New Media Sustainability: Challenges & Trends

#mediumi #медиумиwww.metamorphosis.org.mk/nmdc

New Media Sustainability:Challenges & Trends

Markus IckstadtDirector of News, Streamworks International

New Media Sustainability ConferenceMay 11, 2013, Skopje, Macedonia


Challenges:• “The difficulties of monetizing digital

content remain a key problem of the funding of professional journalism online… The tendency instead is for old media producers to stick to old habits, rather than embrace the opportunities and face up to the challenges of digitization.” – (“Mapping Digital Media: Macedonia – A Report by The Open Society Foundations, 5 June 2012)


Challenges:

• Until 2009, Macedonian newspaper publishers reported no significant changes in circulation to advertising agents. In the first half of 2009, they finally acknowledged the fall of readership and claimed only one-third of their previous numbers.


Challenges:

• In 2010, TV in Macedonia remained dominant with 77.3 percent of the population using it as their primary news source.

• The most dramatic change has been the rise of the internet as a primary news source, now eclipsing newspapers (35 percent and 34 percent respectively), with radio ranking fourth with 13 percent.


What may this be telling us?

• Audience is not the problem• But current CPM revenues alone cannot

replace circulation• Pure reproduction or repurposing of print

media content = Lack of engaging content • Workload and lack of attention/resource

needed for new media production = copyright rules are often disregarded


The “Silver Lining”:

• As news brands in combination with their internet extensions, newspapers are still the second most accessed news source for the public.

• If print editions are to be considered in isolation, they would fall to third place behind the internet. Readers of print media in Macedonia are concentrated in younger and middle age groups


The “Silver Lining”:

• Demographics show a relatively high preference for daily newspapers among those aged 14–32 years and 42–59 years

• advertisers have not yet followed audiences to a significant degree and by and large remain loyal to traditional media.


Monetization models: “The soft pay-wall”:

• NY Times has led the way in the US with its “metered pay-wall” model, which allows readers to access 20 free stories a month without a digital subscription

• The Washington Post in March announced it would follow, allowing access to 20 free articles per month - articles accessed via social media and external search engines will not count toward the free limit



• loopholes in the pay-wall represent strategy, not a mistake. And the Times is relying more on subscribers to pay the bills: Advertising was down in 2012

• “If you like it so much that you’re willing to do a hack around a URL just to get a peek under our dress … eventually you’re going to give us some money.”

- David Carr, Media Correspondent in the Business section of the NYT




Monetization Models: “The Restrictive Pay-wall”:

• In the UK, a restrictive pay-wall is being blamed for a fall in circulation for News International’s The Times, which ranked last behind competing general news publications

- The National Readership Survey's PADD report


Monetization Models: “The restrictive Pay-wall”:

• Restrictive pay-walls are not social-media friendly: Articles behind its pay-wall cannot be shared with non-subscribers on Twitter and Facebook.

• Circulation drops suggest this audience may be one that newspapers can’t afford to lose.

• The restrictive pay-wall is often seen as a return to the “traditional news model” of generating revenue.

• If enough newspapers shift away from advertising revenue and instead choose to sell their content directly to the reader, it could mean a dramatic shakeup in the current news distribution model, which relies heavily on search-engine traffic.


Cumulative Audience Growth:

• If pay-walls become the norm, readers will have to make decisions about which publications get their money, and their loyalty.

• Latest figures do underline the popularity of news-brands and their relevance to consumers, despite the well-documented digital transition and changing consumption habits.

• In the UK quality sector in particular, readerships are significantly boosted by website users, with all of the open sites enjoying lifts between 59% and 188%:


Cumulative Audience Growth: Print (000s) Website Only (000s)

Net Print + Website Total (Net - 000s)

Increase with Online (%)

Quality

Financial Times 1,636 751 2,387 +45.9

The Daily Telegraph 4,170 7,822 11,992 +187.6

The Daily Telegraph/The Sunday Telegraph 4,881 7,614 12,495 +156.0

The Guardian 4,305 8,425 12,729 +195.7

The Guardian/The Observer 4,969 8,184 13,153 +164.7

The Independent 2,944 3,392 6,336 +115.2

The Independent/The Independent on Sunday 3,560 3,291 6,851 +92.4

The Independent/The Independent on Sunday/i 5,206 3,094 8,300 +59.4

The Times 5,117 388 5,506 +7.6

The Times/The Sunday Times 7,174 501 7,675 +7.0


Cumulative Audience Growth:

Mid-market

Daily Express 3,638 483 4,121 +13.3

Daily Express/Sunday Express 4,485 480 4,965 +10.7

Daily Mail 11,289 8,729 20,018 +77.3

Daily Mail/The Mail on Sunday 13,951 8,068 22,019 +57.8

Popular

Daily Mirror 8,252 2,781 11,033 +33.7

Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror 9,996 2,665 12,660 +26.7

Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror/The People 10,639 2,640 13,279 +24.8

Daily Record 1,667 821 2,488 +49.3

Daily Record/Sunday Mail 2,024 802 2,826 +39.6

Daily Star 3,927 414 4,341 +10.5

Daily Star/Daily Star Sunday 4,408 412 4,821 +9.3

The Sun 15,213 2,205 17,418 +14.5


Video Pre-roll Revenue-Sharing:

• “80% of internet users worldwide watch online video” (Video Aptitude)

• However, many sites wanting to introduce video face several obstacles:– Cost of sourcing the content– Cost of production– Cost of hosting / bandwidth

• = less video being available online in the crucial first stage of development of online journalism: trying out new content to attract new audiences online.


Video Pre-roll revenue-sharing:

• 11 years ago a company in the Netherlands called zoomin pioneered a business model aimed at: – breaking down such barriers and concerns – facilitating the first stage of online video development for news

web sites.

• How? – aggregate video content from producers – take care of production – make it available to web sites on a 3-way revenue share basis: one

third for the site, one third for zoom in and one third for the content originator, such as AP.

• model is now mature and operates in 26 markets, producing in 14 languages, and serving over 1600 web sites.


“The Sun-filled Uplands of Opportunity:”

• multimedia-production: – interactive story-telling that engages the

audience, – maximises current technologies– Creates unique content– Maintains and builds on existing brand loyalty– Drives revenue through pay-walls and/or CPMs


The Result?

• By comparison, in Britain last year, people who visited newspaper websites on average spent only around one and a half minutes looking at them per day


A way forward?• Believe in the value of the brand and the

destination site• Protect your copyright but embrace the power of

social media to drive back traffic• Be creative, not restrictive, with paywalls• Produce unique multimedia content to build

brand value

This project was funded, in part, through U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State.


The Result?

• In the 6 days following Snow Fall’s launch on December 20th, 2012, it had received more than 3.5 million page views and 2.9m visitors, nearly a third of whom were new visitors to the Times web site.

• They were quickly hooked: users spent around 12 minutes, often more, engaged with the project.


A way forward?

• Work with streaming specialists to add video at manageable cost

• Use video in a way that returns significant revenue and protects the brand

• Investigate sponsorship models for content• Become less dependent on SEO and banner

CPMs


A way forward?

Keep and grow your audience and revenues

This project was funded, in part, through U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of State.

Technology

New Media Sustainability: Challenges & Trends