Newspapers need an online solution

Newspapers are in dire need for a new business model, as evident from an article today in the Tyee. Not only a Canadian problem -- it's being felt world wide.

So I was lucky to land at The Tyee, which over 13 years has built a healthy regional and, increasingly, national following based on readers’ appetite for what concentrated, corporate media were missing, ignoring, or increasingly unable to do.

But despite pride in all we’ve done, we worry immensely about our industry. We don’t want public-interest journalists, regardless of who their employer is, to be out of work.

And no one in Canada has yet figured out a digital-only online business model that easily supports a large number of full-time paid professional reporters. None of the local digital outlets have the size and scale that legacy media outlets once had.

The whole article can be read here:
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2016/09...dia-Landscape/

It's going to take some sharp minds to solve this problem. But if someone, or a group, manage to pull it off... I would expect they would be well compensated. Especially if you had the solution tied to some sort of licensing agreement.

Regards,
Steve

.....with the U.S. ceding control of the internet in 4 days and the possible censorship and loss of freedom of speech that is expected to follow on its heels a profitable model is, in my opinion, almost impossible.

Pending an outcome of that transfer, I believe there is a model that can be followed and make a news site (read as a newspaper business online) profitable ...and there is a software already in place that could power it with just a few tweaks.

Lots of newspapers already have paywalls in place. But that's a small stream of revenue. They need to be able to encourage advertisers to sign up with them and stay with them.

Regards,
Steve

Originally Posted by Steve MacLellan

Lots of newspapers already have paywalls in place. But that's a small stream of revenue. They need to be able to encourage advertisers to sign up with them and stay with them.

Regards,
Steve

....that won't be a problem, and they may even be able to charge higher display ad rates....depending on options chosen for display.

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Steve MacLellan

Lots of newspapers already have paywalls in place. But that's a small stream of revenue. They need to be able to encourage advertisers to sign up with them and stay with them.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for bringing up this issue!

Believe it or not, this is actually something I think about from time to time... I feel a bit sad about the fall of newspapers.

I have to say, maybe it's also because I have a "thing" for newspaper movies... (Where there are scenes in a busy newsroom of a print newspaper.) A couple of movies that come to mind are "His Girl Friday" (a fantastic, and very funny, 1940 movie with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, see the picture at the top) and also "Zodiac" (David Fincher's 2007 movie with Jake Gyllenhaal, about the Zodiac killer)...

Back to the topic...

If I see an article about a newspaper or magazine that's making money, I tend to save it. But here's one thing I've noticed with major newspapers...

The only ones that, as far as I know, seem to be making good profits are those that service a niche... Particularly the finance niche, but it might hold for other niches too.

I think the problem with general newspapers is that the same news is available virtually everywhere. Once upon a time, you had to buy one of your local newspapers to read the general news. Now, you go online and you can find 1000 news outlets with much of the same news.

However, specific news (like specific financial news) is different, and the information is harder to find for free. To my knowledge, financial newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times (originated in the UK, but now global), and the Australian Financial Review (in Australia) are profitable. They also generally require you to be a paid subscriber if you want to have access to everything.

The only way I can see newspapers possibly surviving is if they become more specialized... As I think it is impossible to compete with the huge ocean of free general news we now have access to online...

Best wishes,

Dien

P.S. Here's an article about how the Financial Times (UK) recently tripled its profits...

http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/02/new...rtini-glasses/