New business models
for news
Jeff Jarvis
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
October 2008

New worldviews...
...new models

Content v. link economy

Content economy
•Own/control content
•Syndicate/sell
•Many copies
•Monetized at the edge
•Value created with content

Link economy
•One copy, many links
•Made open (searchable, linkable)
•Monetized at the center
•(Do what you do best, link to the rest)
Links bring efficiencies:
•Value created with links

Product process
v.

News as product
•Dictated by production & distribution
•Owned and controlled (and monopolized)
•Centralized
•Once-a-day
•One-way
•One-size-fits-all
•Perfection as a standard

News as process
•Never starts, never ends
•Opens up news: transparent
•(Here’s& collaborationwhat we don’t
Input
what we know &
at all stages
know—what do you know?)
•Enabled by links
•Enables networks

Article v. topic flow
Article
Wiki snapshot
Blog
Links
process
Discussion

Past the article
•Blog = news as process (v. product)
•Wiki = Snapshot of current knowledge
•Links = Curation, aggregation
(Do best/link rest)
•Discussion = Input, correction, addition
(What do you know?)

Centralized distributed
v.

Centralized
•The world comes to us
•We market for audience
•We hold onto audience as long as
possible
•We claim large audiences
•We charge(d) for total audience
•Brand as magnet

Distributed
•We go to the world
•‘If the news is important, it will find
me.’
•Brand as descriptor (quality,
credibility, voice, perspective)
•Audience is distributor
•Need to monetize distribution

Newsroom efficiencies

Newsroom
v.
Photos: WAN, Washington Post
MoJo

Newsroom v. network
•Centralized v. distributed
•Open to many relationships
•Newsroom as classroom
•Physical v. virtual
•Staff plus relationships

Network model

Network model
•Collaborative
•Not all owned
•Enabling others to build
•Extracts minimal value to grow to
maximum size (T. Evslin)
•Critical mass faster, cheaper
•Curation, vetting, education as key
skills

Owned v. outsourced
Edit Ad
Edit Ad
Mfg Dist Mfg Dist

News company structure
•Why own exclusive use of
manufacturing, distribution, sales?
•Spinoff or outsource?
•Enables new, networked
relationships
•Planning post-paper

Public support?

Public support?
•Charitable money?
•Public money?
•Public work and support?
•What could be supported?
•How much does it cost now?
•Local v. national (NPR, ProPublica)?
•Spot.us ... Zivity ... other models

Revenue models

Revenue models
•New open ad networks & marketplaces
•New industry networks
•Hyperlocal networks
•New ad models (relationships, new
targeting...)
•New measurements
•New side-door revenue (data, service...)
•Google?

WWGD?
•Think distributed
•Do what you do best, link to the rest
•Join a network
•Be a platform
•Collaborate
•Small is the new big
•‘Elegant organization’ —Mark Zuckerberg
•‘Get out of the way’ —Craig Newmark

WWGD?
•Free is a business model —Chris Anderson
•Beware the cash cow in the coal mine
•Encourage, enable, and protect
innovation (where’s our 20% rule?)
•Life is a beta
•Decide what business you’re in

Who are we?
Content
Community
Content
Advertising

Who are we?

Charge: Networks
•How can networks protect/expand
journalism?
•What kinds of networks: ad, content...
•Local v. national v. international
•Define network models that would work
today: Who is in them, what kind of
relationship, what value and benefit for
each party, how they are supported...

Charge: Newsrooms
•Find new efficiencies
•What is the value of the newsroom in the
future?
•What is the core of the newsroom in the
future?
•Is there still a room?
• Model the new newsroom: size,
functions, jobs, relationships, costs

Charge: News orgs
•What are new corporate and operational
structures for newsrooms?
•React to the Roussel/Morgan models
•Where is the value?
•What services are needed?
•Model a reorganized company
•Model a from-scratch company

Charge: Revenue models
•Where is the value?
•Where are the opportunities?
•New ad models? New measurements?
•Network sales? Outsourced sales?
•Anything other than ads?
•Define best prospects to pursue as
companies, networks, or the industry
and what is needed to do that

Charge: Public support
•What would the public support?
Investigative? Beat? Collaborative?
•How much does that cost now? How
much should it cost?
•What sources are there? Local?
•Relationship of public v. private?
•Define best opportunities for public
support. Be realistic.

Your reward
Photo: André Karwath