ad rates plummeted due to oversupply of content Source: PaidContent
  • 16. Society knows how to react to scarcity. We know how to ration, save, and preserve when we need to do so. Its much harder to set priorities and 鍖nd our path when information abounds. We may drown. We may get side-tracked. We may shut down. But, in any case, abundance confuses and distracts us more than scarcity does.
  • 17. Abundance breaks more things than scarcity does Photo: Clay making a point by Joi Ito Source: Shirky at NFAIS: How Abundance Breaks Everything by Ann Michael Society knows how to react to scarcity. We know how to ration, save, and preserve when we need to do so. Its much harder to set priorities and 鍖nd our path when information abounds. We may drown. We may get side-tracked. We may shut down. But, in any case, abundance confuses and distracts us more than scarcity does.
  • 18. US papers failing to capture dollars Digital ad revenues increased by more than four times from 2003-2011 to $31.7 bn. Digital newspaper ad sales increased from only $1.2 bn to $3.2 bn during the same period. Newspapers capture lower percentage of digital ads now than in 2003 10 It is not that there isnt money to be made from digital advertising, the problem is rather that newspapers arent the ones capturing that value. From Alan Mutter, Re鍖ections of a Newsosaur.
  • 19. Photo from Dan OBrien 11 Real-time bidding. This is already putting further downward pressure on CPM rates. From Lewis Dvorkin at Forbes: Programmatic buying: Welcome to the newest zone of concern for publishers. Think of a Wall Street trading desk manned by advertising agencies or their representatives. Those display ads I talked about above can now be bought at auction on computer exchanges and all it takes is milliseconds. Real-time bidding, as its often called, is fast, efficient and cheap. The biggest challenge for publishers: display ads that are sold by sales people for, say, a $15 CPM (cost per thousand impressions), often trade on the exchanges for a few bucks.
  • 20. Lloyd Dobler: The patron saint of journalists 12 Just like Lloyd, we dont went to sell anything.
  • 21. Lloyd Dobler: The patron saint of journalists 12 Just like Lloyd, we dont went to sell anything.
  • 22. The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission 13 The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission of journalism. It doesnt need to be so, and the belief often holds us back from legitimate, ethical ways to support the mission of independent journalism.
  • 23. The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission 13 The business of journalism is often seen in opposition to the mission of journalism. It doesnt need to be so, and the belief often holds us back from legitimate, ethical ways to support the mission of independent journalism.
  • 24. 14 Photo by Sourcefabric Entrepreneurial sustainability. MDLF is passionate about the mission of journalism and committed to helping support robust independent media in emerging democracies. Thats why I say that I help news organisations not only do good but also do well. It's why I love my job at MDLF.
  • 25. Media cannot be truly independent unless it is 鍖nancially viable. 14 Photo by Sourcefabric Entrepreneurial sustainability. MDLF is passionate about the mission of journalism and committed to helping support robust independent media in emerging democracies. Thats why I say that I help news organisations not only do good but also do well. It's why I love my job at MDLF.
  • 26. Source: thinkpublic from Flickr Raju Narisetti, the managing of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, said on Nieman Lab at the end of last year, Advertising innovation from media companies should become as critical as content innovation. During the 鍖rst phase of the digital transition, we focused almost entirely on editorial innovation. Now, commercial innovation is just as critical if not more critical to a sustainable future.
  • 27. Multi-platform sustainability Source: Dan Taylor from Flickr 16 We need to move towards multi-platform sustainability - Many of MDLF's clients still have strong traditional businesses. I realised that when we were talking about the digital transition, they thought we were not only calling on them to be digital 鍖rst but to be digital only. In many places where MDLF works, print still has a powerful business model. We realised that the shift was really about multi-platform sustainability.
  • 28. El Faro: A digital brand does print Case study on Kbridge.org 17 The power of AND - Multiple platforms enhance reach, impact and commercial opportunities. El Faro - the power of multiple platforms. El Faro is an independent digital news service in El Salvador that focuses more on long-form investigations than a daily digital news service. In 2011, an El Salvadoran ad agency came to them wanting to explore the relationship of the the people and the media and government through the lens of social media. This helped launched a novel social-media digital campaign to generate ideas to improve El Salvador and give Salvadorans a voice. They leveraged the power of their political cartoonist and created not just cartoons on their site but a book. They sold out the 鍖rst print run, and then they took that book to El Salvadors leaders as representatives of the people. The ad agency helped deliver a sophisticated multi-channel marketing campaign.
  • 29. El Faro: A digital brand does print Case study on Kbridge.org 17 The power of AND - Multiple platforms enhance reach, impact and commercial opportunities. El Faro - the power of multiple platforms. El Faro is an independent digital news service in El Salvador that focuses more on long-form investigations than a daily digital news service. In 2011, an El Salvadoran ad agency came to them wanting to explore the relationship of the the people and the media and government through the lens of social media. This helped launched a novel social-media digital campaign to generate ideas to improve El Salvador and give Salvadorans a voice. They leveraged the power of their political cartoonist and created not just cartoons on their site but a book. They sold out the 鍖rst print run, and then they took that book to El Salvadors leaders as representatives of the people. The ad agency helped deliver a sophisticated multi-channel marketing campaign.
  • 30. .t箪転de: Charging, yes. But what for? Kbridge.org: More about Piano and Tyzden 18 Paid content, yes, but what to charge for? .t箪転de - Slovakian news magazine with a reputation for cutting edge photography. Wanted to create a web presence that was consistent with their brand of high impact visual journalism. Rebuilt their website, added a blogging network and translated their visual stills style into a video style. They now produce a programme in partnership with Slovakian public TV. They have re鍖ned their approach to blogging by having staff and select members of the public blog, and they have become part of Slovakia's national paid content platform Piano. With paid content 2.0, we're seeing much more sophistication and nuance than paid versus ad-supported (It was never 'free'. Someone paid. It was just advertisers not consumers.) You're probably all familiar with metered paywalls due to the New York Times and now Andrew Sullivan. Piano works with clients to analyse their audience behaviour and helps answer: What should news groups charge for?
  • 31. Malaysiakini: Partnering on paid content Kbridge.org: An interview with M-kini CEO Premesh Chandran on his strategy 19 One of the news organisations that we work with is Malaysiakini. Just as with Dijonscope, they used their independent journalism as a selling point to readers, but a challenge to attracting advertisers in the years immediately after the site launched.Early online advertisers were government-linked companies and would hardly be willing to support an independent news site like Malaysiakini. In 2002, the company realised that it needed to explore other forms of income. Subscribers, they are the ones who want this independent news so lets start charging a fee, he said. Staff were initially sceptical, and the site faced unique challenges, including having to provide an anonymous payment system because the site was seen as politically sensitive. They developed their own pre-paid card and were able to convince a convenience store chain to sell it.
  • 32. Dijonscope - selling independent journalism Source: Sustainable Business Models for Journalism 20 Piano Media, the New York Times will all tell you how important marketing is. Dijonscope, whose tag line is the price of freedom moved from advertising to subscription only charging (90 euros for two years, 50 for a year or 5 a month.
  • 33. Kevin Anderson, kevin.anderson@mdlf.org Knowledge Bridge editor and digital strategist Knowledge Bridge http://kbridge.org Twitter: kevglobal (my account) and kbridgeorg 21